In Rural Pennsylvania, A Small Non-Profit Helps Schools Develop STEM Education
At Forbes. com, a piece about a group helping develop STEM education in Pennsylvania.
While some schools struggle to create meaningful STEM programs (pro tip: handing students a computer and calling it STEM doesn’t quite cut it), one non-profit in Pennsylvania is helping spread rich, sustainable STEM programs throughout—and beyond—the state.
Rural Venango County sits in Northwestern Pennsylvania, midway between Pittsburgh and Erie. Back in 1859, the region was the site of the beginning of the oil industry. Now the Innovation Institute for Tomorrow, Inc. (II4IT) aims to move youth forward in the current technological revolution. With a tiny staff but a large web of connections, they have already worked with over 200 educators in 100 school districts to bring STEM to over 7,500 students.
II4T started simply enough. Tim Heffernan was a 7-12 gifted program teacher in the Franklin Area School District when two students came to him; they wanted to build a robot. He did some research, connected with some grants and other resources, and very quickly four robots escalated to 184.
He says his early goals were modest. “I tried to figure out how not to look like a fool.” He connected with experts at Carnegie Mellon University and Clarion University as well as local industries. The school hosted VEX Robotics competition events and brought in other schools to participate.