By Jeff Noedel

Journal contributor

Sam Garson, STEM teacher at Friday Harbor High School, seems to be one of those popular teachers capable of changing the trajectory of the lives of more than a few students. He exudes enthusiasm for teaching.

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. It is focused on giving students exposure to some of the many tech careers across the world with bright futures, such as robotics, 3D design, augmented reality, and how electric vehicles are designed and built. The STEM curriculum covers computer science and project management, as well.

Garson’s standards for his STEM program are high. “I never want my students to have less than a kid going to school in Bellevue or Redmond,” he told The Journal of the San Juans.

And Garson is willing to go way out of the box in pursuit of learning opportunities for his STEM students. A few weeks ago, he traveled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and then two hours northeast into the Atlantic Rainforest.

“About seven percent of that forest still exists today,” he said. “Seventy percent of the Brazilian population live in what used to be the Atlantic rainforest. And there’s a very small research conservation station up in the mountains there that is trying to do something very similar to the land bank or the conservation groups: purchase land and reforest it and try to see if they can at least bring back some sort of corridor that can be protected.

“And the part about this group that was most exciting for me is that their model is based around first and foremost exposing students to real fieldwork. It was myself and eight other teachers, and we assumed the role of students for the week, where we followed exactly what a student program would do, which was kind of shocking to me because we were doing almost eight miles of hiking the day up the side of a mountain setting, 180 live traps, camera traps.

“This is not tourism. This is work. So the goal was to see this program: they have a teacher program that brings the teachers out. And after doing that for 7 or 8 days, (I am) thinking this is a pretty amazing opportunity.”

While the Brazil program checks a lot of boxes in terms of the student experience Garson wants to offer, he recognizes the cost of sending students deep into South America would be a heavy lift.

“So the other trips that I’m really targeting,” he said “for my next show that I take on the road are going to be the Costa Rican jungle, analogous to what I did in Brazil. On the Oso Peninsula, they are looking at pollinators. The decline of pollinators around the world is kind of such a big issue in ecology right now.

“And then there’s another one in Belize, which is looking at shark tagging and marine conservation.

Garson likes to tie the missions of the far-away projects to local projects to which San Juan Islanders can relate. He said the Costa Rican trip looking for pollinators has similarities to San Juan Island’s effort to save the Island Marble Butterfly. And the Belize project is reminiscent of Salish Sea whale and salmon research.

Garson thinks many island parents see the value of learning experiences in far-away places.

“Living on these islands, we’re separate from the rest of the world. And I really do want my students to feel as though they can access worldwide resources and they can look for opportunities, jobs, training around the world because it is going to be a global job market.”

Garson said he cannot imagine Friday Harbor High School without the STEM program. He said the program is now fully integrated in the schools curriculum, across many disciplines. He just wishes there was more funding so the STEM program could add another full time FTE, or full-time equivalent employee. But he concedes there is a limit to how many different classes the STEM program can offer without resulting in some classes with too few students to be practical.