Weber School District students see STEM in action at Reach for the Stars event
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- Bonneville High School CTE Coordinator John Donley leads an interactive workshop during Weber School District’s Reach for the Stars event Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
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- Retired astronaut and Chickasaw Nation member John Herrington speaks to students during Weber School District’s Reach for the Stars event Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
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- A prototype robot dog was presented for students during Weber School District’s Reach for the Stars event Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
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- Airmen from Hill Air Force Base demonstrate the capabilities of a prototype robot dog during Weber School District’s Reach for the Stars event Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
OGDEN — Roughly 600 sixth-grade students from schools around Weber School District gathered at the Ogden Eccles Conference Center and Peery’s Egyptian Theater on Tuesday for the district’s Reach for the Stars Festival, which focused on Career Technical Education, or CTE, and science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, education.
Speaking at the event was retired astronaut John Herrington, the first enrolled citizen of a Native American tribe to fly in space. Students also took part in interactive workshops led by Hill Air Force Base personnel and CTE instructors from schools across the district.
“We really focus on sixth grade because it’s a huge transition year for kids, where they go into the secondary schools and now they have access to all of these events and electives,” Jamie Ellis — Weber School District’s director of student access and opportunity — told the Standard-Examiner. “You can take welding. You can take shop. So, this year, one of our goals is to kind of ignite that excitement, right? Like, look at all the STEM fields that you have. And then, when they go into seventh grade, they’ll have access to taking those classes.”
According to Ellis, the district utilized as many internal resources as possible for the event. However, the Air Force presence was indicative of a budding partnership between the district and Hill Air Force Base.
“Davis District has had a military support team because of where they are located,” Ellis said. “We were able to get some funding to establish our own support team for military families because we don’t have as many, but we have quite a few. … People come in and out of Hill, and we want them to be welcomed and supported here.”
A deeper connection to the base also affords students opportunities to see the real-world and military applications of concepts they’re learning through CTE and STEM. Among the presentations made by Air Force personnel at the festival was a demonstration of a four-legged, semiautonomous robot dog, nicknamed “Tennyson.”
The robot has been used for a variety of functions around the base, including patrolling its perimeter fence. Its capabilities include detecting threats and identifying changes to the environment.
Herrington, who spoke about his NASA experience, believes that seeing these things in action, seeing people work in STEM fields, can make them seem more obtainable and less esoteric for young people.
“Hopefully, they can look at you and go, ‘Well, if that guy has done that, why can’t I do this?’ You know, ‘Why can’t I do something that you dream about?'” Herrington told the Standard-Examiner. “When I was growing up, I dreamed about being an astronaut but never thought I could do it. So, sharing the stories, I think, kind of captures the imagination. … I gave a talk to a Navajo summer camp years ago and, 15 years later, this young lady comes up to me and she says, ‘Hey, I met you when I was 10 years old at the summer camp, and I didn’t realize I could be an engineer until I met you,’ and she thanked me. She’s now a civil engineer with the city of San Francisco.”
According to Herrington, students were respectful and responsive to his presentation. He added that he considers opportunities to meet and work with students a “return on investment.”
“It’s like I’m paying back what people did for me,” he said. “If I can do the same thing that somebody did for me in a manner that encourages a student to find some success in what they want to do in life, then yeah, I think that’s what my purpose is now in the second half of my life, to have that opportunity. And if it makes a difference, then yay.”
Emily Oyler — executive director of the Weber School Foundation — told the Standard-Examiner that she joined students in finding inspiration in Herrington’s presentation.
“He talked about seeing math in real life and that had an impact on me even, because you don’t really get to see that,” Oyler said. “You learn those things in the classroom, and then if you can actually see it in action in real life, that’s a big deal.
“For him to point that out and share that with these sixth graders who are starting to think about what they want to do and what types of fields that they want to go into — hearing something like that from somebody who’s walked in space — is pretty incredible.”
Oyler added that CTE programs and events like Reach for the Stars have been points of emphasis for the foundation amid its efforts to serve the district’s 33,000-plus students.
“Our mission is to raise funds that are going to provide enhanced opportunities for students in Weber School District,” she said. “Things are just constantly changing in our world, right? So, being able to provide different opportunities for them to learn a variety of things is really what the foundation strives to do.”
