By Brittany Wiliams
Staff Writer
In hopes of motivating more students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math, El Dorado High School is now offering computer science and pre-engineering courses.
Schools across the state offer courses in these blossoming career fields, but EHS is one of two schools implementing a cyber security component through a pilot program. Melissa Virden said she and teachers at West Memphis High School in Crittenden County are “working through the kinks” to craft statewide frameworks.
“The program has several different units so they can get a little bit of everything so they can grow from there. We’re going to grow the computer science program from here,” she said. “You have your basic introduction to computer science, then you have (cyber) literacy and then cyber science and cyber society.”
Virden said she’s “very excited” to start her first year at EHS, where she’ll also teach computer business applications and computer science principles in addition to cyber security.
“I am learning just as much as they’re learning … It’s growing so we’re going to be able to provide for … these students to get one step closer and more prepared for college,” she said. “If that’s the direction they’re going into, let’s get them started now.”
The new teacher said there’s a growing need for computer programmers because of the growth of the internet and going through the program will put students ahead of the curve.
“For the community, you’re going to have business leaders looking to hire from our local pool of people and it could possibly bring people back to El Dorado and grow the community,” Virden said. “If we can get them started here, get them educated here, then they’ll stay here instead of moving off.”
She hopes to collaborate with South Arkansas Community College, particularly to funnel high school participants into the college’s Futures in Technology (FIT) program.
SouthArk’s FIT program provides junior and senior high school students the opportunity to take two college courses in subjects such as IT essentials, principles of information assurance and visual basic, according to a previous News-Times report. Upon completion, students recieve high school and college credit that can be applied toward a technical certificate or degree.
Pre-engineering teacher Jacob Roberson said there are also possible opportunities for industry-recognized accreditation in the program, which is modeled after a curriculum created by engineers with several years of on-the-job experience.
“All of the stuff that we’re doing and we’re teaching is stuff that they will see in the real world, so we’re going to spend a lot of time with a program called Autodesk Inventor. That’s a program that a lot of industries use. My cousin actually got a job because of this program, because he had four years of using this program,” Roberson said.
Roberson recently attended a training session led by industry leaders from around the country, where he “took the whole class in one week,” he said. An Autodesk Inventor certification allowed one of his instructor’s high school students to intern at a local company.
“We’ve done things at the school where students can get certified in Microsoft Office and PowerPoint. There is a certification test and I think SouthArk is one of the testing centers for it, but there is a certification test for Autodesk Inventor,” he said.
The four-year program is “geared more toward younger students” and will start off with an introduction to engineering design course. The program will provide students with skills in engineering drawing, computer modeling and problem solving. In comparison to other courses that integrate math and science, the pre-engineering program allows students to be creative, he said.
“We’re going to be talking about what is engineering, what engineers do, what are different career paths … We’re going to move on from that and talk about how they do it,” he said. “I’m going to be there to teach them how to use the tools they have, but then they’re going to put them to use. They’re going to come up with everything. It’s all on them, which is a really cool thing.”
Roberson went through a “program-based” program similar to this one. He said that it could help garner more interest in STEM courses and is a direct answer to the question of “When will I ever use this in the real world?”
Brittany Williams can be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter and like her on Facebook @BWilliamsEDNT for updates on Union County school news.