LOUISVILLE, Ky. — What do you want to be when you grow up, is usually a tough question to answer. Third grader Braxton Anderson, though, has it all figured out.

What You Need To Know

  • Every student at Buckner Elementary School is involved in STEM classes

  • The STEM lab at Buckner opened in 2019 for grades K-5

  • Mrs. Dunigan has been teaching the course for almost 3 years

“Either an engineer like my dad or being, this is hard, an astronaut,” Braxton Anderson, 3rd grader at Buckner Elementary School, said.

Anderson recently moved from Illinois to Kentucky. There have been a lot of firsts recently for the third grader, including his first science, technology, engineering and mathematics class.

“STEM means to me, I get to learn new stuff,” Anderson said. “I love my teacher. I moved from Illinois. I did not have any STEM, and ever since I started STEM here, it’s fun.”

The focus of STEM is hands-on learning. That’s exactly what Mrs. Dunigan’s class is currently working on. Their current project involves using a hammer and nails. Dunigan said Buckner’s STEM program is the only Oldham County school to do this project.

“We just want to continue to build it through robotics, through woodworking, through engineering, computational thinking, learning how to solve problems and just getting our hands dirty and not being afraid to try new things,” said Holly Dunigan, STEM lab teacher at Buckner Elementary School.

All 650 students at Buckner Elementary School are involved in STEM. The goal is to learn real-world applications while developing a variety of skills.

“We start out with a growth mindset and the importance of keeping a positive attitude and Connor you have a positive attitude, growth mindset right? Of not giving up even when things get hard,” Dunigan said, speaking to one of her students in class.

Teachers here hope that these skills will extend beyond the four walls of this classroom.

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