Friendship Explored Across Subject Areas Spreads to Daily Life
St. Mary 4th and 5th graders spent time weaving the concept of friendship into their everyday core subjects this fall. Students were challenged to bring in 10 words chosen by them to describe a friend along with 10 words their parents would use to describe their friends. Along with words provided by their teachers, Mrs. Rodriguez and Mrs. Tracy, the friendship word bank was created and served as a spring board into their investigation. Both classes worked on solving web math equations and followed up with a friendship word to describe each other before tossing on a string to create a web. Addison Boehnlein said, “We all ended up trapped in the Friendship Web!”
In Language Arts, the classes explored Shel Silverstein’s work “The Missing Piece” and worked to create the perfect friend and discover what their missing pieces may be. They followed up by writing a paper about how they have the perfect friend in Jesus and how their friends should reflect His traits. The class used their artistic talents to create quilt squares representing qualities in a friend.
They ended friendship week with a friendship breakfast celebration. Andrew Talty said, “The breakfast was the best part! We sat with people we don’t know as well”. Kaitlyn Boggs, “We played with friends at recess we hadn’t played with in a while”.
Pictured In Top Left Photo: St. Mary 4th and 5th graders trapped in “Friendship Web”
Pictured In Right Photo: Quilt squares created by St. Mary 4th and 5th graders representing qualities in a friend.
Junior High Students “Believe In Ohio”! at John Carroll University
Teaching the next generation about the amazing innovations taking place in Ohio and inspiring young minds to start believing they can be a part of something bigger, is part of the mission of Believe in Ohio. Believe in Ohio (BiO) is a free program from The Ohio Academy of Science that helps students prepare for the future. The program was developed in collaboration with Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio with the support of the Ohio Board of Regents and the Ohio General Assembly. BiO is the only Ohio student STEM Education Program to integrate entrepreneurship and innovation as pathways to create future jobs.
7th and 8th grade teachers took a small group of Junior High students to the recent Believe in Ohio STEM Commercialization & Entrepreneurship Forum at John Carroll University. The program allowed students time to hear from doctors who are currently working on medical inventions, businesses owners who have built organizations from the ground up, and development of new apps in the field. 7th grader, Isabella Cerimele said, “I loved hearing from doctors who are working on inventions because I want to be a doctor someday”. Kyle Yates excitedly shared, “we learned about a company who has developed a certain type of antibiotic that can only be found here in Cleveland”. Students were placed in small groups following the speaker presentations and asked to brainstorm and present an idea to the larger group that could potentially be developed to solve a problem that they encounter in their everyday lives. Inventions ranged from heated driveway systems to audiovisual alarm clocks. The teachers are currently working to create a new program for St. Mary Junior High that will run all next year; challenging them to develop and create their own innovative inventions.
While largely unknown to Ohio’s students and residents, the State of Ohio has one of the most vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems in the country. Many of the leading STEM research and development programs in the world are in Ohio. There are dozens of venture development organizations, incubators and commercialization initiatives throughout Ohio that support Ohio’s Innovation Economy. Virtually every major Ohio college and university now has a significant entrepreneurship program for their students.
During 2014 and 2015, Believe in Ohio held 15 STEM Forums throughout Ohio attended by more than 4,000 Ohio students, teachers and others in which more than 100 of Ohio’s leading STEM innovators and entrepreneurs told their stories and shared their visions of the future.
Pictured In Bottom Left Photo: St.Mary Students at the Believe in Ohio Forum: From Left to Right: Alumni Erin Eppich, Andrew Svoboda, Andrew Ryan, Kyle Yates, Faith Tomsick, Isabella Cerimele, and Elizabeth Daugherty
