BP Gives $50,000 Toward Trumbull STEM Program
NILES, Ohio – Students and teachers throughout Trumbull County will soon be able to access web-based curricula designed specifically for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, thanks to a $50,000 contribution from BP.
Education professionals, elected officials and executives from BP were on hand this afternoon at the Trumbull County Educational Service Center to announce the initiative.
Dr. Robert Marino, assistant superintendent of TCESC, said BP funded a two-year rollout software program called Defined STEM.
"It exposes students to people in the field through video, and allows students to take those experiences they see and deploy them through problem-based learning activities," he said.
The software provides these problems, and it's easy to navigate for both students and teachers, Marino said. All twenty school districts aligned to the TCESC are linked to the program, which would be available initially for grades 4 through 12, covering more than 20,000 students.
"The BP contribution provides us with an important component financing," he said.
The curriculum focuses on skills involving problem solving through the use of critical thinking, and then challenges them to create technology-based solutions.
Susan Olive, a 7th and 8th grade science teacher in the Mathews School District, helped pilot the program in her classes, and her students are using the program to compete in this year's science fair.
Among the most daunting tasks for these students is selecting a topic or project, she said, and Defined STEM helped.
"Defined STEM was great because we could open up the Internet site, and you actually have people in the field talking to you," Olive said. "You've got the engineers who built the wind turbines, or people who coordinate that. This shows them there are careers out there that they never even thought of."
The site has technical demonstrations of how operations such as wind turbines work, and academic resources and journals that can be sourced through the program.
Teachers will begin training on the new software Dec. 5, and the training will go through January, Marino said. Another program geared toward K-3 students is under development, he added.
BP plans to begin exploratory oil and gas drilling in Trumbull County by April 2013, and has locked up about 80,000 acres of land leases in portions of the county.
Bruce Abbuhl, Ohio program manager for BP, said the company contributes to communities it does business in all over the world, and this initiative proved especially important to establishing a highly qualified workforce that could one day serve the energy industry.
"We have to attract and retain employees to work in these areas, and most people coming in want to stay because of good school systems," Abbuhl said.
That's becoming more difficult as states across the country are slashing education budgets, and Ohio is no exception. "Contributions like this make an impact. So, we're really pleased to be able to offer this to the Trumbull County school system," Abbuhl said..
The Defined STEM application is used in various formats across the country, he continued, and BP has funded similar STEM programs in other states including Wyoming and New Mexico.
STEM courses essentially offer the "building bricks" of what it takes for a future career in the oil and gas industry, Abbuhl said, and empowers students to compete when they enter or leave college.
Abbuhl said companies such as BP stand to benefit from a new generation of science, engineering and math professionals entering the workforce. "We hope that some of them might come to work for us one day, but if not, there are other great careers and good-paying jobs so they can contribute."
Marino said cuts in state funding made it virtually impossible to launch the program without outside help. The Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber and the Eastern Ohio P-16 Partnership for Education helped facilitate the program with BP, he noted.
"They put us in contact with BP, so it's truly a business and education partnership," Marino remarked. "It's not about us, it's about the kids."
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17, said that BP's contribution underscores the visible developments in STEM education across the Mahoning Valley, evidenced by high-tech incubators in Youngstown and Warren, the newly established National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, or NAMII, in Youngstown, and growing demand in the oil and gas industry.
"I'm starting to see, as many of you are, young people coming back to this community and having opportunities they haven't had for a long, long time," Ryan said.
STEM education, the congressman continued, leads to careers that help generate wealth, and thus generate more job creation.
"Science, technology, engineering and math drive the economic train, and I think now we have a pipeline in this community," Ryan said.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.