FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
July 22, 2010
Contact:
Elizabeth Blevins, Director, Office of Communications
Phyllis Noah, Communications Coordinator
Office: (740) 351-3810; FAX: (740) 351-3179; Cell: (740)
464-4854
940 Second Street – Portsmouth, Ohio 45662
E-mail:
eblevins@shawnee.edu or
pnoah@shawnee.edu
Web site:
www.shawnee.edu
Shawnee State University hosted a camp, Gateway
Academy Engineering Summer Camp, for seventh- and
eighth-graders from July 12-16 sponsored by Ohio College
Tech Prep South Consortium. This was the first engineering
camp held at SSU. In the photo, high school helper Jake
Blackburn, of Minford High School, helps Abby McCoy, of
South Webster High School, fill a bottle rocket with water
so that it will fly. This project was one of several that
students worked on during the camp. Other hands-on projects
were making gliders and building the ultimate sundae.
Summer camp exposes youth to engineering at Shawnee State
University
Imagination, innovation and learning were the key
ingredients for the first Gateway Academy Engineering Summer
Camp for seventh- and eighth-grade students at Shawnee State
University this summer.
Students from
schools around Scioto County attended the camp July 12 – 16
to learn about engineering, using computer automated
drafting (CAD) and making rockets, gliders and building the
ultimate sundae.
The camp
helped prepare students for the rigors of high school
science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
classes.
“The critical
thinking, creative problem-solving and collaboration skills
that campers learned at the academy will benefit them for a
lifetime,” said Rita Graf, director of the Ohio South Tech
Prep Consortium at SSU that sponsored the program.
The program
combined the efforts of two of the nation’s most outstanding
educational organizations, the Society of Manufacturing
Engineers Education Foundation (SME-EF) and Project Lead The
Way (PLTW).
SME-EF
advances manufacturing education through youth programs and
scholarships investing more than $4.5 million to inspire
youth to explore technical careers. PLTW has provided
engineering and biomedical sciences curricula for more than
500,000 students in nearly 3,500 middle and high school
programs throughout the country.
Gateway
Academy Summer Day Camp utilized PLTW’s project-based,
hands-on and real-world problem-solving approach to STEM
learning that is designed to nurture students’ imaginations,
inspire creativity and develop self-confidence.
Gateway
Academy instructors are professionally trained and certified
to teach PLTW courses and nurture and share in campers’
passion for technology, creativity and learning.
The PLTW
instructors for the academy were Josie Collier and Christy
Veach. Collier graduated from Ohio University with a
bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Manufacturing Systems
Engineering and a master’s degree in Science in Engineering
Management. She works for Scioto County CTC and teaches at
Wheelersburg and South Webster high schools in the Project
Lead the Way program.
Veach
graduated from Shawnee State University with a bachelor’s
degree in Plastics Engineering Technology. She also works
for Scioto County CTC and teaches the Project Lead the Way
program at Minford and Green high schools.
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