PSEA is a community of education professionals who make a difference in the lives of students every day.
Educators in the Mifflin County School District are trying to make elementary students aware of the career possibilities in career and technical education at an early age.
And, if you want to get young children’s attention, a carnival isn’t a bad way to go about it.
But the event hosted for the third consecutive year this spring by the Mifflin County Academy of Science and Technology, the district’s career and technical education facility, isn’t just any carnival.
Yes, there is face painting, fire truck rides, a petting zoo, and a bounce house, but many of the activities are centered around the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). For example, emergency room nurses did activities with the medical science classes.
“Many people hear STEM and think of traditional classrooms, but STEM is in every career and tech classroom,’’ said Valerie Baker, who teaches classes in early childhood education at the academy. “Career and technical education is the original STEM.’’
Baker is instrumental in another key part of the carnival – heading a book drive tied to an emphasis on literacy at the carnival.
Using a $1,000 grant from PSEA, Baker purchased elementary-age books related to STEM. In addition, she and other teachers at the academy teamed with high school teachers to collect used children’s books.
More than 2,000 books were given away to elementary children attending the event, and Baker said that activity alone generated perhaps the most positive feedback from the 500 people who attended the event.
In addition to the $1,000 PSEA grant, the Association of Mifflin County Educators plays a major role in organizing the carnival each year.
Baker, who is a Central Region representative to PSEA’s Department of Career and Technical Studies and the local association’s communications chair, noted the carnival is one of several outreach programs the local does to serve the community.
