First ever STEM Corps class held for students in the nation’s largest Job Corps training center
Twenty Job Corps students from the nation’s largest Job Core training center, the Gary Job Corps in San Marcos, Texas, became the first ever STEM Corps class on October 23, 2012. The students traveled to the campus of Texas State University and the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment where they received instruction on environmental and water science, use of mobile technology and math.
Headwaters to Ocean (H2O) water education and technology enhancements were used in instruction. For the next several months, each Tuesday and Wednesday, 20 new students from the Gary Job Corps will take the new STEM Corps classes.
Classes focus on technical job training in environmental fields where science, technology and math are essential skills.
STEM Corps students were introduced to use of mobile technology, such as iPads. Students learned about water conservation using the iPads. Special educational games and tests on the mobile devices were part of the instruction based on using H2O technologies.
Improving math skills is an important part of STEM Corps instruction and preparing students for jobs. Here students are calculating how many gallons of water are saved by using varying conservation measures in their homes.
Students also learned about watersheads, headwater springs and aquatic species by taking special tours designed for STEM Corps instruction on Aquarena’s famous glass bottom boats.
STEM Corps class instructors come from H2O partner, the Gilbert M. Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education.
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H2O (Headwaters to Ocean) is a cooperative project sponsored by the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University and funding partner, the Ewing Halsell Foundation which supports the project H2O. H2O is an experiential, technology-enhanced education program focused on water, from headwaters to the ocean (https://water-texas.org)