STEM Fuse wants to give a shout out to Melinda Bush from Livonia Public schools in Michigan for her outstanding dedication to her students! Melinda’s students have rated very high in the STEM Fuse Got Game competition for two years in a row! 

Melinda has 31 years of teaching experience, is a CTE department chair, and loves to work with the teens in her district. Her dedication and hard work really pays off as her students have learned many vital skills to be successful with Computer Programming and Game Design. 

When asked why she chose STEM Fuse, Melinda stated that finding good curriculum is super difficult in this field. She stated that in the past she has written her own curriculum, but found that she was quickly becoming burned out. “I like the fact that STEM Fuse courses are web-based, targeted to High School students and very easy to use,” she stated. She also loves the fact that STEM Fuse provides competitions as this is something that is required for her in the CTE department. “I would highly recommend this course to my colleagues as my students absolutely love the course and the Got Game competition!” she said.

So what makes Melinda stand apart with this course?  She stated that she had to shift from “wanting to step in and help”, to allowing the students to problem-solve on their own.  Some tips that she has are:

• Have the students ask “3 before me”. This creates a sense of team building and collaborative problem solving that is vitally important as students go into various careers.

• She has the students practice debugging and “check their nestings” often.

• She creates a high performance culture by expecting winners, emphasizes a growth mindset, and provides feedback and support throughout the process

• Structure is provided and she likes how STEM Fuse breaks down projects into sub-goals

A big shout out to Melinda for her hard work and dedication! Her students are very lucky to have her!