Brad Bishop, OrthoWorx executive director, announced in tonight’s WCS Regular School Board meeting the donation of $300,000 dollars toward furthering STEM education in the region.

In Monday night’s Warsaw Community School Corporation Regular School Board Meeting, Brad Bishop, executive director of OrthoWorx, announced the donation of funds to expand STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education in the region.

OrthoWorx, which is partnering with the school on the initiative to further STEM education, has committed $300,000 toward the school corporation’s “Moving STEM Forward” plan.

In addition to the amount supplied by OrthoWorx, WCS is providing approximately $182,000 of its own funds toward the plan, which will be implemented in the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year. According to WCS Chief Financial Officer Kevin Scott, the provision by the corporation for the STEM initiative is a part of the school corporation’s planned budget and will not be taken out of the WCS general fund.

According to a press release provided by OrthoWorx, the plan will provide a road map for STEM education through all grades and will enable greater STEM-focused project based learning in all of the corporation’s eight elementary schools. In addition, the grant will fund teacher professional development at the elementary level. This will help lay the groundwork for elementary students for the more advanced middle school and high school STEM courses and experiences.

“The evidence continues to mount that many of today’s jobs and most of the great jobs of the future will require STEM knowledge and skills, not just in orthopedics, but in nearly every enterprise in our region,” stated Sheryl Conley, OrthoWorx chief executive officer. “As a community, we need to recognize the critical need for STEM learning and the problem-solving and leadership skills that come with it. This is not a ‘nice-to-do,’ this has to do with our long-term economic vitality. Initiatives such as this one underscore the timely opportunity represented by the matching funds challenge we have from Lilly Endowment Inc. Every eligible dollar we raise before Oct. 15 will be matched by the endowment and will be available for reinvestment in our community’s future.”

According to Dave Hoffert, WCS chief academic officer, one of the more notable provisions this initiative will provide will be a STEM Mobile Learning Laboratory bus. The bus, which will act as an interactive mobile laboratory, will cater toward community strengths by keeping the biomedical industry in mind.

Though the Mobile Learning Lab is still in the developmental stages, Hoffert did note the bus would offer a state-of-the-art mobile lab to impact teacher professional learning and student learning and would provide a visual commitment to both the community and school system toward STEM education.

Another notable feature of the plan is the fact that the school will be working with the Smithsonian Science Education Center’s strategic planning process.

According to a statement provided by WCS Superintendent Dr. Craig Hintz, “We appreciate the support of OrthoWorx in continuing the effort we began with the Washington Elementary STEM Academy. We share the goal of making STEM available in all grades, with the ultimate goal of creation of a high school STEM academy. With OrthoWorx support, our leaders will be participating in the Smithsonian Science Education Center’s strategic planning process, allowing us to leverage the thinking of the world’s best thinking in STEM, inquiry-based learning and project-based learning approaches.”

This is the second year that OrthoWorx has announced its support of STEM-focused learning in WCS schools. In May 2013, OrthWorx announced it would provide support at the Washington Elementary STEM Academy, which was launched in 2012 with a Indiana Innovation Grant. According to OrthoWorx, Washington STEM Academy will focus on topics and subjects related to orthopedics and the life sciences during the 2013-2014 school year.

OrthoWorx has provided a total of $112,000 in support of the Washington STEM Coach position, additional teacher professional development and equipment and supplies acquisition.