Mapleton iMpact Day connects students with community

NANKIN – When community members employed in science, technology, engineering and math fields visited Mapleton middle and high school recently, they found students in classes like Flight and Space, Manufacturing Operations, Automation & Robotics and Design & Modeling.

“It’s come a long way from when we were in school,” said Matt Longsdorf, engineering manager for the Honda supplier Cardington Yutaka Technologies. “The design and modeling and robotics, those are some of the areas where it’s hard to find people, so it’s good to see they’re picking up on this a lot earlier and learning these skills.”

Longsdorf was pleasantly surprised to see students in the industrial technology shop working on hands-on projects.

“It’s good to see the kids actually running the machines and following the procedures,” he said. “Even though the projects are simple, the concepts are universal.”

Longdorf was one of more than a dozen visitors to the high school and middle school campus Friday for the school’s third Mapleton iMpact Day, an event designed to show the community the district’s new STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) career technical education pathways courses and to give students a chance to interact with adults in STEAM fields. 

“We just really wanted to give the students an opportunity — in an environment, in their classroom, where they’re comfortable– to be able to show the community what they’re learning,” said curriculum director Shelby Ortiz. “It’s also about getting experts in those fields in to show students how they’re using what these students are learning now.”

Visitors found eighth graders building robots and learning to use coding to create mobile applications.

Some advanced high school students, like junior Lucas Cragel in Matt Kidney’s graphic design class, were even working on paid projects for real clients. 

Cragel is creating a sign in Adobe Illustrator for a new housing subdivision for Mid Ohio Graphics. Meanwhile, the rest of his class is working on a Vans Shoes design contest, having been selected as one of just 500 schools in the country to participate in this year’s contest. 

Lisa Bowersock, tech liaison and Project Lead the Way teacher, said she had the idea for iMpact Day as she was teaching her Flight and Space Class and felt a desire to bring in a pilot to talk to students. 

“As we talked about it, we just thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to have an entire day of this?'” she said. 

Her students finally had that opportunity to interact with pilots Friday, and Bowersock said it proved to be a great opportunity for students to see real world applications for course concepts.

“The kids listen to us day in and day out, so for them to have someone different, an expert in their field, come in and talk to them about these things is what’s great about it,” she said.

Ortiz said iMpact Days have also become a way of showing the community how much instruction has changed at Mapleton.

“Lot’s of changes have taken place. We have lots of new classes, and structurally changes have taken place,” Ortiz said. “They’ve knocked down walls and put in doors and combined classrooms.”

Superintendent Rodney Hopton said the district created an extra period in the school day this year in order to be able to add STEAM and Project Lead the Way courses.

Hopton said the district’s choice to add career pathways courses was informed by a new community connections council, which includes both teachers and community members. The programs are made possible through state funding available for such courses, he said.

Elementary students are introduced to STEAM through project-based learning modules. Middle school students start exploring career pathways by taking classes like a mandatory mobile application design and coding class called Apps Creator. High school students can take in-depth electives based on their skills and interests. 

“I think it’s great,” said Jane Hunt, one of the iMpact Day visitors and an educational consultant for the Ohio Soybean Council. “I think it’s amazing that they’re working on practical skills. I was in the wood shop for a little bit and they were showing me the things they do at the freshmen and sophomore level, and I thought, ‘Thank goodness somebody’s teaching kids how to do these things.'”

Not only are the new pathways classes preparing students for life after high school, but they’re also getting students excited about going to school in the first place, Hopton said. 

“When we started school in August, the kids were really excited about this,” Hopton said. “In all my years in education, I’ve not seen a group of kids as excited about coming to school as these kids were this year.” 

Jenny Carle, a 1994 Mapleton graduate, said she was pleased to see the kinds of career exploration opportunities current students have at Mapleton.

“When I went to Mapleton, we didn’t have all this,” she said. “I became an engineer because I didn’t know what to do, and that’s what my dad kind of pushed me towards, but there could have been other options and I just didn’t know.”