On Wed, May 1st, 2019, Carmichaels Area School District hosted an interactive student showcase called, “STEAMing Through Coal Country.” This community event was part of “Remake Learning Days” that is currently going on in Southwestern PA from May 9-19.
“The members of the Remake Learning Network create future-ready, hands-on, engaging, relevant, and equitable learning experiences for kids and their families, caregivers and educators in greater Pittsburgh, West Virginia, and beyond. To increase awareness of and access to these experiences among all children, parents, families, and communities in our region, Remake Learning launched Remake Learning Days in 2016. Known as the region’s largest open house of hands-on learning, Remake Learning Days creates a massive showcase of public events and activities involving hundreds of member organizations each year during the month of May. Remake Learning Days includes free events that welcome the public into schools, museums, libraries, afterschool programs, community centers, universities, media labs, tech startups, and more (https://remakelearning.org/remake-learning-days/)”.
Brittany Phillips and Sara Perkins were awarded a grant through the Remake Learning network to host an event in Greene County that’s purpose was to invite the community to the future of learning.
They came up with the event because they wanted to showcase all of the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) activities that teachers are currently using in the district. They took this event and gave it a coal-theme, what Carmichaels is known for, and tied it all together. The coal-inspired activities included drawing and bowling with Finch robots, using HP Reveal on old mining books, mining for chocolate chips with Mrs. Megan Patton, designing train t-shirts with the vinyl cutter and heat press, coal art, Minecraft coding, using the green screen to take old, coal mining photos and insert yourself in them, and liquid nitrogen presentations by Mr. Ken Perkins. Middle and high school students showed guests how to operate each station and try hands-on for themselves.
Included in the event were vendors, companies, and businesses from the community that are either involved in Greene County or in the coal industry, including scholarship and employment opportunities and historical coal mining artifacts that they brought.
Phillips and Perkins would like to thank everyone that helped and came out to support the event, including teaching staff, the maintenance crew, and administration, but especially the students who volunteered their time. The future of coal country is in their hands!