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Cooperation Accelerates to Launch STEM Programs
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Cooperative efforts between school districts in the region and private partners are key to accelerating students’ aptitude in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, education, officials say.
In the past, public school districts have struggled when on their own to obtain funding for programs that come with a high price tag. STEM education, for example, requires hands-on training with sophisticated equipment that could prove cost-prohibitive to most of these districts.
“We have small districts in a large geographical area,” says Carol Straub, curriculum consultant and grant writer for the Columbiana County Educational Service Center. “Normally, these districts would be too small to run a program, so we created an eight-district collaboration.”
This consortium consists of the Columbiana County Career and Technical Center and the Crestview, Southern Local, Leetonia, Lisbon, East Palestine, Wellsville and Columbiana school districts, Straub reports.
Through the Columbiana County ESC, the consortium secured $975,000 from the Ohio Straight A Fund Grant that will be used to create a K-12 STEM program – named Project Inspire – across all of these districts, Straub says.
“It will provide equipment for every school,” she reports. Elementary students are assigned four projects a year that demonstrate their ability to solve problems, work in teams, and design and create a final product.
The Columbiana County Career and Technical Center will serve as a production hub for many of these ideas. “The students will be able to send their prototypes and print their parts at the center’s 3-D printer so they can test their inventions,” Straub elaborates.
Middle school students are enrolled in a nine-week rotation class that exposes them to STEM principles while high school students in the program are enrolled for the entire semester.
“Middle schools will constantly be working on problem solving,” Straub says. Juniors and seniors taking the innovation creativity and design thinking course can also earn college credit. “Other courses deal with environmental sustainability, entrepreneurship and additive manufacturing,” she adds.
Teachers are trained on the InventorCloud curriculum, a program developed by Youngstown-based Applied Systems and Technology Transfer, or AST2. Through InventorCloud, students use digital technology to create virtual designs and make prototypes with equipment such as 3-D printers and laser cutters.
Some schools have already started to implement Project Inspire’s STEM coursework and the entire program should be fully implemented by January. Other partners in the effort are Eastern Gateway Community College, Youngstown State University STEM College, Kent State University, Salem Regional Medical Center and the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers’ Coalition.
The state grant runs one year, Straub notes, but adds that the program has committed for at least another five years. Costs are kept to a minimal since they are spread across the consortium.
“We’re in it for the long run,” Straub says. “It’s very affordable to our districts and provides them with a wealth of cutting-edge technology, problem solving and creativity. We’ve tried to find funding for a while and we’re thrilled to bring this opportunity to students in Columbiana County.”
Much of the same thrust is behind a similar effort in Mahoning County. By the end of September, officials should have a good idea where they plan to build a STEM academy that would involve five school districts in the region, says Ron Iarussi, superintendent of the Mahoning County Educational Service Center. “There are some options, but nothing is cemented,” Iarussi says of the location.
The school – named the Valley STEM+ME2 Academy – would be strictly STEM-related and open to ninth- and 10th-graders from the Canfield, Struthers, Poland, Jackson-Milton and Austintown school districts, Iarussi says. The new school would house 150 students, or 75 from each grade.
Curriculum director Jason Braddock says that STEM education requires problem-based learning that can be transferred to just about any discipline. “The basis behind STEM is the method of teaching – problem solving, problem-based learning that’s more so than the typical classroom,” he says.
STEM education, therefore, is valuable to understanding other academic pursuits. Braddock says, “The important thing to point out is that even though STEM is science, technology, engineering and mathematics, we will use STEM content and engineering design processes to solve problems involving the arts, social sciences, manufacturing, energy, and business.”
The member school districts have already started integrating STEM concepts into their curriculum, and seventh- and eighth-graders enrolled in these programs will serve as a feeder into the new STEM academy, he says. After completing 10th grade, the students would return to their respective high schools to finish and graduate.
Students at the academy will study a curriculum composed of programs such as math design collaborative, literacy design collaborative, defined STEM, and engineering by design, Braddock says.
An important component of the STEM academy is establishing a curriculum that has a focus on manufacturing. “It’s important for us that our partners identify the skills needed for students to learn prior to entering the workforce or post-secondary programs,” Braddock says.
Iarussi says enrollment will open for the 2015-2016 academic year. The next step is to expand its reach beyond the five participating school districts. “We’re in the process of establishing a board of directors and are putting together a marketing effort for the county and surrounding areas,” he reports.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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