Wiscasset Middle High School hosted its first ever STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) night on Thursday, March 15. The event was open to all community members. Faculty members and students hoped it would inform people of just how important STEM is in our lives. 

Prema Long, a teacher as WMHS, was the main organizer, but said all of the STEM teachers contributed to making it a successful night. Along with staff members, many students volunteered to help set up, run demonstration tables and speak with attendees about STEM. 

A STEM curriculum educates students in these four basic disciplines, as they all intertwine, in hopes that students will move onto careers in STEM-related fields. 

When asked what made her decide to start a STEM club and organize the event, Long said, “Wiscasset has actually been working for the past two years to try and increase opportunities for STEM in our school, and the reason for that is because STEM is vital for careers in the future. If you take a look at the projections for jobs, the faster growing career sector is STEM careers. That’s computers, medical, programming, engineering, and more. If my job as a teacher is to prepare students for careers in the future, then my job is to make sure that they are able to understand STEM. Increasing our excitement around STEM is incredibly important.”

She also noted that as teachers, they need to be training students for the jobs that do not yet exist. 

When asked what STEM means to him, David Melgard, a STEM teacher at WMHS, said, “No matter where you look, no matter where you go, you find STEM. In the animals, in education, in the people, kids learning, adults working, STEM is everywhere.” 

Not only have the students and teachers been supportive of bring STEM into the school, but Long stated that along with administration support, "We have a school board that has supported the starting of STEM. For example, we have a new computer science course. Before, we didn’t offer computer science at all. We have also transitioned into having an engineering teacher in the school, and we are looking at trying to increase the types of offerings that we have so students have more access to these types of programs.”

WMHS student Nathan Hargreaves said that to him, “STEM and programming is important because computers aren’t going away, technology is actually the biggest growing field out there. I personally find it fun and you can get things done. You can do all kinds of things with technology and the best part is you can get paid for it.”

Taking a walk through the gym, there were many different types of demonstrations being done by students. Students Lindsey Gordon, Sydney Thayer and Josh Gabriele helped community members conduct an egg drop. The egg drop is a popular STEM activity. The challenge is to design a contraption using various materials, in this case paper and tape, to protect a raw egg from a high fall. Students Maria West and Megan Syrjala showed attendees how to easily extract DNA from strawberries and bananas. After participating in activities, community members earned tickets entering them in a raffle being held that evening for STEM-related prizes.

A dinner was also available. Hollie Paul, a faculty member at WMHS, organized the dinner, using food donated from the food pantry. This was to provide a free dinner for the public and to also help showcase the great things the food pantry does for community members and to make it known the pantry is available. The dinner consisted of spaghetti, chicken fettuccine alfredo, salad, rolls and more. Desserts and refreshments were also provided.