Tesla STEM High School (formerly STEM High School) is a

magnet school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...

in Redmond, Washington. It is a designated Choice School in the

Lake Washington School District The Lake Washington School District #414 or LWSD is a public school district in King County, Washington, in suburbs east of Seattle. Its headquarters is in Redmond. it is the second-largest school district in Washington. It serves the region t ...

and offers a STEM-based curriculum. , by US News Rankings, Tesla STEM is the number 1 high school in Washington, number 12 in the nation, and number 9 for magnet schools. The school operates as a

magnet program In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...

. Students are admitted from across the district on a lottery basis with 150 students per grade for a total enrollment of 600 students. STEM School Front

History and facilities

The school opened in September 2012 in Eastlake High School until the new facility was sufficiently completed for partial occupancy by grades 9 and 10 in January 2013. The full school opened and admitted grades 11 and 12 in September 2013 and September 2014, respectively. The two-story school occupies a 21-acre campus. It was constructed by Absher Construction Company for $24 million.

Modular building A modular building is a prefabricated building that consists of repeated sections called modules. Modularity involves constructing sections away from the building site, then delivering them to the intended site. Installation of the prefabricated ...

techniques were used to construct the school due to permitting and time restrictions. The majority of the building was fabricated offsite, with 4 sections (including the common area) built on site.

Academics

The school's stated academic approach involves

problem-based learning Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered pedagogy in which students learn about a subject through the experience of solving an open-ended problem found in trigger material. The PBL process does not focus on problem solving with a defi ...

, professiobal learning community, integrated curricula,

scientific inquiry Models of scientific inquiry have two functions: first, to provide a descriptive account of ''how'' scientific inquiry is carried out in practice, and second, to provide an explanatory account of ''why'' scientific inquiry succeeds as well as it ap ...

, and

constructivist learning Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...

. The core program is focused on the four STEM fields: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.STEM HS - About us
Retrieved 2014-01-22 Most students attend classes in the advanced sciences. Students in grades 9 and 10 focus on learning the basics of a variety of courses; in grades 11 and 12 students choose a focus of study. In the 2014–15 academic year, the school began four “Signature Programs” to students from the four comprehensive high schools in the School District: Eastlake High School,

Juanita High School Juanita High School is a high school in Kirkland, Washington, administered by Lake Washington School District. It was opened on September 4, 1971, as a result of a campaign driven by an education theory known as the "Juanita Concept", developed by ...

Lake Washington High School Lake Washington High School is a four-year public high school in Kirkland, Washington, a suburb east of Seattle. It is one of four main high schools in the Lake Washington School District, with an enrollment capacity of approximately 1,500 student ...

, and Redmond High School. Eleventh graders are given the choice between two signature labs: Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Design, or AP Psychology / Forensics. Twelfth graders may either take the Advanced Physics Lab (AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism and AP Physics C: Mechanics) or Biomedical Engineering alongside Anatomy and Physiology.

Athletics and clubs

Athletics and sports programs are not offered at the school. Students participating in those programs need to travel to their "home" high school. Clubs, however, are offered. Notable clubs include science olympiad, astronomy, fitness club and science bowl.

Courses and pathways offered

Tesla STEM's course catalog can be foun
here
A total of 12 AP courses are offered, including AP Computer Science Principles (9), AP Biology (10, optional), AP Environmental Science (10), AP Language and Composition (11, optional), AP US History (11, not an AP class anymore, but many students still take the exam), AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism and AP Physics C: Mechanics (12, optional senior lab), AP Calculus AB (varies, 11th most common), AP Calculus BC (varies and optional, 12th most common), AP Computer Science A (elective), AP Chemistry (elective), and AP Statistics (elective). Typical learning pathways at Tesla STEM include the computer science pathway (AP CS Principles (9), AP CSA (10), Data Structures (11), Advanced Projects in Java (12)), the engineering pathway (Engineering, Engineering 2, Engineering 3), and the life sciences pathway (AP Biology (10), AP Psychology (11), Biomedical Engineering and Anatomy/Physiology (12)). Four signature labs are offered at STEM, with students being given the option to choose two of them. In 11th grade, students have the choice between Environmental Engineering / Sustainable Design and AP Psychology / Forensics, whereas in 12th grade students choose between the Advanced Physics Lab and Biomedical Engineering / Anatomy and Physiology.

References

External links

LWSD School Web Page

OSPI School report card for "Unnamed STEM School Under Construction" 2013

''Grand Challenges for Engineering'', The National Academy of Engineering

M SPACE Holdings
{{authority control Public high schools in Washington (state) High schools in King County, Washington Schools in Redmond, Washington 2012 establishments in Washington (state) Prefabricated buildings