By BETH L. JOKINEN of The Lima News (OH)
LIMA - Third-grade students stood in line anxiously waiting for their chance to yank on a pulley system. They looked like they were merely having a good time, but were actually learning about a simple machine.
Earlier they threw their hands in the air hoping to be chosen to rub a series of blocks together. Again, it was fun, but more importantly they were learning about friction.
"This is fun. It's better than being in class," Heritage Elementary third-grader A.J. Weaver said.
The students are learning today's lesson in simple machines not from their teacher, but from Paul Logsdon, Premcor Lima Refinery environmental health and safety manager.
He's there through the Science Enhancement for Science Advancement, a program started 13 years ago to bring science into the classroom to both advance students' skills and to get them interested in science- and math-related careers.
Business and educators both said that collaborations like these, and building better relationships, are positive for students, businesses and the community. They also said that figuring out how to come together isn't always easy.
A partnership between the Allen County Educational Service Center, Lima schools, Premcor, BP, PCS Nitrogen and Fort Amanda Specialties, SESA is a prime example of what business and education can do together.
"As a teacher, I always want to connect what I taught to something they can latch on to. This fills that need. It makes the teaching relevant to something they will see in the future," said Debbie Converse, a Perry teacher who is this year's teacher in residence for the program.
Volunteers from SESA companies come into classrooms to teach such lessons as water and weather, in which students work with dry ice to make a cloud, and fossils and minerals, in which students become archaeologists for the day.
The program gives students a different perspective and adds to their knowledge and understanding of science, Logsdon said. He said it is definitely having a positive impact, adding that students remember the volunteers and even talk about wanting to be like them.
While students appear caught up in the fun of the experiments and getting away from their desks for awhile, Amity Calhoun is the first to admit that she's learning too.
"Science is my favorite subject," she said. "Doing this is fun, but it's still educational."
It's also a program that teachers love. Converse said it usually takes fewer than five days for the program to book demonstrations for the whole school year. A waiting list usually consists of at least 20.
Heritage teacher Tracey Poling was previously a teacher in residence and continues to have the program in her classroom. The biggest benefit, she said, is that businesses can bring equipment in that she would not be able to have in her classroom on a daily basis.
"It is a great resource. They can offer so much more than we can in the classrooms," Poling said. "Plus it's great for kids to see people actually working in scientific fields. It makes it more real, and sometimes they respond better."
The program was started from a concern about the minimal number of students graduating from high school with an interest in pursuing a math- or science-related field. Converse said that while volunteers do their lessons, they always talk about their jobs and the companies for which they work.
"It gets kids interested in science and math at an early age so they will maybe go to college, come back and be employed by one of these companies," she said. "One of the biggest things is it lets people know what BP and Premcor people are doing. It tells about the products they make and about the steam they see at the sites."
Ford PAS
Lima Ford Engine Plant and Bath schools are teaming up to offer students an industry and technology experience-based academic and personal development curriculum.
The Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies program will be offered to sophomore students starting next January. Thirteen students have already signed up. Developed by Ford, the curriculum is composed of a sequence of five semester-long elective courses.
"I am really encouraged by the Ford program," Bath High School Principal Rick Gross said. "It will give kids the opportunity to be competitive in a very competitive job market. We jumped on this immediately."
Bath students can earn up to 15 hours of college credit -- depending on the number of courses taken -- from Rhodes State College and the University of Northwestern Ohio.
These schools, along with OSU-Lima, have also agreed to make scholarships available to the students. Bath is the first school in the state to have the college credit agreement with colleges and universities with the Ford program.
Gross said the scholarships and college credits are huge pieces of the program, adding that it makes the program attractive to both students and parents. The hope is that students will get internships with local companies while enrolled in the program.
"That's going to give students a real leg up on other students," Gross said.
Mary Elmquist, who is working as a liaison among Ford PASS, the school, and the education committee at the Lima-Allen County Chamber of Commerce, said the program will be looking for businesses to take on interns, speak to students, and allow students to visit their businesses. She said both large and small businesses can get involved.
Hank Chawansky, human resources manager at Ford, said the program helps Ford to educate potential employees and to help them "skill up their capabilities." He said that competitors do the same and called it a long-term investment.
"Ford PAS is an inroad to provide students an opportunity to look at skills and capabilities they need for the work force," he said. "The real benefit or value will come when these students get through high school, go to college and then come back while in college or after and say ‘PASS helped me make decisions about what my career opportunities are.'"
The local plant will provide resources for the program, including transportation, use of its training center and employees to visit classrooms and do demonstrations for students.
Lima schools' Opportunity for Parenting Teens Center will also be partnering with Ford this coming school year. Carin Doseck, the district's director of career and technical education, said Ford has given the center money, but that the course is still in the planning stages.
"We want to give students at the OPT Center a look at the business world in a different way," she said. "We hope that kids start looking at life after high school."
Small schools
Both Lima schools officials and business leaders believe there will be great opportunities for business and education relationships when the smaller-school concept comes to Lima Senior. There will be three smaller schools within Lima Senior when the new building opens this fall.
"It is vitally important that business be at the ground level with the small-school concept," chamber Executive Director Jed Metzger said. "When you talk to other small schools, the key to their success was business involvement."
The chamber has been working with the school district, first by holding community meetings on the concept. It is still involved, including bringing business people together to get on board with the concept.
Virgil Mann, Lima schools director of curriculum, said the district is looking for businesses to be involved with the oversight and advising of implementing the small-school concept.
"Leadership teams will be making decisions for the schools, but we need to have the business world as part of that team," he said.
Mann said the hope is that business will allow students to do internships and service learning activities with them and get a better look at their businesses. He said it will help make the students' learning more meaningful and real, adding that it is something both small and large businesses can do.
"Kids are going to see the benefits of what they learn," he said. "They will be able to get out and practice what they are learning."
Jeff McClellan, one of the small-school leaders, hopes business people will work with the school in letting teachers know what kind of skills they want students to have when they graduate.
Mann said bringing business and education together is not foreign to Lima schools, adding that in the past, partnerships had a lot to do with asking businesses for either money or time.
"It needs to be two-way," he said. "We may still be asking for their time, but we want to share. We want to be able to provide something for them."
Apollo Career Center
At the Apollo Career Center, partnering with area businesses is second nature. Superintendent Chris Pfister said the school has about 300 partnerships with business people, everything from people talking with students about a certain career to inviting students to actually work for them.
"Really the core of why we exist is to help students gain technical skills and employability skills to enter the work force and to explore various career pathways," Pfister said. "Our goal is to make sure they have the technical skills for exemplary job performance."
The school gets students hands-on experience and introduces them to the work force. All students must have some type of field experience.
"In everything we do, we try to duplicate the real world," Pfister said. "That benefits employers because they have the students that have the technical skills and employable skills so they can be more productive soon and can contribute to companies sooner."
Students in the diversified health program at Apollo get their chance to both volunteer and work in area hospitals. Instructor Sheryl Helmig said the school has a good relationship with Lima Memorial Hospital and St. Rita's Medical Center, both supplying work opportunities for students and sometimes helping students pay for further training.
"It's extremely important because the students get hands-on, real life day-to-day experience," Helmig said. "We try to get them in their area of interest to help develop that or help them decide if they really want to do that."
Student Lisa Young, of Columbus Grove, has been working at Lima Memorial for the past two months and said she will continue to work there after graduation. She will attend Rhodes State College. Young said she has already learned a lot from the people she's working with.
"If I have questions, they always explain it to me and they let me watch them do things," she said. "Now when I come to school, I already know what we're talking about because I did it at work."
Joyce Morey, manager of educational services at Lima Memorial, said the benefits of the partnership are twofold. Students get familiar with the hospital, she said, and Lima Memorial also gets to know its potential staff. In a time when people in the medical field are in demand, it's important for employers to connect with education, she said.
"It really helps for schools and organizations to work together. It helps recruitment and retention," she said. "We open the doors up for them to move into a position when they graduate. We know that we will have a good work force ready to go and educated with the skills we need them to have."
All of Apollo's 25 high school programs have connections with businesses. Phil Odenweller, construction equipment operations program instructor, said his program has many. Students in the program often spend a week shadowing at a business.
"They spend a week with employers to see if they match up," he said. "They see if they like the work and if the employer likes the student."
Students who do well in the program often attend class in the morning and work at a local business the rest of the day. Odenweller said it's good for several reasons.
"Students learn work habits and trades while working with the employers," he said. "Then when they graduate, most of the students stay where they are at."
Student Shawn Kennedy, of Cridersville, has been working 10 to 15 hours a week with McCattlet Hay Co. doing construction work. Even sometimes while in class, Kennedy is getting hands-on experience by working on a house built by Apollo students each year.
The experience is preparing him to enroll in Rhodes State College's Concrete Technology program next year. Kennedy said he is learning a lot from his co-workers and boss and is considering maybe one day starting his own business.
"It's given me a lot of hands-on work so I'll know what to do when I get out of high school," he said. "I get to get out and do the work with people who do it every day."
See the Ford Fund's 2003 Annual Report on Ford PAS!
Click the following link to access the article: http://www.ford.com/en/goodWorks/fundingAndGrants/fordMotorCompanyFund/2003Report/educ_1.htm