Silicon Valley STEM Academy Programs

Technology and bioscience are converging. Neuroscientists, mathematicians and computer scientists are working together to study how human neural networks function, in order to illuminate how we can program computers to perform machine learning and achieve artificial intelligence. Scientists are beginning to consider DNA as a new storage medium, now that bioengineers and geneticists have successfully stored 700 terabytes of data in a single gram of DNA.
Biomimicry has been applied to solve large (e.g. Stealth Bomber) and small scale problems (surgical tools that are 97% resistant to microbial colonization).
Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension that is between 1 and 100 nanometers has applications both in biologic (medicine, health, nutrition) as well as non-biologic systems and sometimes draws upon biomimicry. For this reason, all courses offered through Silicon Valley STEM Academy are interdisciplinary and complementary.

Silicon Valley STEM Academy offers courses in three separate but complementary tracks: Computer Science, Health Sciences, and Manufacturing Science. For example, Cell Biology and Biotechnology are part of the Health Sciences Sequence. Students will gain familiarity with foundational concepts useful for applications in biotechnology, bioscience and medicine. But a student need not limit her or himself to classes in the Health Sciences. For example, a child taking classes in the Health Sciences track can also take the Computer Science Sequence to learn how to program an app that measures heart function or similarly the Manufacturing Sciences Sequence to learn how to 3D print an artificial structure that might be used in the body as a replacement organ or tissue. Similarly, a student interested in computer science might consider taking the Biotechnology class in order to learn about DNA in order to lay a foundation for understanding how DNA might someday replace hard disks and other media used for storing data.

All classes feature group as well as individual classwork, hands-on and fun activities as more and more of the sciences and engineering involve collaborative, cross-disciplinary work.

Each course will run for approximately 8 weeks, two sessions per week. Two 8-week sessions will be offered during the Winter-Spring Semester. Open to 5th-8th grade students.