WATERLOO - Math is Tar'Ann Talbert's favorite subject.

But the George Washington Carver Academy sixth-grader acknowledges it can still be boring. After all, lessons are filled with numbers that must be multiplied or divided, and students regularly drill skills like estimation.

"In math, you don't do a lot of fun things, you don't do a lot of games," she said.

That changed when she walked into Jerry Chase's applied math class last month. Applied math is a new offering at Carver Academy, part of its Science, Technology, Engineering and Math - or STEM - focus developed when the school opened this fall. Chase teaches math concepts in the class, but uses the real-world framework of opening a business with his sixth-grade students.

"It's like stuff you do in real life," said Talbert. "He's trying to teach us how to run a business in (real) life."

On Wednesday, students worked together on a computer simulation at the Web site coolmath-games.com where they operated a lemonade stand. They eagerly called out suggestions on how much of $20 to spend on cups, sugar, lemons and ice cubes. Chase urged them to consider various expenses and whether they would run out of any items. Students looked at weather conditions and decided on the lemonade recipe and price.

Then Chase started the computer animated simulation, which was projected onto his Promethean Activboard. Cartoonlike characters bought, drank and reacted to the lemonade. At the end, graphs on screen showed students the popularity of their product, based on how many people bought it, and customer satisfaction.

The class did the simulation for three "days," making adjustments to hopefully recoup their costs and turn a profit. Before the class ended, their bottom line stood at $20.50. They'd made a profit - barely.

"So, is it worth all our work?" Chase asked. Students said it was, with an enthusiasm that exceeded their 50-cent profit.

Such enthusiasm is a measure of student interest. Educators hope to similarly spark interest with the whole range of STEM classes being taught at Carver. That includes applied classes in math, science, computers, and technology along with introduction to engineering, architectural and mechanical engineering, robotics, botany, and others.

"I definitely believe that students are more engaged in these classes. I definitely think they hold their interest better," said Principal Brad Schweppe. "We have many students who are very excited about what's happening here."

More than games

Applied math isn't all games. Chase's students had to be introduced to a number of real-world math skills before they were ready to play the Lemonade Stand game.

During the first weeks of school, they learned about maintaining a bank account and balancing a checkbook. Students discussed budgeting and then completed two projects where they had to budget items. By the end of the quarter, they will come up with a business plan and open a mock store.

"The goal of applied math is to take the skills - their existing math skills - and try to show them and focus them on how these skills can be used in real life applications," said Jake Young Kent, another sixth grade applied math teacher. He noted that students seem to connect with the approach.

One example is a grocery store trip where students have to decide how to spend a set amount of money. "It's much easier for kids to be engaged in math when they say, 'I'm going to Hy-Vee tomorrow and this is what I'm doing,'" said Young Kent.

"We're still working on math concepts," he added. "We're still doing stuff that's in our sixth-grade curriculum."

Schweppe said he is proud of the school's applied classes. "They are all offering content that was not taught in this way before," he said. "It very directly applies to the real world."

Carver's focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math puts it in the vanguard for such programs among Iowa schools. It is probably unique among the state's middle schools, say advocates for STEM education. Only two high school programs have a similar math and science emphasis - at Des Moines' Central Academy and an Oelwein Schools' collaboration with Northeast Iowa Community College.

Schweppe believes the program will play an important role at Carver.

"In my opinion, two of the many issues with education now are student engagement and application of the curriculum," he said. "And so the STEM program addresses each of those areas. I believe it's interesting to the students, it's more hands-on." In addition, students can see the real-world applications they are learning about in class "right here in this community," he said, sometimes in the work and activities of their own parents.

Even those benefits, though, are a means to an end - a bigger payoff down the road. Educators hope that the increased engagement and an understanding of real-life applications will lead to higher achievement and greater high school success.

"Just allowing students additional opportunities is a powerful educational tool," said Schweppe. "We'll see some short-term impact, but we'll see long-term growth with this for many years."

Hands-on learning

Growth is the goal in Carver's greenhouse, a unique facility among area schools that is operated by Iowa State University Extension. Deb Kisch's sixth-grade environmental science class meeting in the greenhouse last week was learning about plants by growing a number of them.

"We planted seeds in four pots," said student Avree Clark, about one of their efforts. Three of the sprouting plants were sprayed with different chemicals, including bleach, Miracle-Gro and hair spray. The fourth plant received regular watering.

Clark said the bleach had the worst effect. "If they grow, it will grow yellow-orange." He added that the plants receiving Miracle-Gro grow faster than those that are only watered,

Another experiment included growing plants in five different types of soil or environments and measuring the progress of the plants' growth. A pair of students also collect organic garbage from the cafeteria every day and dump it in a bin in the greenhouse where materials are being composted.

"I just think for years this is the way it should have been done," said Barb Sallis, whose sixth-grade botany class also makes use of the greenhouse. Her students started the year outside in the garden identifying the difference between weeds and plants - and pulling out the weeds. She is thrilled to have students actually working with plants, not just learning about the different parts.

"I think the whole STEM thing is wonderful," said Rebekah Eggers, who teaches a seventh-grade inventions class. "It's the skills that they need - the deep thinking, the critical thinking."

Her curriculum was designed by a University of Northern Iowa professor and is part of a grant-funded research project. Students learned about the process an inventor goes through in creating or improving upon a product and how ideas change over time, leading to new inventions. Currently, students are researching inventions.

By the end of the class, everyone will design their own invention or improve upon an existing product. Eggers said it will take a lot of creativity and effort by the students to design their inventions.

"I want them to understand that people don't just think of an idea and it comes about," she noted. Students are "really excited about (the class). They find it really interesting."

"My seventh-grade robotics class, they're just having a blast," said industrial technology teacher Delbert Neely, who offers various engineering and electronics STEM classes along with robotics. The seventh-graders are building wooden robot arms, each outfitted with an "end effector" mechanism that can be used to pick up items like a hand.

The enthusiasm is shared by teachers like Jackie Graham, who teaches applied computer applications. Her class used to focus largely on computer typing skills until it was revised as part of the STEM focus.

Her sixth-graders learn how to use a number of Microsoft Word programs, but older students build on those skills. Seventh-graders do a simulation where they create and market a sports team. Eighth-graders decide on a business they want to open and create a plan for it.

Graham has already seen their excitement, which appears to be contagious.

"I love my students, I love Carver," she said. "It's just very, very exciting to be part of something new and ground-breaking for Waterloo and the state of Iowa."