Waterford Today

As the 2021-22 academic year draws to a close, Lawrence Technological University’s Marburger STEM Center is celebrating another successful year of outreach in the STEAM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, arts and architecture, and mathematics) to K-12 students. 

The Marburger STEM Center conducted more than 2,000 outreach points of contact from August 2021 to April 2022, and provided programming to more than two dozen local K-12 school districts, community organizations, colleges, and universities. 

The STEM Center also conducts Extreme Science Saturdays for high school students—back in person now, after two years of virtual programs due to the pandemic—and will wrap up the program year May 14 with a program on competitive, school-sponsored Esports programs with LTU’s Esports coach, Danielle Sirekis. 

“We’ve reached thousands of young people with the important message that math, science, engineering, design, and mathematics aren’t drudgery—they’re fun,” said Marburger STEM Center Executive Director Sibrina Collins. “And they can lead to fun jobs in career paths that are growing rapidly and provide a great salary.” 

The Marburger STEM Center received glowing responses from participants in its programs. Comments included:

• “I loved being able to be in a lab doing the experiments”
• “Great people and an excellent learning experience”
• “It was interactive and encouraged questions and thinking”
• “The topics, the teachers, and how the program is run were enjoyable”

Example activities include coding and programming with Raspberry Pi and Grove computer starter kits, making fun chemical reactions like elephant toothpaste, making homemade lava lamps, creating vortex cannons, programming robots, cleaning simulated oil spills, designing and building electric circuits, and learning additive and subtractive manufacturing techniques with 3D printers and laser cutters. 

To learn how you can bring Marburger STEM Center activities to your school or organization, contact Marburger STEM Center Assistant Director Jay Jessen at jjessen@ltu.edu or (248) 204-2662.

The Marburger STEM Center was established by a $20 million gift to LTU and opened in 2016. Educational areas supported include robotics; software engineering; modeling, simulation, and visualization; nanotechnology; medical simulations and informatics; computer-assisted molecular modeling; synthetic biology; “green” chemistry; and design thinking. The center also supports academic programming in sustainable design, energy systems, architectural engineering, game art and game design, media communication, transportation and industrial design, digital humanities, digital marketing, and mathematics.

Lawrence Technological University is one of only 13 private, technological, comprehensive doctoral universities in the United States. Located in Southfield, Mich., LTU was founded in 1932, and offers more than 100 programs through its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Business and Information Technology, and Engineering. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 11 percent of universities for alumni salaries. Forbes and The Wall Street Journal rank LTU among the nation’s top 10 percent. U.S. News and World Report lists it in the top tier of best in the Midwest colleges. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 107-acre campus include more than 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.

Original source can be found here.