DRSS 2016 College & Career Fair A Success!

Yesterday's Career Fair was a success!

The 2016 College & Career Fair was one for the record books, with over 620 students visiting with 47 participating organizations. Students had an amazing opportunity to meet with professionals in business, government, and academia, and learn about what it takes to "make it" in their professions. The list of attendees included the following organizations:

• American Chemical Society, Dayton Section
• American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• American Institute of Architects, Dayton Chapter
• Air Force Institute of Technology
• Air Force Research Lab
• Air Force E.O.D.
• Brady Ware & Company
• Clark State Community College
• Cubic Global Defense
• Discovery Lab Global
• FASTLANE-MEP
• Freedom Scientific
• General Electric Aviation (TDI, EPIS, & Unison/Elano)
• Kindred Hospital
• LexisNexis Risk Solutions
• Lunarline Inc. (Silver Sponsor)
• MacAir Aviation
• Montgomery County Environmental Services
• NASA Glenn Research Center
• Ohio EPA
• PCU
• Premier Health
• Regional STEM Collaborative
• Reynolds & Reynolds
• Sinclair Community College
• Admissions
• STEM Division
• National UAS Training and Certification Center
• Solid Blend Technologies
• Tangible Solutions
• Tremco, Inc. (Gold Sponsor)
• U.S. Army
• Virtalis
• Welker Studio
• WilmerHale
• Woolpert
• Wright State University
• Admissions
• College of Education & Human Services (Gold Sponsor)
• College of Engineering & Computer Science
• College of Liberal Arts Center for Liberal Arts Student Success
• College of Science & Mathematics (Gold Sponsor)
• College of Nursing & Health
• Charles & Renate Frydman Educational Resource Center
• Office of Disability Services
• Political Science Department
• Statistical Consulting Center

The event was made possible with the help of our sponsors. Gold level sponsors included Wright State's College of Education and Human Services and College of Science and Mathematics, as well as Tremco, Inc. Lunarline served as a silver level sponsor, and VidCruiter was a bronze level sponsor. Thank you to all of them!

Gold Level Sponsors - Wright State University's College of Education and Human Services

Gold Level Sponsors - Wright State University's College of Science and Mathematics

Gold Level Sponsors - Tremco, Inc.

WDTN even came out and did a story on the event. Check it out below!

DRSS Career Fair 2016 on WDTN
Yesterday was a huge success as we held our annual College & Career Fair! Check out the story from WDTN-TV and see pictures from the event on our blog, here - http://daytonstemschool.blogspot.com/2016/03/drss-2016-college-career-fair-success.html
Posted by Dayton Regional STEM School on Thursday, March 17, 2016

The event was well-attended by organizations of all kinds. We greatly appreciate each and every organization who came to participate. Check out pictures from the event below to see who was there!

Students learn about different options available to them in the military with the U.S. Army and Air Force, including the Air Force Institute of Technology and the Air Force Research Lab.

Governmental organizations like Ohio EPA were present as well.

Solid Blend Technologies provided students with a rich explanation of chemistry that goes into water treatment.

Tangible Solutions shows students what additive manufacturing looks like.

Freedom Scientific

LexisNexis was on hand to meet with students.

American Institute of Architects - Dayton Chapter

NASA Glenn Research Center

Montgomery County Environmental Services

American Chemical Society

FASTLANE-MEP

Tremco, Inc.

Tangible Solutions

PCU

Cubic Global Defense

Terry Welker of Welker Studios

WilmerHale

Premier Health Careflight

Premier Health

Kindred Hospital

Kindred Hospital

Brady Ware & company

WSU College of Nursing

Sinclair STEM Division

WSU Statistical Consulting Center

Sinclair Admissions

Clark State Community College

National UAS Training and Certification Center

WSU Admissions

WSU Charles & Renate Frydman Educational Resource Center

WSU Political Science Department

WSU College of Liberal Arts Student Success Center

WSU College of Science and Mathematics

NASA Glenn Research Center

MacAir Aviation

Regional STEM Collaborative

Lunarline

Discovery Lab Global

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Air Force Research Lab and Air Force Institute of Technology

U.S. Army

Air Force E.O.D.

Montgomery County Environmental Services

General Electric - Aviation

General Electric - Aviation

Virtalis

WSU Office of Disability Services

Virtalis

Woolpert

Reynolds & Reynolds

WSU College of Engineering and Computer Science

Clark State Community College

Freedom Scientific

Tangible Solutions

Sinclair STEM Division

The College section!

Mrs. Fisher was on WDTN-2 talking about the event!

Board President Dr. David Goldstein came out to promote the WSU College of Science and Mathematics

Cubic Global Defense

Find even more pictures on our Facebook album or use the #DRSSCareerFair2016 to share your own!

S.T.E.M. Also Means Gender Equality

By Emma Mason

STEM careers aren’t only for men anymore.

Recently the STEM school has started an after-school program run by the school principal, Hope Strickland, called, “DRSS W.i.S.E.” W.i.S.E stands for Women in Science and Engineering. It is an organization in the STEM school that tries to encourage girls to get into Science and Engineering careers.

There are 30 girls in the organization so far. There are classes every Thursday once a month. The program is looking for older girls to join the class, so they can mentor the younger girls. Every class there is a new guest speaker. The guest speakers range from graduate female STEM students to women in STEM professions. One guest speaker who has visited the class so far is a computer scientist, Carly Rolfes, from Wright State University, who is also an intern at the US Air Force Research Lab's Gaming Research Integration for Learning Laboratory. Another guest was Chemical Engineering professor, Dr. Amy Ciric, from the University of Dayton. Lt. Liu, an astronautical engineering graduate student at the Air Force Institute of Technology, also visited to talk with the students.

Lt. Liu of AFIT speaks to the students at the montly WiSE Meeting.

What inspired Mrs. Strickland to start the program was her realization that there were not many girls in the computer science and engineering classes. Boys filled up the class instead. By the end of the year, Mrs. Strickland wants the girls to take away that they can get into STEM professions. She wants girls to get excited to enter these professions and to better understand what they need to study and major in during their college careers in order to achieve their goals. She wants the girls to take the time to support each other and get comfortable with science.

This could be the start of a new generation. There need to be more classes like this in school. Classes that can encourage girls to get into careers that in the past they wouldn’t have even thought about doing. With the help of this class, STEM careers would no longer be mostly for boys. Hopefully, it would be equally for both men and women and self-confidence will spread through every gender.

Mr. Polk: Gameshow Extraordinairre and Math Genius

 By Hiba Ahmad

At the Dayton Regional STEM School, students strive to achieve a top notch education; and teachers strive to provide that possibility, relentlessly working to improve their own knowledge.  Mr. Polk, a tenth grade geometry teacher and prior Jeopardy contestant, is certainly no exception. He is currently working towards a master’s degree in the field he loves - mathematics. Mr. Polk has been teaching at the school for six years, and he believes that gaining his master’s will help him deeply understand the content, better preparing him to answer students' questions. Not only that, but he feels that with his master’s degree he will be able to more clearly see how all topics relate, and he can plan his lessons accordingly. 

Mr. Polk is the longest-serving math instructor at DRSS.

He decided to pursue his graduate degree because he has a deep appreciation for math, and Wright State has a great program for its employees where they can take classes for free, which is a major benefit the school receives for being a part of WSU. 

On managing his career and education he says: “It is difficult… You just kinda survive, you do what you gotta do.” Mr. Polk previously taught at a school in Detroit, and also worked at a summer enrichment program through an engineering school. Although they did not call it project based learning, their curriculum consisted mainly of that. He first heard of the school when his wife was accepted for a position in the area. While searching for a job, his in-laws read about the school in the paper and they immediately sent him the link. Mr. Polk was intrigued! “They sent me a link and thought I would find it interesting, and I did.” 

Now that he actually works at the school, he likes that everyone appreciates that what we are doing is something neat and meaningful, and he also enjoys how diverse the school population is. He also appreciates that the administration trusts teachers to do what they think is right for students, and that they allow teachers to design educational material for their students. 

One lesser-known fact about Mr. Polk is that he appeared on the popular gameshow Jeopardy! as a high school contestant, where he had a great time and made some good friends. He also played football in high school. Recalling his prowess on the field, Mr. Polk joked: “Ha! Depending on who you asked, I had scored a total of two points in my high school football career.” Both a math genius and an Olympics-level athlete!

DRSS Junior Class Making Changes Locally and Statewide

By Dena Schaeffer

The Dayton Regional STEM School’s government class is currently working on a unit campaigning for Ohio bills. Campaigning for bills supported by the students not only teaches them the process of how bills become law, but also how to get outside communities involved. Many Ohio senators and representatives have become strong supporters of our school because of this long-lasting unit. 

The project began with Matthew’s Bill in 2014, and started branching out to campaigns for other Ohio bills in the following years. This year, groups are focusing on bills regarding public smoking, Matthew’s bill, crosswalk safety, and a few others. This campaign project has allowed students to reach out to their communities, providing a stronger reputation for our school. Additionally, it teaches students the process of a political campaign as well as how a bill becomes a law. It provides the students real life experience that impacts them more than just reading from a textbook.

One group, focusing on Senate Bill 39 (stricter punishment for failure to yield at a crosswalk in a school zone), has been communicating with Senator Beagle and others in the Ohio Senate to discuss how to get the public to support the bill.

A junior, Jon Henry, explains that “This project has allowed us the unique opportunity to participate and learn more about politics.”

The campaigns created by the students support real bills that are in the process of becoming laws, allowing for the junior class to make an impact on the school, as well as the state of Ohio.

Field Trips Make HBS Students HAPI

By Katie Marker

The recent field trip taken by the Human Body Systems students was to a lab that was aptly named: The HAPI Lab. HAPI stands for "Human Anatomy and Physiology." It was an experience that inspired and further intrigued students about the intricacy of the human body.

Last week, the 11^th and 12^th grade students from the Human Body Systems course went on a field trip to Wright State to observe unhealthy versus healthy organs. The unique experience was part of a program called the HAPI Lab. Started in 2014, the HAPI Lab was started to offer new experiences for high school juniors and seniors to observe the human body in hopes to enrich knowledge of anatomy, as well as inspire passion for futures in the medical fields. The lab is two hours long, and is held in the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State. The Human Body Systems class (HBS) is a new course this year in place of Advance Biomedical Sciences. HBS focuses on anatomy, the parts of the body, and physiology, how the parts all work together. The students of this class have been exposed to various fieldtrips, dissections, and hands-on learning. On their most recent trip to the HAPI Lab, the students were able to hold organs from different body systems, such as hearts, livers, and kidneys. They were also able to view bodies with various organs, tendons, bones, and muscles still intact. 

The 11th and 12th grade BHS students are the Boonshoft School of Medicine to visit the HAPI Lab.

Bridgett Severt, the co-director of the program, walked us through the experience. She spoke about different body systems, running us through quizzes and competitions. She also explained the difference between some diseased organs, and the healthy ones. It was enjoyed immensely by the students. Hiba Ahmad says “the field trip was very radical and really helpful to see how the human body actually works in real life. Before, we had only seen pictures, but seeing a body in front of me helped me understand how complex humans are.” The trip was an amazing hands-on experience for the students. For more information on the Wright State HAPI lab, visit this link.

DRSS Alumni Getting Ready for Spring Break

By Vyshu Ramini

Spring break is just about to kick in for many of DRSS’s alumni in college! David Sills, DRSS Class of 2015, has volunteered to share some about his experience at STEM and what he’s up to now. During his time at STEM, David was involved in many different extracurricular including Student Government Association, Matthew’s Bill Campaign, National Honors Society, Junior Council on World Affairs and many more. Currently, he is a freshman at Ohio State University and is planning a future in biomedical engineering. 

David Sills, Class of 2015, is now studying Biomedical Engineering at The Ohio State University. 

When asked about his time at STEM, he said that he "had a great time." He felt that STEM taught him a lot about himself, what he was interested in, and how to pursue his goals. At STEM, he learned what the real world is like and how helpful collaboration can be. 
 

David, Mr. Federinko, and Bharath Ramini at last year's Senior Awards Night.

 

David also feels that STEM does a great job preparing students for colleges. "STEM gives you experiences like internships, job shadows and career fairs that give exposure to the actual work field." He added that, "Teachers at STEM teach to help students excel in life, not just that course."

Now, David is studying engineering to work towards his major of biomedical engineering. In his classes, he has to use lots of technical writing and work closely with groups. "STEM made all this natural and even fun for me. It made it easy to ask for help, which is especially important at such a big school like Ohio State."

Bharath Ramini (Class of 2015), David Sills, and friends from OSU at the TEDx event at OSU.

In the near future, David has his schedule filled with plenty of calculus and chemistry fun! He will also be starting a job shadow program at a medical company as well as spending his summer in New Mexico. David loves the challenges OSU offers and looks forward to new opportunity. Good Luck, David!