Combining world class research and development philosophy with elementary and secondary school teaching practices

The need for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education programs in elementary and secondary schools is a goal most professional educators and scientists support. What form these programs take can lead to considerable debate. In the search for some common ground the authors of this paper envisioned a school where children want to attend, where professional scientists and engineers work together with creative dedicated experienced teachers, and where the curriculum contains activities relevant to today´s technologies and nurtures the creativity necessary to develop the technologies of the future. This school would be in a location where the students would have access to actual working laboratories in which engineers use state of the art equipment to solve real problems. The school environment would foster the creation of Integrated Product Teams (IPT) where girls are as excited and deeply involved as boys and students gain experience making presentations of their work to research and development professionals with comfort and confidence. Students develop the understanding that there is no shame in being wrong as long as they utilize what was learned to redesign and try again. Students willingly share knowledge with other students, desire to continue working instead of taking snack and lunch breaks, and at the end of the day when parents arrive to take their children home, these students beg for permission to stay and continue their assignments. If the above vision seems like pure fantasy, one need only visit the Picatinny STEM Academy Summer Enrichment Program.