Once again, Miami Lakes Educational Center (MLEC) is among the best. This time, the Jaguars earned the highest marks in STEM, (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) becoming a Gold Designated School.
Over 100 schools across South Florida completed the extensive process for the STEM designation, which includes competitions that students participate in throughout the year, professional development for teachers, developing and fostering community partnerships, equity and accountability. Only two high schools earned the Gold distinction, the highest award possible.
The Miami-Dade public school (M-DCPS) system has wanted to prepare students of any grade level for college and careers that seek the quality of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. In order to incorporate this into the curriculum, M-DCPS has partnered with STEM to increase the number of professionals amongst the STEM career field. While implementing these studies, M-DCPS schools compete against one another to become designated.
To become eligible to compete for the three designation levels, (bronze, silver and gold) one would have to meet the criteria that M-DCPS has posted for the STEM program.
“We are preparing students for the global workforce, which is increasingly an economy that rests on science, math and technology,” states Michael Windisch, assistant principal of MLEC.
With the wide variety of career field classes that MLEC provides, being STEM designated helps promote all of the work that students and staff are doing at the school and throughout the community.
“We showcased everything that our students and teachers are doing every day,” said MLEC’s principal, Lourdes Diaz. “Each day, students are learning to solve real world problems like coding, learning to treat patients and cure diseases, building computer systems, and they are taking that knowledge to college and into the work world.”
The designation is not just a title, but a reward for the school’s incorporation of these qualities into everyday learning. The dynamic within the administrators and staff has made it easy and accessible for the students to engage in such programs including the aspects of STEM, even in language arts and history classes that have no direct correlation to those studies.
MLEC has not only placed this into their studies, but has also created after-school programs such as SECME (Southeastern Consortium of Minorities in Engineering) which was created to implement diversity in STEM education.
Extracurricular clubs and organizations like the student journalists and debate team have an opportunity to demonstrate all they’ve learned. Writing, reporting and researching on scientific issues, controversies and finding solutions for real-world problems like maintaining a clean drinking water supply. These cross-curricular links earned MLEC the gold designation.
“As everyone knows, we learn a lot more than just what we are tested on,” said Daniel Gonzalez, a sophomore in the Journalism strand. “We did well not just because our test scores are great, but because we are learning how to apply all of that into real life.”