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May 17, 2010
Congressman tours district's STEM lab
Sanford Herald
SANFORD - U.S. Congressman Bob Etheridge, D-Lillington, got a look at some of Lee County's youngest engineers Monday.
The lawmaker toured one of Lee County Schools' most touted science labs at East Lee Middle School as Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives ramp up for a science and engineering education funding bill this week.
Etheridge listened and talked to sixth-graders in one of East Lee's state-of-the-art Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) labs, an initiative launched two years ago that gives pupils an interactive learning experience with various contraptions and computers.
Students rotate their time working with gadgets that teach them firsthand the principles of science touchstones like electricity, using alternative energy forms, movie-making, mechanisms and pneumatics.
"The fact that they're exposed to it makes all the difference," Etheridge said as he huddled with students and school officials Monday.
The U.S. House's America COMPETES Reauthorization Act, or H.R. 5116, introduced by Tennessee Democrat Bart Gordon, is expected to bolster school funding for science and engineering programs like the STEM labs, areas that lawmakers say American youth are trailing their foreign contemporaries.
Etheridge said he would support more funding for such education, calling it "hands-on experience" that integrates academic curriculum and real-life skills.
"They are budding engineers," Etheridge said.
Etheridge, a Harnett County resident, is running for re-election this fall in the U.S. House's 2nd District, which includes Lee County.
Lee County Schools Director of Career and Technical Education Aaron Fleming said East Lee Middle School was the first in the county to phase in the STEM labs, folding it into the remaining middle schools last year.
Fleming said the high-tech labs will be worked into Southern Lee High School next year before they are fully implemented in county high schools.
"We want to do things that are different," Fleming said, adding that the labs enhance science education and students' teamwork because it forces pupils to work together at the lab stations.
In addition to education components of the America COMPETES bill, the legislation is expected to increase federal funding for science research and development.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers are still hammering out the details of the legislation in Congress this week.
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