STEM Puts Students in the Driver's "SEAT" Published Dec. 13, 2010 By Joseph Gordon Propulsion WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- A cross-directorate collaboration of scientists and engineers is engaging with Dayton, Ohio, high school students as part of a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics endeavor managed by Noble Solutions and sponsored locally by the Air Force Research Laboratory. As the program name implies, STEM seeks to stimulate student interest in relevant subjects by involving them in real-world fundamental research. This particular project--Students Exploring Advanced Technologies--unites AFRL S&Es with area Dayton Public Schools students to that end. The AFRL cohort's adopted strategy calls upon the SEAT student researchers to leverage the Science Fair process--namely, the inquiry-based research method--which, given that DPS students must participate in Science Fair activities at local (and, as applicable, regional, state, and international) levels, should be familiar to them. Accordingly, the multidisciplinary lab team's "home" directorates sponsor the activities of a Remote-/Radio-Controlled Aircraft Team, a Rocket Team, and a Robotics Team, an approach that affords participating DPS students relevant opportunities to experience real-world applications of learned STEM concepts. With the specific SEAT teams helping students explore, reinforce, and elaborate upon those respective concepts, the partnership takes learning well beyond the classroom and into the realm of hands-on personal enrichment and potential STEM career pursuits of the future.