Students Become Business Leaders | Video

Chris Williams | 12/17/2012

When you think about running companies or designing marketing strategies, you probably think of professionals who have spent years perfecting their craft. Well, today it was a group of seventh and eighth graders at Garden Valley. The students got a glimpse into the working world today, and learned some valuable lessons.

"It`s all about being prepared. Obviously we don`t really realize right now in the eighth grade. Now we’re going to get to know what`s coming and what we`re going to have to deal with,” said eighth grader Seanna Hellard.

The students were split into different companies, and they had to come up with a solution to clean up the 2010 BP oil spill.

"They spent the entire day then solving a problem base. I told them that they had magic sand, is what I created, and they needed to figure out how to use the magic sand how to clean up the oil spill,” said UND Masters Student Kristin Brevik.

The purpose of this project is to introduce students to a new type of learning called STEM.

"STEM is science, technology, engineering and math. There`s a huge push in education right now to get stem in to schools,” Brevik added.

STEM works by taking individual subjects and combining them.

"Kids go to science and math and English, but those classes work together. So when you`re in science you`re writing English reports, and when you`re in English you`re doing science experiments and then writing about them,” said Brevik.

Students came up with and tested their experiments, designed marketing campaigns for their products, and had to present all of their findings to a panel of community members.

"This really changed my life. It showed us what we have to be prepared for in the future, and what real life is actually like,” said seventh grader Megan Jorgenson.

All of the skills learned during the course of the day are aimed at not only creating a better learning environment, but helping students down the road.

"That`s what employers are looking for today. Whether you have a four year degree or a graduate degree or you just go to work right after high school. Employers want you to have 21st century skills,” Brevik added.

Today, students got the chance to use these skills.

"We had to put our minds in the minds of company workers and company owners and managers. That was a little bit harder because we had to think what are thinking, what ideas would they come up with,” added Hellard.

The program lasts until Wednesday.

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