In order to give her elementary students a glimpse into the business world, one teacher gave students the task of creating an app. They were able to buildupon their knowledge of and exercise their skills in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) with a little help from the Partnerships In Education (PIE).

“Cincinnati-based PIE is dedicated to developing transformational STEM K-12 educational tools that actively prepare students for the workplace,” reports Kristen Frankie of Soapbox Media. “PIE provided mentors for the Cincinnati Public Schools app projects.”

Sixth grade math teacher Stephanie Bisher gave students at Kilgour Elementary School in Cincinnati, Ohio the task of creating a game around a local gelato business.

This innovative way of teaching forced students to use the knowledge they learned in order to understand what it takes to run a business. It then asked them to incorporate STEM skills in order to create the application.

“It has been our pleasure to participate in this first-ever program, offering a curriculum found currently only in STEM graduate and undergraduate science, medical, engineering, mathematics, law and business programs,” PIE CEO Mary Schlueter said in a letter to Kilgour parents, according to the report. 

The application building process demanded students to complete very challenging math problems and used Microsoft’s Excel program to input formulas according to Frankie’s report. These skill sets learned at an early age increases the students ability to adapt to the growing technological advancements in todays K-12 classrooms.

“There is no abstract concept here,” Bisher says. “The students can truly see the value of what they’re doing and self-evaluate as they go.”

The activity is both innovative and fun, proving that there are ways to properly and effectively incorporate technology with skills learned in the classroom. The result of the students hard work were twos apps, “Gelato Hero” and “Sweet Revenge”

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Article by Navindra Persaud, Education World Contributor