A new tech training kit is putting thousands of dollars of equipment into classrooms in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties.
Students are getting hands-on STEM education – that’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – with new kits created under a partnership between Sonoma Clean Power and the Career Technical Education Foundation.
“What if we just created a library where teachers can come and check out a set of STEM kits, bring them to their classroom, use them with their students, and teach these hands-on concepts,” said Brandon Jewell, Director of Programs at CTE Foundation.
He says the STEM Kits teach skills that are applicable to careers in the energy industry.
“Fundamentals of like electricity, wiring, switching logic, diagnostic thinking, circuits, just a whole bunch of things like that,” Jewell said.
The cost is between $1,000 and $1,500 per kit, and each kit can be used by three students in a classroom setting, then used again and again instead of just sitting on a shelf, according to Jewell.
“When we were looking at how do we get more hands-on learning around these STEM concepts to more students, somewhere along the conversation, the idea came up of what if we just kind of did a library system? And that way we can check out each kit four times every school year,” said Jewell.
Teachers check out a set of kits for free from the Sonoma Clean Power customer center in downtown Santa Rosa, then use them in classrooms for eight to nine weeks at a time. Designed to be easily integrated into a math or science classroom, Jewell says the kits are very popular.
“So we have 18 possible basically blocks… um as of right now, 14 are full. So, and as we were talking, we literally got the 14^th,” said Jewell.
Learn more at ctesonomacounty.org.
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