Bluffton middle schoolers tour Boeing in Charleston

Bluffton middle school students departed for Boeing in Charleston early Wednesday to see for themselves what a career in STEM could look like.

Students from Bluffton Middle School, H.E. McCracken Middle School and River Ridge Academy are participating in Boeing South Carolina’s DreamLearners Tour. After a two-hour bus ride, the students will explore the airplane manufacturing facilities and work in groups to build model airplanes that fly farthest and come in under budget.

Bluffton Mayor Lisa Sulka and Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce President Bill Miles accompanied them on the excursion.

The event was organized by the chamber’s Business Education Program to help emphasize the importance of STEM, science, technology, engineering and mathematics, after graduation.

“When you can kind of get that light bulb to go off in a student’s mind, when they see what they're working on that day in Algebra class has some real work applications, it makes it exciting,” said Anna Feldman, a chamber communications manager.

Since September 2012, Boeing South Carolina has reached more than 100,000 middle and high school students through its DreamLearners Tour Program and Speakers Bureau. The tours are free to schools, though they must provide their own transportation.

This was the first year Beaufort County schools participated, Feldman said, though they can study aviation at the new Advanced Technical Center at Battery Creek High School,

Boeing is based in Chicago, with its largest campuses in Washington state, Missouri and California. Still, Boeing South Carolina is home to a Final Assembly Building for the 787 Dreamliner, and expanded in 2014 with the opening of the Boeing Research and Technology Center and Propulsion South Carolina, where engineers are designing components of two new series of planes.

Boeing also broke ground in 2014 on a new 256,000-square-foot decorative paint facility that is slated to open late this year.

This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 12:38 PM with the headline "Bluffton middle schoolers tour Boeing in Charleston."