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By Erin O'Connor Staff Writer WESTFIELD - On April 24, the announcement of a new program for fifth grade students in the area was made at the Reed Institute at Mestek. Mestek provides heating, ventilating and air conditioning products. The Westfield Public Schools, the World is our Classroom (WIOC) and Mestek have partnered for the Westfield Manufacturing Education Initiative. According to Nora Burke Patton, executive director of WIOC, recognizing the importance of exposing students to real-life work experiences and the improving performance in science, the partners joined forces in 2006 to shape an educational program targeting Westfield's fifth-grade students. The collaboration's goal is to produce the manufacturing initiative, a program aligned with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks and Science (MCAS) test that exposes students to earth and space science, life science and physcial science, in addition to technology and engineering, and introduce them to heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) process and related manufacturing careers. "Basically, the students are exposed to principles of physical, earth, space and life sciences as well as technology and engineering design," Patton said, "all in keeping with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks." The program is to be conducted onsite at Mestek and is intended to address the needs to provide students with hands-on, "real world" applications of science and technology. "We believe this initiative is a way for all the parties involved to work together and play a vital role in the education of children throughout the City of Westfield," Reed said. "By introducing them to the challenges and rewards of careers in the manufacturing sector, we also can help to attract, interest and inspire the workers of tomorrow." According to Patton the fifth grade level is the first time in which the students will see science in the MCAS design. Students at Mestek worked in groups to come up with ways in which they could insulate an ice cube. They then presented their inventions to an audience that included Reed, State Senator Michael Knapik, Mayor Richard K. Sullivan, Susan E. Dargie, and their principal of Paper Mill Elementary School. "They are thinking out the steps before they build the device," Patton said. "It gets them thinking in steps." "This was made possible thrugh a $150,000 grant from the state linking manufacturers with fifth graders," Knapik said. Knapik spoke of other cities in which projects such as this one are going forth at Bondi's Island in Springfield with the Agawam and Springfield school districts and at Holyoke Paper Manufacturing Company. "It is to help them review before the exam," Patton said. "Research shows that children in a nontraditional environment will excel. They are having fun and learning," she said. | ||||||
