Speakers/Mentors Needed for New CASA STEM Class
(CASA Press Release, Sept. 8, 2014)
The Center for Advanced Studies and the Arts, CASA, located in Oak Park, is excited to announce a new course for its students. CASA is now offering a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Senior Capstone Course and is looking for mentors, guest speakers and laboratories to tour for the high school students in the program.
Led by CASA teacher Adina Rubenstein (home school Berkley High School) students who are planning on entering the science fields will learn current STEM research. By declaring a “major,” such as aerospace engineering, neurology, genetics, herpetology, or biochemistry, students will select a focus for their individual research based course work.  Students in the class will also be reading current scientific journals, meeting and listening to guest speakers in various scientific professions, visiting laboratories, periodically participating in academic conferences and seminars, and performing experiments that support the content learned throughout the course.
“I’d really like my students to hear about STEM careers that perhaps they hadn’t thought of and hear about the path to getting there. Metro Detroit has great resources and I hope there are many STEM professionals who would like share the love of what they do with young scientists,” says Ms. Rubenstein.
In addition to the innovative new curriculum, the class will include a travel component annually. Ms. Rubenstein teamed up with long-time science teacher friend Alison Maes (home school Ferndale High School) to create a STEM travel program for STEM students as well as other advanced science students from CASA districts. This year, students will be traveling to California over mid-winter break in February.
“I am very excited to travel with these students,” says Ms. Rubenstein. “We will be visiting CalTech, Berkley and USC to learn about the inspiring discoveries made at these institutions and tour their campuses. We’ll also get to see the Redwood forest, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, and the Tech Museum of Innovation in Silicon Valley.” Future year itineraries will take STEM students to the East Coast and then onto England/France.  On these trips, students will have the opportunity to tour labs, meet scientists across the country and globe and bring back to Metro Detroit what they learned to help propel them into their future careers.
CASA is a six-school consortium high school program, with students from Berkley, Clawson, Ferndale, Lamphere, Madison, and Oak Park High Schools. The new STEM course is open to all CASA juniors and seniors.
If you are interested in becoming a guest speaker, a mentor through the school year, or supporting the curriculum with donations please contact Adina Rubenstein directly at arubenstein@berkleyschools.org or casa.stem@gmail.com. For more information on the STEM trip, or future ones planned to the East Coast and to Europe please contact Adina Rubenstein or Alison Maes at amaes@ferndaleschools.org.
Additional links to information are below:
CASA http://www.casa-online.org/