AVHS STEM Updates
News and Notes about STEM happenings at AVHS
H2U: GLOBAL HEALTH & HEALTH EQUITY RESEARCH Program
Iron Maidens: Win Inspire Award, Advance to State!
AVHS HOSA Team
H2U: GLOBAL HEALTH AND HEALTH EQUITY RESEARCH PROGRAM
H2U is a pilot program exclusively for AVHS juniors. This program introduces high school students to the world of research through global health and health equity projects led by University of Minnesota professors. Professors serve as mentors to help guide students and provide hands-on experiences with real-world research. The program is going so well plans are being made to continue the program into next year.
All participants will take part in 5 online lectures, professional skill development by contributing to a research team, and research skill development tailored to a student’s goals and interests. The program will require students to dedicate approximately 4-5 hours per week during the summer program, and 2-3 hours per week during the academic year. The photo below is a fall social where mentors and students had a chance to meet. H2U website: https://med.umn.edu/dom/research/programs-centers/h2u
H2U Student Reflection about program: https://youtu.be/Bpy-GyrH4_Y
Uponor Partnership Support
Iron Maidens FIRST Tech Challenges Robotics Team
Knights of the Valley FIRST Robotics Competition Team - #2667
Leidos Partnership Support
SFM Partnership Support
Thank you notes - Precalculus classes
Students with calculators
Thank you notes - Algebra 2
ISG Partnership Support
We could not effectively run our fabrication lab courses at AVHS without the continued financial support from ISG to help us purchase needed supplies for these extremely dynamic courses. This funding from ISG ensure that we do not have to pursue students for lab fee donations. We would also like to express our gratitude to ISG for launching into a much stronger partnership with Valley Middle School of STEM. ISG is providing financial support for VMSS to help them purchase additional 3D printers. ISG staff are also partnering with VMSS teachers to develop an engineering project for students.
AVHS staff are working with key ISG professionals to develop a pilot program designed to offer pathways into multiple career fields in their industry. We are working toward piloting this program by offering a group of AVHS students paid professional summer internships. More about this program is below:
District 196 – ISG Career Builder Program
Inspire, Support career exploration, and Graduate with a career plan.
Goal: Provide students with an equitable opportunity to explore the outer limit of their potential by designing their future through inspiring career exploration, support for professional skill development, and employment while in high school to graduate with a career plan in place.
Develop a program to introduce students to careers in Business + Marketing Writer, Civil Engineering Designer, Land Survey Specialist, Telecommunications Designer, and Visualization Specialists.
Genesys Works
Genesys Works creates career pathways and opportunities for youth from underserved communities while simultaneously helping employers fill critical talent gaps within their companies.sys Works creates career pathways and opportunities for youth from underserved communities while simultaneously helping employers fill critical talent gaps within their companies. AVHS has 8 seniors in the program now. We are actively recruiting juniors for the Class of 2022. These students can earn up to $16,000.00 over the course of their internship!
Learn more about the Genesys Works model: https://genesysworks.org/twin-cities/about-us/
STEM Career Exploration Activities & Programs
- A motivated group of students re-launched a HOSA chapter at AVHS. HOSA is a student-led organization designed to support career exploration in healthcare. Our chapter members were able to attend a very engaging fall event.
- We welcomed software engineer Orion Supergan to AVHS for a career exploration event earlier this year.
- We once again were able to take a group of students to the University of St. Thomas for a wonderful event designed to provide them with an exploration of careers in accounting.
- Teacher Jae Cody supported by female software engineers from C.H. Robinson have resumed work with a group of AVHS girls to launch our Girls Who Code club. This club meets after school to explore computer programming.
- Our Iron Maidens have been very busy recently offering STEM outreach activities to multiple elementary schools via Zoom these past few weeks.
- The AVHS Science Olympiad team is once again competing. Thank you to BTM Global for their support of our Science Olympiad team!
- The institute of Engineering & Medicine at the University of Minnesota once again offered a live career exploration event called the Inspire conference. We were able to take a group of AVHS students to experience this excellent event this past fall.
- AVHS has another State championship team. Our Valorant eSports team won the Minnesota State title in early January. eSports is a relatively new program that is experiencing explosive growth in high schools and colleges across the country. Colleges are now building eSports arenas and offering scholarships to eSports athletes. Students can learn many technical skills beyond the actual gaming involved in eSports.
- Finally, AVHS is hosting a career fair later in February called "Let's Connect". We are heavily recruiting alumni from area businesses with a special emphasis on inviting a diverse group of professionals who come from backgrounds similar to our student population.
- Stay tuned to AVHS. There is more to come!