Forum focuses on science, math, technology

Inside a special “maker space” at Greenwood Community Middle School, students will soon be able to strengthen their creativity through building and construction materials such as plastic blocks and wooden planks.

Clark-Pleasant Middle School classes plan to study aquaponics — water-based agriculture — and take advantage of a laser cutter to create science kits that can distributed throughout the school district.

Center Grove students can use a 3-D printer to solve real-world problems by physically creating the solutions themselves in their own creative space.

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“We see this space as an extension of what they’re learning in their classrooms,” said Kara Heichelbech, e-learning coach at Center Grove High School. “We really are striving for our media center to be the central hub to the school, and be a place where kids can come and enhance and extend their learning. The maker space will help drive that.”

All of these projects have been made possible through a grant program with Endress+Hauser, designed to support and encourage innovation in science, technology, engineering and math instruction. Though the company has consistently provided large-scale support for STEM efforts to local schools, this is the first time Endress+Hauser has given grants to individual teachers for specific project. The Greenwood company makes instruments to measure flow, level, pressure and temperature for automated production lines.

The grant program is an outreach of its annual Community Career+Education Forum, a showcase and celebration of technology in local manufacturing for local students, educators and parents.

“I’m amazed every year by how smart these kids are, and how driven they are,” said Juliana Cleveland, event planner at Endress+Hauser. “Seeing the ideas that these educators have, it’s just reinforcing the thought process behind STEM and encouraging students to explore those avenues. Every year, it’s really exciting to see.”

The forum will be conducted from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Endress+Hauser. The event is free, but participants need to RSVP by Monday.

The event was founded in 2014 as a way to help schools, students and their families learn what skills employers are looking for in their workers, as well as see the diverse types of careers currently available in advanced manufacturing.

Endress+Hauser partnered with Central Nine Career Center and Aspire Johnson County to create the career forum, which has grown into a key way to foster interest in science and technology in the county.

Ideally, it would help convince the most talented local students to remain in Johnson County, said Brandyn Ferguson, vice president of human resources for Endress+Hauser.

“We thought about doing something that had never been done before: Let’s get to the students when they’re still trying to figure things out and show them options, give them reference points, images, people to talk with and see things that would let them think about if this was an interest,” he said.

Close to 1,000 students and parents now take part in the event, Ferguson said. The forum will feature dozens of local manufacturers offering information and demonstrations of how science plays into their business. Major advanced manufacturers such as Cummins, NSK and Caterpillar will all be present to demonstrate what they do and the jobs available to all types of students.

But the forum will also feature information from businesses who rely on workers with technical skills, colleges who offer degrees in different areas of science and math, and agencies such as local libraries who provide programs in STEM.

“The event is a real, purposeful attempt to bring all of these community stakeholders together — moms and dads, students, educators, nonprofits and industry of all types — to come together in a forum setting to create networks, to create dialog, to create information gathering and sharing through collaboration,” Ferguson said. “Then we watch the ripple effects after the event.”

Those ripples are most energetic in the local schools. Endress+Hauser wanted to focus on educators for this year’s forum, which led to the creation of the STEM education grant program, said Krista Taggart, corporate counsel for Endress+Hauser.

In the past, the company had earmarked $10,000 to support local schools. Money was awarded based on forum attendance or other metrics that were decided in advance, Taggart said.

This year, they encouraged individual teachers to apply for grants, Taggart said.

Six teachers were awarded a total of $10,196.

“The grants would allow them to do various types of STEM activities and experiments, purchase equipment and buy materials for their classrooms, to really innovate and bring STEM into the kids’ everyday worlds,” Taggart said.

Julia Cascella-Tinkle, a sixth-grade STEM teacher at Clark-Pleasant Middle School, was approved for a grant to buy a laser cutter. The precision instrument would allow her students to create learning kits for other students.

The kits will contain different parts and pieces that have been either laser-cut or 3-D printed. Design-idea cards will go into the kits to get other students thinking about STEM applications, Cascella-Tinkle said.

“They can foster some ideas, and there will be some free-form building as well,” she said. “Now, teachers can have these building kits that they don’t have to pay money for that can be a great asset to their classrooms, just to foster more STEM ideas in their own classrooms.”

Heichelbech and Melissa Bardack, STEM instructional coach at Center Grove, envisioned a maker space in the high school’s media center where students could use different materials to create projects.

“The 3-D printer, that was the focal point for the maker space,” Heichelbech said. “Most of the things we could purchase, but we knew the 3-D printer was fairly expensive. We thought that was what we needed to get that space up and going.”

Though Center Grove already has 3-D printers, those materials are confined to specific classes, Bardack said. This would allow all students to take advantage of the technology.

“Our goal is to provide students with a few real-world tasks, where they could begin making prototypes or designing or coding — something to solve a real problem that people are experiencing,” Bardack said. “This gives them the opportunity to do something in house, with some support in terms of resources and material. It lets them be creative.”

At Greenwood Community Middle School, science teacher Tracy Guy also wanted a maker space outfitted with reusable building blocks such as Legos and K’Nex to work on hands-on science and math problems.

“Hopefully, it’ll encourage them to check out careers in architecture and different types of engineering fields,” Guy said.

For Endress+Hauser employees, the forum is an exciting way to contribute to the community the company is part of, Ferguson said. Close to 150 employees will volunteer their time at the event to set up, lead tours, demonstrate equipment and help in some other way.

“It’s something we all really believe in, and it makes us feel good about where we work and what we’re doing investing in our community,” Taggart said.

When the company’s philanthropy program met in late August to discuss the grant winners and how this money would impact local schools, it was a unique experience even for those who have been involved previously.

“Today was the first time that we donated money that was going directly to an individual with an idea, implement it and have an immediate effect on our students and our community,” Ferguson said. “We know that if not for our money, that teacher would have to come up with that money of their own, or just not do that project. It was really neat that we could fund that.”

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Community Career+Education Forum

What: A gathering for students and families to learn more about manufacturing and industry, higher education and career training.

Who: Hosted by Endress+Hauser, in partnership with Central Nine Career Center and Aspire Johnson County.

Where: Endress+Hauser, 2355 Endress Place, Greenwood

When: 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 20

Who can take part: Students in seventh, eighth and ninth grades, their parents, STEM teachers, school administrators and guidance counselors.

What will be featured:

  • Career, education and information booths
  • Factory tours (no open toed shoes, please)
  • Other local manufacturing booths
  • Meet college representatives and learn about degree and certification programs
  • Learn about Central Nine Career Center
  • Free food, drinks and cookies
  • Contest – Test your technical know-how
  • Prize challenges
  • Door prizes
  • Social media challenges

How to sign up: RSVP by Monday at www.tinyurl.com/CCEF2018

For more information: Contact [email protected]

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