STEM classes at Prairie Grove Junior High include ‘pre-med for middle schoolers’

The students at Prairie Grove Junior High School dissect sheep’s brains and build spaceships as part of the school’s STEM curriculum, which is designed to allow students to discover what they are passionate about, their teacher said.

The school’s STEM program – which stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics – is spearheaded by Bethany Bellavia, who said the classes include the environment and renewable resources, coding, medical forensics and flight and space.

The flight and space class is new for this school year, Bellavia said. One of the student projects involved designing a hypothetical shuttle to land on the surface of Mars.

Bellavia has a background in biology and describes the medical class, where the brain dissection occurs, as “pre-med for middle schoolers.”

“I feel like the kids here have a unique opportunity to dabble in things,” Bellavia said. “They get exposed to so many different types of STEM.”

The district’s STEM curriculum is four years old and comes from Project Lead the Way, a nonprofit that works with K-12 districts to incorporate more hands-on, interactive learning experiences, including through providing supplies, Bellavia said.

The curriculum is designed to incorporate many different scientific fields, instead of leaning too heavily on one focus, such as biology or robotics, Bellavia said.

Bellavia, who works with students all three years they are in the middle school, described her role in some of the STEM courses as more of a “facilitator,” assigning projects and letting students run with their imagination and curiosity.

“I’ll have students who end up taking medical class, and they end it saying, ‘Oh my god, I want to be a doctor,’” Bellavia said. “They’ll tell me they never knew how cool finding temperature was. They leave that medical class with a lot of excitement.”

As she tries to expand the curriculum to find students’ interests, Bellavia has arranged for guest speakers from around the region to help localize the science material for students.

Cynthia Kanner, executive director of the Environmental Defenders of McHenry County, talked to the students about pollution and renewable resources via Zoom during the pandemic.

“Bethany is a great communicator and a great advocate for her kids,” Kanner said. “The fact that she reached out and wanted to have us speak, specifically during [COVID-19], that was so good for the kids.”

The nonprofit is working on a zero-waste lunch program for the Prairie Grove schools, and tried to encourage students to reduce plastic waste in their own homes during the pandemic, Kanner said.

The middle school’s student council runs a compost program, of which Bellavia is not involved.

Although the spaceships the students made this year won’t make it to Mars, Bellavia said she hopes to give her class a chance to take a simulated trip to Mars next year at the Challenger Learning Center in Woodstock. The center books school groups a year in advance, Bellavia.

For now, Bellavia said, it is just great to be back in person, as student enthusiasm was a challenge during the pandemic.

“Trying to teach this curriculum virtually is virtually impossible,” Bellavia said. “In order to teach STEM, kids need to be able to work together, do things hands-on. Now we are almost reaching a normal state, it’s been a lot better. I really do love my job here.”