Photo by Natalie Baram
A picture of a project done by a high school engineering student.
Ian Coutinho ‘25
NEWS EDITOR
In December 2024, the High School was named a STEM School of Excellence by the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA). This recognition demonstrates the “school’s commitment to a STEM education.”
The STEM School of Excellence recognition is based on numerous factors. “The...distinction is for schools that meet a wide range of STEM-related criteria,” said Mike Berkeihiser, engineering teacher and ITEEA member. “[A school] earn[s] points for a wide variety of things... one of the things you get points for is a STEM outreach or community service project. The recognition requires two hundred points.” Mr. Berkeihiser, along with the entire engineering department, has worked hard to facilitate a STEM community at the school. “We do STEM outreach... in the past, we've done STEM nights with DuPont [and] a STEM challenge for elementary school students,” said Berkeihiser. “We’ve also done Toys for Tots productions... so these are a bunch of different ways we’ve gotten points towards our STEM School of Excellence award.”
The students of the engineering department have played a part in obtaining this recognition. “We have students that get all the way through the four years [of the Engineering program], and every time we've done anything that we've asked students to volunteer, they're happy to help,” said Berkeihiser. “They help with things like the Toys for Tots [productions] or STEM night. We're making signs right now for the Chadds-Ford Elementary [School] Arts Show. If it w[asn’t] for their willingness to give their time and effort and their talents, we would never be earning an award like this.” In addition to outreach, Berkeihiser’s active participation in ITEEA has earned points toward the recognition. “I've written journal articles for Technology and Engineering Teacher, which is the flagship publication of ITEEA,” said Berkeihiser. “I also presented at last year's ITEEA conference.”
While ITEEA is an organization for engineering and technology education teachers, many other teachers in the school played an important role in this recognition. “I'm just simply the person that did the paperwork,” said Berkeihiser. “The hard part is what all the teachers in this department do [and] what the teachers in the science and math departments do–it's a STEM school of excellence. It's not just engineering that contributes to us being excellent when it comes to teaching and learning STEM concepts.”
Specifically, Mr. Berkeihiser collaborated with English and math teachers to write articles that ultimately resulted in earning points toward the school’s recognition. “I co-authored an article with former English teacher Mr. Daniel Lipowitz on re-engineering conflict in literature,” said Berkeihiser. “And I did one with [math teacher] Mrs. Dori Ray on building three-dimensional models with her geometry kids and my engineering kids.”
Mr. Berkeihiser and the engineering program will continue to earn points for next year’s recognition. “I plan to attend [ITEEA’s] conference in April,” said Berkeihiser. “I'm presenting the panel on an orientation to new teachers at that conference.”
