Rock Hills Students Learn About STEM Degrees and Careers through K-State Education Program

Students from USD 107 Rock Hills learned about degrees and careers in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math thanks to a three-year grant awarded to Kansas State University's College of Education Rural Education Center.

Project LEAPES, an acronym for Learning, Exploration, and Application for Prospective Engineering Students, is a collaborative project made possible by a U.S. Department of Defense grant for nearly $2.7 million that will benefit approximately 500 middle and high school students and 53 educators by the end of 2023.  This is the second year of the grant.

The project is designed to help mentor and promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics degrees and careers to seventh- through 12th-grade students throughout the state.  The grant project is part of more than $47 million in awards recently announced under the National Defense Education Program in STEM, Biotechnology Education, Outreach, Workforce Initiative Programs, and Enhanced Civics Education.

"Project LEAPES provides activities to promote awareness and exploration of STEM applications in computer science, aerospace, and AI degrees and careers for rural students," said J. Spencer Clark, director of the Rural Education Center.  "It provides a starting place for career pathways, making career connections to the content students are learning in school."

Drawing upon its already successful Summer STEM program for middle school students across Kansas, the Rural Education Center partnered with the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets at the University of Kansas to provide programming for middle school and high school students.

Approximately 280 students from 32 schools participated in middle school virtual camps this summer.  An additional 80 students participated in a high school camp hosted at the University of Kansas.