STEM Minute| Using new technology to explore both inside and outside of the classroom

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND)-- The American Dreamer STEM Academy is preparing to make a big move while providing more access to STEM education for its students. The goal for instructors is to get kids excited and encourage them to find a love for learning.

8th grade student, Marianne Banks, says, "I'm excited to learn about STEM because I love math, I love technology, I love engineering stuff and learning new stuff."

New technology coming to the school is allowing students to explore and make major advancements in their academic careers.

American Dreamer STEM Academy principal, Rida Ellis, says, "What stands out the most is students are able to in real time have experience that maybe only we can mimic but its more realistic so they can dissect animals they can use real world objects to solve math problems. I think it is just an out of the box creative way to do things that we see flat on a worksheet to be able to do it in a 4-D way."

The program is called Z Space. It is a form of virtual reality, but kids are able to use the technology without the use of goggles. Instead, this system uses a laptop, a pen, and the student's eyes to operate. Each laptop has the capability to track what the students are looking at and then move the screen appropriately. Z Space is being introduced as the school is working to re-theme into a STEAM school and move into the new Ellsworth Dansbury Junior Magnet School in August.

"It implements and integrates what we need to be able to do at the end of the school year by grade level and puts all those skills to work for them in a creative way."

Every student that has a chance to work with the technology can find something that they are interested in. After just one day of working with the program, students were already starting to see the impact that this hands-on experience can make for them.

Banks said, "I actually learned about the heart, how it feels when you move. When we were changing the rates, it was beating faster, I learned about some parts of the heart I learned about a butterfly like there were so many things that were new and introduced to me today."

Instructors are hoping that this will allow them to stress the importance of these skills in the real world to their students by showing them how they can be applied in different instances.

Ellis says, "I think STEM education is our world. Our world thrives around STEAM employ-ability skills and that's ultimately what we want to teach our kids how to use critical thinking problem solving skills how to collaborate with other and how to take new technology and use it in the classroom."

This experience is giving kids the motivation that they need to become lifelong learners both in and out of the classroom.