By: Samantha Miller
Proctor Journal

A state initiative will bring Jedlicka Middle School up to speed with the high school in the math, science, and technology departments.

Under the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) initiative, the State of Minnesota and Parametric Technology Corp. (PTC) have teamed up to bring math, science, and engineering advances to Minnesota schools.

PTC, a Massachusetts-based high-tech company, has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars worth of software to Minnesota schools. The software will aid students in preparing for careers in math, science, and engineering.

The software to be donated is Pro/ENGINEER Schools Edition software and an engineering computer-aided drafting tool that can be used to create elaborate 3D models and 2D drawings, among other things.

The software is valued at $5,000 per computer and each qualified teacher would be able to install it on up to 300 computers. Students would be able to take the software home and install it on their own computers.

The software lets students, among other things, create and manipulate 3-D engineering models.

Minnesota’s Department of Education will some set up an online site with instructions as to how teachers can apply for licenses.

Due to an already advanced PHS engineering program, the program will first be implemented at the middle school, where it is most needed.

In order to receive the new software, teachers at each school must first be trained at a cost of $1,500 for a class of 15 teachers. Because none of the Proctor teachers have been trained yet, Proctor will not be gaining the new software right away.

Although the Proctor Public Schools will not be receiving any of this technology immediately, they are already seeing the advantages of the other aspects of the program.

According to PHS principal Nancy Olson, the Health Care Careers and the Aviation Careers camps that were held earlier this month at Lake Superior College were also supported by this program.

These camps were week-long educational sessions that encouraged eighth graders from Jedlicka and Lincoln Middle Schools to explore careers in these areas.

Also included in Proctor’s effort to improve these programs is the job shadowing done by PHS math teacher Eric Waldriff at Northstar Aerospace. For 40 hours, Waldriff worked in seven departments throughout the business to get a better idea of the skills necessary for those entering the math and engineering fields.

After the completion of this job-shadowing period, PHS’ math department was awarded a $5,000 grant through the Northeast Regional Applied Math Project. The use of the money is yet to be determined.

Although Olson described the opportunities for engineering training at the middle school level as “insufficient” and “not conducive to what the students need,” she emphasized Proctor’s progress in the middle school math department.

The seventh grade advanced math class, pre-algebra, has increased from its usual one-period offering to three periods for next year. Sixth grade math teachers have determined that 65-70 students will be prepared to succeed in pre-calculus next year.

Although no teachers are training through this program currently, Olson said, “We are taking the preliminary steps prior to that training.”

In the meantime, PHS industrial arts teacher Craig Nylander is further educating himself in AUTOCAD, a computer-aided drafting tool.

In the future, the STEM initiative is sure to impact Proctor schools more.

“It’s a valuable initiative,” concluded an optimistic Olson. “We want the kids to have more training at the middle school level, and this program will do that.”