“The only source of knowledge is experience.”-Albert Einstein
I believe this is a very accurate quote to describe the STEM starter program. Although we do a lot of learning in a traditional setting, the interns and the staff of the program try their hardest to put us out and lets us gain experience of real world STEM applications My personal favorite experience so far is the ability to participate and exposure to the interns research. I particularly enjoyed the benthic portion of the research and classifying the macro-invertebrates. I am thinking about going into entomology so looking at the bugs was particularly fascinating to me. I also thoroughly enjoyed our field trip to the Arnold Arboretum. I have always liked plants and thought the research they are doing very interesting. One guy there was doing research on chemical defense in plants and I thought that was particularly interesting.
I also think this is a great program for people looking to go into STEM but not really know where to go or having skills lacking for it. I personally barely passed high school because I rarely did any work so I have some major gaps in my education. This program gave me the opportunity to catch up and really solidify my basic math skills that I may have missed in the past. It also provides a great place for people who really want to get back into school and want a STEM career to really help them.