emphasizing the importance of workplace readiness alongside technical skill development. BRINGING INDUSTRY INTO THE SCIENCE CLASSROOM Partnerships also extend directly into academic instruction, particularly in science. Seal describes how the district shared essential science standards with industry partners and asked them to identify real-world applications tied to local careers. The result is industry professionals co-teaching lessons with educators. “We had a process engineer, an environmental engineer, and a heater operator actually teach an eighth-grade science lesson,” Seal says, noting that every eighth-grade student at one middle school participated. The impact has been measurable. “Those students performed higher on the district benchmark assessment, and we feel it had a strong correlation,” Dr. Oertling says, pointing to improved engagement and comprehension when students see how classroom learning connects to real careers. EXPANDING STEM ACCESS St. Charles Parish Public Schools has expanded STEM programming across grade levels with a focus on equity and access. Even though most of the district’s schools had robotics teams that met after school, the district recognized that meeting after school limits the number of students who have access to these experiences. Therefore, STEM classes have been WWW.BAYER.COM Health for all, Hunger for none. 254 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 07, ISSUE 02
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