Urbandale High School Students Meet Lt. Governor

Six Urbandale High School students, Will Admussen, Michael Clinkscales, Parker Howard, Sam Johnson, Aaron Jones, and Steve Maynard, had the opportunity to meet with Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds on March 13.

The students had the oppotunity to share their findings about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) implementation in the Urbandale Community School District.

Their findings were a result of a three-day Student TEAMS (Teams Evaluating, Analyzing and Measuring Systems) training in January.

The students determined that STEM classes needed to work interdependently to give future workforce applicable knowledge.

Supporting the Urbandale vision of being a district that brings learning to life, Urbandale has partnered with the Iowa Quality Center to better prepare students for entering an increasingly competitive global workforce. Student TEAMS training, facilitated by the Iowa Quality Center,  focuses on students learning quality and critical thinking principles, processes, and tools, in order to collaborate, analyze, and solve a set problem.

As the Co-Chair of the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, Reynolds has a keen interest in Iowa’s STEM initiative. She is an advocate for growing student interest and achievement while making STEM programs more readily available for students all across Iowa. Reynolds was so impressed with the six Urbandale High School students that she invited them to speak at the next Governor’s STEM Advisory Council meeting.

“Because of the Student TEAMS project, the students were able to learn new principles and methods for problem solving and innovative thinking that ultimately resulted in sharing their findings about STEM implementation with the Lt. Governor. It was a tremendous learning experience that demonstrated how capable and insightful students can be about their own learning,” said Dr. Doug Stilwell, Superintendent, Urbandale Community School District.

Solving challenges through quality and critical thinking, collecting and assessing data, and implementing insightful and innovative tactics, are at the foundation of the Urbandale district’s aim to transform education.