 At Forest View Middle School, there is a wait list to get into a popular after-school activity, the STEM program. Robotics, programming, how to do this, problem solving, working as a team. This is the future. You get science, technology, engineering, math. It's the future. That's what's changing the world. That's what the jobs are. The jobs are there. They need to fill them. These are the kids that need to be exposed to them. The program offers many different activities for a variety of ages of students and runs in conjunction with the sports seasons. It allows kids that traditionally don't want to play a sport to have another opportunity. In the fall, a Sphero and Robotics program is offered. The Sphero's movement is programmed by the students using an iPad. The programming is pretty hard at first, but once you get used to it, it's just fun. They don't drive the track. They program the robot to drive itself through the track. There is also a robotics team that competes in statewide competitions with Lego Robotics. The kids will be broken into groups of eights and then they'll work on the boards. They'll work on the project. Some kids will be focused on just the programming part. Some will be focused on the project. They'll be a combination of both, but they have to cooperate together to make it happen. The team is hoping to have success at their annual competition in Pryor Lake where last year they were just short of making it to state. Families really get into it. It's like sporting events where parents come and watch. Well, here they come and watch the kids compete in this. It is very important to the instructors that kids have the opportunity to be introduced to science, technology and engineering at a young age. We feel very strongly if you do not catch them before seventh grade, there's a decent chance that they might not understand this stuff and they might not say, oh, I didn't know there was an option for this. I do have skills in this area. I can take it to there and I can make a living at this. This is cool. And these are the inventors. These are the innovators. These are the people that are going to change lives. Reporting from Baxter with this week's Golden Apple, Rachel Johnson, Lakeland News.