Page 13 - MGA Today: Middle Georgia State University

By Bill Weaver

Tag Teaming on STEM

Middle Georgia State representatives Tyler Horne, far left, and Dr. Chris Hornung, far right, and members of the Museum of
Aviation’s Education Center staff are shown with a display table holding promotional materials the University’s marketing staff
created for the partnership. RENEE PEARMAN

W hen two organizations have similar goals, Middle Georgia State is promoting STEM
forming a partnership often proves that education by developing materials available for
the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. wide distribution that detail related careers,
And so it is with the promotion of science, museum program offerings and the RETP, with
technology, engineering and math (STEM) the purpose being to encourage high school
education in the Middle Georgia region, as the students in the Middle Georgia region to obtain
Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins and engineering degrees and help meet the workforce
Middle Georgia State University are partnering to needs of Robins Air Force Base. The idea is that if
promote STEM careers. young students get excited about STEM topics
Middle Georgia State has a number of paths they may continue in college and eventually head
students can take toward STEM-related toward careers in fields such as aerospace
occupations, which can be challenging and engineering, applications programming or
rewarding as they seek to address some of information security.
society’s more urgent issues. Students can earn
degrees in areas such as mathematics, information Engineering, math and technology education
technology, biology or health sciences. also is an initiative of the Education Center at the
The University also participates in a program Museum of Aviation, which is located near Robins
offered by the University System Board of Air Force Base. The Education Center conducts
Regents, in which students interested in an STEM- and history-focused programs in schools
engineering degree may complete their first two and at the museum. It makes sense for the
years at Middle Georgia State, then transfer to University to partner with the Museum, since
Georgia Tech to complete the degree. It’s called Middle Georgia State has the state’s only public
the Regents’ Engineering Transfer Program School of Aviation. The museum reaches about
(RETP). 50,000 students and teachers, ages pre-K to high
school, through its programs.

Learn more about Middle Georgia State’s RETP at www.mga.edu/retp.

Fall 2015 MIDDLE GEORGIA STATE TODAY 13