ARLINGTON, Tenn. — There are 88 designated STEM, science, technology, engineering and mathematics, across the state of Tennessee - with just one Agri-STEM high school in the entire Memphis Shelby County School District.
Their focus is preparing students for careers that connect agriculture and STEM fields.
Bolton High School Principal Brandon Poyner said they want the kids to gain hands on experience.
The classes “gives them a real-world perspective and they’re able to apply the different problem-solving skills here at school that they’re going to use in the workforce,” Poyner said.
Agriculture teacher Kevin Surrett said they take a multi-prone attack.
“One of the things is of course our classroom instruction, where we are responsible for teaching students in the classroom and the lab areas, which will include about a 32 and a half acre farm and a greenhouse,” Surrett said. “We’ll have an agriculture mechanics engineering shop and we’ll also have an indoor lab for the animal science and the processing of agricultural products that we actually produce on the farm.”
Alongside this, endless fruit and vegetable opportunities.
“We do tomatoes, different peppers, lettuce, squash, pumpkins, watermelons, cantaloupes – it’s endless what we grow in our garden,” Poyner said.
With over 30 acres of farmland, Bolton will be able to expand to all kinds of growing.
“We plan on using this area out here for a variety of reasons,” Surrett said. One is for production, which of course is a main part of agriculture. We plan on producing meat goats, meat chickens and laying hens and using those for egg production.”
Bolton High School is a choice transfer school so anyone in the MSCS district can attend at the start of the fall or spring semester. Tennessee State University also partners with the high school to offer students dual enrollment.