Valparaiso High School is offering STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education opportunities that aren't even available at many colleges, according to teacher Tarik El-Naggar.
"As far as I know, between our laser cutters, 3D printers, our water jet, our stress test machine, our wind tunnel, our VEX program with 15-plus V5 robots, we are leading in the Midwest," El-Naggar told Valparaiso School Board last month.
El-Naggar was honored for bringing national recognition to the district, with recent articles from Washington Post and Architect magazines.
He told board members that the STEM program continues to grow. Engineering enrollment is set to almost double next year, and the school now offers three complete tracks in engineering, computer science and biomedicine.
"Those three tracks really set us apart from a lot of other schools who may offer just one or two tracks or maybe just one or two courses in each. We have four years available for every one of those tracks," El-Naggar added.
Going forward, Valparaiso Community Schools is looking to invest more than $87,000 of this year's funding from the city's redevelopment commission into STEM equipment. Nick Allison, the assistant superintendent for secondary education, says that includes funding for a third flight simulator, a new computer science lab, a better 3D printer and an omnidirectional treadmill for the virtual reality lab.
"It allows them to walk, to run, to kneel, to jump in these spaces, so it gives them a whole new dimension of interactivity," Allison added.
Valparaiso's STEM efforts are seeing results. Last month, senior Rama Khabbaz was one of four students in the state to be named to the 2022 Governor's STEM Team, which comes with a $1,000 scholarship. She told board members that she became interested in computer science when she took part in a Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program in 2020 and has been taking computer science courses since then.
"This fall, hopefully, I will be studying at Georgia Tech for computer science, and my vision is that I'll be able to create technology or help create technology to improve people's lives," Khabbaz told board members.
Additionally, Valparaiso High School students swept the 2021 Indiana High School Architectural Design Competition, and El-Naggar says his students have gone on to achieve success in college architecture and aerospace programs.
