Henryetta Middle School students are seeking some new challenges this year.
The students are the first taking part in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) program underway in the school.
Even though science and math has long been a classroom staple, the program is said to give students a hands-on approach to learning.

District STEM coordinator Stacy Bullard said the program is designed to give graduating students improved career and earning potentials in the years ahead.
The school has partnered with Project Lead The Way, a curriculum that gives students engineering concepts. The concepts are simple in the early grades, kindergarten through sixth, while students in the seventh and eighth grades get more advanced studies.
Eighth graders will find themselves building robots that can be programmed to do different tasks from carrying things to moving along a pre-set course.
"Basically our kids are going to be doing computer programming then designing their robots," Bullard said. "They will be using industry-grade software as part of their training. This is the same software that people in the real world use."
She explained there is going to be a need for such advanced skills in the years ahead.
"Research is showing that in Oklahoma, there is going to be a need for about 81,000 STEM-related jobs in the next five years. We won't have enough workers to fill those jobs so we will have to fill them with people from other states." That same study says there is a predicted 14 percent gain in the computer field, 17 percent in math and 43 percent in engineering.
 The Henryetta school system has been recognized as a STEM school which can eventually translate into some additional funding. A $25,000 grant has already been received at the school which is funding much of the program.
Next year, a new building devoted to STEM is expected to be completed allowing students to have lab space for their projects.
Currently the students are using a renovated classroom space lined with computers that allows them to work.

Bullard and fellow teacher Krystal Rogers spent a week at Annapolis, Maryland going through the procedures to teach STEM. That was funded through the U.S. Naval Academy.
Rogers' students start out with a simple design project, building a box. Using the software, they learn how to adjust the look, give it depth, color and overall shape. From there, they will go to more complicated projects, eventually producing their project on a 3D printer.
By the year's end, her students will even design a playground using the same software.
She said the projects even include team-building with some students helping others in their construction.
The studies at the Naval Academy, "gave us a huge toolbox of things that we can use to teach the students how to think outside the box."
She said parents are also excited about the expanded learning capabilities.
In the elementary grades, six teachers were also attending classes in the summer to learn the STEM plans. They will be teaching the there teachers," said superintendent Dwayne Noble.
"We want the kinds to be critical thinkers," he said. Instead of studying this and memorizing something, they get hands on experience."

The new STEM building groundbreaking is scheduled for October with students in the new classrooms next fall.
"We hope to double the size of the STEM classes next year."
That new building will have science, computer labs and classroom space.
"We are improvising right now. We are using the portable buildings for our robotics.""