STEM at The Works -- Its Working

In October the first real work of the three-years-in-the-making, STEM Initiative at The Works truly got underway.  It's mission was to be a resource for schools, promote STEM to parents and kids, and to re-engage industry in The Works and in promoting STEM in Licking County and our region.

Here's the numbers I got to report to the Board of Directors of The Works recently:

• Our STEM coordinator has reached 100% of school buildings in Licking County through contact with more than 200 teachers in the first year of the program.
• The Distance Learning Lab programming has reached 420 people in every age group, including senior citizens, and been presented to audiences in six states and a Canadian province.
• Over 2,000 people have taken part in STEM-related programming conducted by The Works, including over 950 people attending programming at The Works such as Industry Day, TechFest, and Science Nights.
• Industry has been involved in every activity, including the eight major events conducted since October 2009 with five additional ones scheduled.
• The industry players are far and wide, including Boeing, Kaiser, Bayer, Screen Machine Industries, Polymer Technologies, Waste Management, Longaberger, Battelle, PCA, EcoLab, Bionetics, and others. 
• Our educational providers have been involved every step of the way too, from C-TEC to Denison University, COTC, and OSU-Newark.

Most importantly, the program has reached parents and kids to give them a local relevance to the value of science, technology, engineering, and math skills.

In a nutshell.  It's working.

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The next opportunity for families to take part is Industry Day this Sunday, March 21 at The Works.  From Noon to 3 p.m., Polymer Technologies Inc. and Bayer will be hosting a plastics-focused STEM event and taking over The Works to show how what they do every day in Licking County fits with STEM-related skills.