Chasing Yakima’s Bugs Today To Prep For the Jobs Of Tomorrow

We've heard a lot about STEM education in the past few years.  We recently told you about Central Washington Univesity's expanded degree program where students can earn a Master's Degree in STEM education. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math or as I used to call them  "my weakest top five!)

Why STEM?

Yeti, an online website that teaches STEM classes, gives five reasons STEM is "uniquely suited to prepare students for success."

Five reasons to focus on STEM education in 2021.

1. STEM Jobs are the Future of Our Economy

2. STEM Teaches Critical Thinking and Innovation

3. STEM Classes Provide Unique Opportunities for Teamwork

4. A STEM Curriculum Helps Students Develop Project Management Skills

5. Recent Events Have Only Made Technology Skills More Important

 This summer, all those STEM-related benefits are being put to work as more than 30 Yakima Valley College (YVC) STEM students are working on community-based research projects — developing hands-on, practical skills while also studying issues of interest to local communities and industries.  (Now that beats an internship where you just answer the phone and bring the boss coffee!)

 Nature of the Work

It's one thing to train in the lab but nothing beats hands-on, out in the field experience as a way to really learn about a subject and also to find out if you truly want to work in that particular discipline.

2021projects include:

•  Studying the mass trapping of earwigs in stone fruit orchards where they are considered pests and releasing earwigs in apple and pear orchards where they are beneficial predators of other pests.
• Analyzing the persistence of pesticides during the winemaking process and effective, accurate methods of measuring pesticides.
• Detecting neuropeptids in codling moths (which frequently harm apple orchards and other fruit trees) as the first step in identifying possible targets for non-toxic insect control agents.

Well, that's a diverse menu...bad bugs, I mean good bugs, bug killer chemicals and non-toxic bug killers....(sounds like a bad summer to be a bug but a great summer to be a YVC STEM student!)