Chaney earns third straight STEM excellence award

By Denise Dick | September 19, 2014 at 12:10a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

For the third consecutive year, the Chaney Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program earned a Governor’s Thomas Edison Award for Excellence in STEM Education.

Chaney is one of 57 Ohio schools to receive the award from the Ohio Academy of Science. Chaney first earned the award after its first year in operation and has racked up one each year since.

The school scored seven of 10 points to get the award, said Pam Lubich, STEM coordinator.

Eighth-graders in Ryan Witkoski’s STEM class, their instruction booklets spread before them, worked diligently Thursday assembling miniature bicycles.

“This is the seat,” said Justin Young, pointing to one piece of the half-finished work. “This is where the handlebars will go.”

Justin said he enjoys the class because he likes to build things.

He didn’t have much time to talk, though. He and his teammates were on the fifth of 13 steps to build the bike. and they were anxious to complete the task.

Each student fished through the compartment of pieces, searching for the one that matched the photo in the instruction book.

“This is what students in STEM like to do,” Lubich said. “They like to make things.”

Across the hall in Sharon Ragan’s STEM class, students were busy in front of computers creating comic strips about green (or environmentally friendly) architecture.

Juniors and seniors from Tim Bakos’ class will teach younger aspiring scientists during Silly Science Sunday at Oh Wow! The Roger and Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science and Technology. The free event, part of the Seven Days of STEM Youngstown Regional Science and Technology Festival, runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

They’ll teach younger children ways to have fun with science, demonstrating how to make slime, showing how to create helicopters using folded paper and paperclips and skewering balloons without bursting them.

The slime, a concoction of water, glue, food coloring and Borax, is especially popular, the students said.

The Borax produces an organic reaction bonding with the glue to form a polymer. The food coloring is just for fun.

Senior Jayla Thompson, 17, said the slime was a hit last year when she volunteered at the event.

“One kid asked me if he could throw it at his brother,” she said. “I said, ‘I guess.’”

Children get to keep the slime they make, but the creation is enclosed in a zippered sandwich bag to prevent messes on the way home.

Senior Titus Spann, 17, said at the Cool Copters display the children can cut out Halloween characters and fold them along the provided dotted lines. The folds create a copter effect, so when the child drops the cutout from a few feet, it whirls to the floor. Paper clips attached show the difference in the speed of descent because of added weight.

To qualify for the Governor’s Thomas Edison Award, schools must conduct a science fair with at least 20 students, qualify one or more of those students for the academy’s district science days, have students participate in a science activity outside the classroom and convince external STEM professionals how the school’s program is STEM education.