STEM

At HCS we offer extracurricular STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) learning options for every grade from Kindergarten through High School.

We participate in FIRST, the World's finest student robotics program. On FIRST teams, students learn engineering, science, teamwork, business skills, speaking and writing skills and much, much more through hands-on learning. Students can start in Kindergarten in our FLL Explore program (K-3rd grade), progress through elementary and middle school in our FIRST LEGO League program (4th-8th), and develop cutting edge high-tech skills on our high school FIRST Tech Challenge.

FIRST is a foundation created to inspire more students to get involved in STEM careers. It is the brainchild of the "Thomas Edison of time," Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway and hundreds of biomedical technologies that have transformed our lives. He wants your students to do what he does -- change the world for the better.  So he created FIRST.  The program is built around a "Sport for the Mind" concept where teams work to create robots and then use them to play highly competitive games against their peers -- across town, across the state, across the country or even across the world! The program reaches nearly 1 million students each year and opens up over $50 million in scholarships to students pursuing STEM fields in college.

 

At HCS we have been a part of FIRST since 2006 and have experienced a very high level of success in that time. Three HCS FLL teams have won the state championship and gone on to compete in the World Championships, with the 2013 team finishing as the world's third place team out of over 26,000 teams! Our High School program has seen it's share of success, too, being one of only a handful of teams nationally, to have earned four consecutive trips to Super Regionals (Midwest Championship) and three trips to the World Championships!