Spokane-area school and business leaders are working jointly this year to expand education programs aimed at steering more youth toward math- and science-related careers.

The heavy emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning has picked up steam nationally, in the state, and in the Inland Northwest because significant job growth is expected in careers requiring these skills, STEM proponents in Spokane say.

Several tangible steps to boost STEM learning here have gained traction in the past two years.

In April, a $220,000 state grant along with $40,000 in regional matching funds launched the Spokane STEM Learning Network, a consortium involving leaders in education for kindergarten-to 12th grade, universities and colleges, businesses, youth groups, and Greater Spokane Incorporated.

"There's a huge amount of interest in STEM with technology and also health care being so critical to Spokane's economy," says John Winder, executive director since May of the Spokane STEM Learning Network. His office is based at GSI.

The $220,000 grant came from Washington STEM, a statewide nonprofit launched in March 2011 to advance STEM education with financial support from some large state-based business employers as well as philanthropic foundations. Supporters in the state include Boeing Co., Battelle, McKinstry Co., and Microsoft Corp., among others.

Winder says dozens of STEM-related programs are operating in individual Inland Northwest schools or led by community groups.

"We're here just to help things happen at a higher level," he adds. "If kids are more capable in math and science, it positions them to do better in school, and they might enter STEM fields, which are really becoming the drivers of the U.S. economy."

One new STEM education model in Spokane will begin Sept. 4 when the Riverpoint Academy opens on the Riverpoint Campus for 75 high school students from the Mead School District. Starting the first year with juniors, the program by next year is scheduled to be a two-year STEM academy for a total of 150 high school juniors and seniors.

By the third year, a portion of enrollment will open to students from other public school districts, says Dan Butler, Mead School District assistant superintendent.

"A STEM academy downtown has really resonated with the Spokane community," Butler says. "We want students to take their passions one step further and see how those passions work in the real world."

He adds that the students will solve challenges presented as projects that require science, technology, engineering, and math to solve the problems, as well as entrepreneurial approaches to implement ideas. "The community has already started to bring us those ideas," he says.

One of those challenges includes how to make downtown Spokane more senior citizen friendly, Butler says, and how to use engineering design systems to achieve that goal.

To start the program, the Mead district is leasing about 10,000 square feet of class and lab space in the Innovate Washington building, at 665 N. Riverpoint, where the students will complete the STEM-based projects. Equipped with iPads as well as other computers, students will use labs in the building and often will work alongside engineers, scientists, and others employed in fields requiring STEM skills.

The students will have three Mead district teachers on site—one for biomed, a second for language arts, and another for entrepreneurship, Butler says. They'll also have Eastern Washington University or Spokane Community Colleges instructors for math, depending on ability, with the EWU-led students receiving college credit. The SCC-led students will be prepared for college-level math.

"There is some real synergy that's happening," Butler says, about partnering with Washington State University Spokane, EWU, SCC, and GSI. The district also is staffing a principal at the site. "Next year, we'll add the engineering instructor and others," he says.

State per-student funding will pay for Mead's Riverpoint Academy program, Butler says, so students won't need to pay tuition to attend the program.

For the entire district, Butler adds that Mead has grown its STEM offerings in the past two years to include classes in biomed, engineering, aerospace engineering, and architectural engineering at the high school level. STEM programs also are growing at the middle schools and even include the recent addition of a fifth-grade STEM science class, Butler says.

Separately, several science teachers from the Inland Northwest and elsewhere have completed sessions the past two summers at WSU Spokane on applying techniques of Project Lead The Way, a nonprofit that offers biomedicine and engineering curricula.

The nonprofit's hands-on biomedical curriculum in which teachers learn to dissect sheep hearts, analyze DNA for disease risk, and are educated on other scientific techniques is now used for instruction in at least 14 Spokane-area high schools.

One of those schools, Rogers High School, has partnered with Spokane-based Jubilant HollisterStier Contract & Manufacturing Services.

The company, which makes sterile allergy products, earlier this year offered to fund a laboratory at Rogers, to fill it with scientific equipment, and support Project Lead The Way training for a Rogers teacher, WSU Spokane says on its website.

Elsewhere in Spokane Public Schools, the New Tech Skill Center, at 4141 N. Regal in Hillyard, plans future expansion to create space for technical courses in dentistry, nursing, medical laboratory technology, and physical and occupational therapy, among other disciplines.

The district has applied for construction money to be allocated in the 2013-2015 biennium.

Another STEM-related program set to open in early September is Spokane Valley Tech, a Central Valley School District-led branch to the Spokane district's New Tech Skill Center.

The Valley center will offer advanced aerospace and manufacturing with a STEM focus—as a single course—as well as sports medicine with a STEM emphasis. It also will have cosmetology and fire science programs.

By fall 2013, the Valley tech center will add biomedicine and engineering courses. Central Valley is collaborating with East Valley, West Valley, and Freeman school districts for future use of a 51,500-square-foot building at the southeast corner of University Road and Sprague Avenue that's about to be remodeled.

Until scheduled completion of that remodeling project in January, classes will be housed temporarily in Valley school locations.

To assist both Valley Tech and the Riverpoint Academy in a pilot partnering program, GSI recently hired a manager to help place at least 150 high school students in workplace internships targeted to begin this year, says Shelly O'Quinn, GSI director of education and workforce.

"This is a pilot project that CV and Mead have invested in that will ultimately impact the entire community," O'Quinn says.

"Our focus will be on the STEM biomedical, engineering, manufacturing, and aerospace fields," she adds about the internships. "These will be specific to high school students. If you look nationally at the number of students who start college and drop out the first year or second year, the number is dismal. A lot of them don't have any idea of how many opportunities are out there."

O'Quinn says that fewer young adults today have the opportunity to be in summer jobs or internships to see what a job would be like and to evaluate career choices better.

"This gives them some skills about how to conduct themselves at a workplace, where they can see what the relevancy is behind what they're learning in the classroom," O'Quinn says.

Another regional challenge, says Winder, is finding ways to keep more students on track for entering college, at least for two years of post-secondary education.

"But with STEM occupations, about 70 percent require at least a bachelor's degree," he adds.

The Washington STEM nonprofit contends on its website that in the next five years, the state will have at least 5,000 jobs in STEM fields that will go unfilled because of a lack of qualified candidates.

Examples of in-demand jobs include positions in health sciences, engineering, advanced manufacturing, and aerospace, proponents here say.

However, they add that increasingly, a majority of jobs across multiple sectors require a solid foundation in STEM knowledge.

O'Quinn adds, "It's not just another fad. If you look at the top 30 jobs in demand, all require STEM education."

Regarding other steps to advance STEM learning, O'Quinn also credits the Spokane nonprofit Mobius Spokane with its Mobius Science Center and Mobius Kids Children's Museum in the downtown core.

Mobius Spokane has received a $9,500 state award to fund a project called Connect with STEM, in partnership with the Girl Scouts of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho, for an out-of-school program offering hands-on STEM learning experiences for girls.

The project for 50 middle-school girls is aimed at increasing STEM identity and proficiency, and improving critical thinking and problem-solving skills.