STEM Scale-Up Program Drives Onward

STEM Scale-Up Program
Students from Shenandoah Middle School brought home several awards from a recent TEN80 national competition.

The STEM Scale-Up Program offers high-quality educational programs focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics that have the ability to continue and grow throughout Iowa long after the initial award. There are many programs that have been on the STEM Scale-Up Program menu that have done just that.

Brett Roberts from Shenandoah, Iowa, began teaching TEN80 Student Racing Challenge (TEN80) in his middle school classroom after receiving the STEM Scale-Up Program Award in 2015. Today, in his third year of teaching TEN80, the program is maintained through fundraising efforts and receives ongoing interest and participation from students.

TEN80 cultivates innovation, entrepreneurial and critical thinking through project-based learning. Students learn business, project management, marketing, graphic design, race engineering, small scale manufacturing and innovations in driverless cars and sustainable energies through hands-on experiences.

Through TEN80, students manage their own motorsports team and have the opportunity to enter their racecar in competition. This year, the team from Shenandoah came home with six championship awards – the most awards they’ve won yet – including, Pit Stop Challenge, Overall Race Challenge, Enterprise Challenge, MODS Dragster Challenge, Data-Driven Design Challenge and Middle School Series National Finals Overall Championship.

“Students that are involved in TEN80 have shown a continued interest in pursuing STEM,” said Roberts. “It helps students draw a connection to real-world business opportunities. I hope to scale the program to make it available for high school students, too.”

Congratulations to the Shenandoah TEN80 team! We are excited about the ongoing impact this program is having on students in Iowa.

To learn more about the STEM Scale-Up Program, visit www.IowaSTEM.gov/Scale-Up.

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