Educators from 15 public and non-public schools met on Saturday, September 7th, for the STEM Innovation Showcase at Mansfield University. The Showcase featured presentations from Mansfield University faculty, networking opportunities, experiences on how to utilize various STEM devices for the classroom, and over $5,000 in raffle items.

Mansfield University partnered with BLaST IU17, are recipients of an Advancing PASmart Grant. This PASmart grant will allow BLaST IU17 to expand their resources in their existing Innovation Lending Library and open a new Innovation Lending Library in their Canton Office, to reach more of the school districts in the Northern Tier. These items will allow classroom teachers and students to have hands-on experiences with programming, atom models, media production kits and drones, plus much more.

In addition to these resources, Mansfield University will be offering a program, STEM on the Move, in which professors will be visiting K-12 classrooms to deliver interactive lessons specific to their content area. This is a start to bridging higher education and K-12 education. Grant initiator, Dr. Jennifer Demchak said, “Mansfield University was excited to see the enthusiasm of the participating teachers and that the information of our STEM on the Move would be shared with their colleagues. We are eager to take our lessons into the classroom and continue building partnerships with regional school districts.” Mansfield University will also be offering STEM-field related scholarships, classroom mini-grants, and STEM kit bundles as another effort to get more students involved in the Computer Science and other Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math fields.

Brooke Beiter, Director of Educational Planning for BLaST IU 17, said “The IU is grateful for their partnership with Mansfield University in the PAsmart initiative and hopes we can continue to expand twenty-first century learning opportunities for teachers and students across the region.”

Attendees had the opportunity to win over $5,000 in STEM tools and instructional materials, including a 3D Printer, Virtual Reality kit, coding drones, mushroom aquaponics, and instructional kits for chemistry, environmental science, geoscience, mathematics, and physics.
These innovative classroom materials were awarded to the West Branch School, Trinity Lutheran School, Northern Tioga School District, Williamsport Area School District, Canton Area School District, Athens Area School District, and Sayre Area School District.

Originally Published in The Wellsboro Gazette 9/2019