The Brown County Rotary Club will welcome one of its own Thursday when Rotarian Mark Stidham plays the emcee of a program of presentations by three teams of students from Brown County Middle School. The meeting begins at 7:45 a.m. at The Seasons Lodge in the Fireplace Lounge.
These teams of four to five eighth-grade students will present their solutions to Corporate Problem-Solving Challenges posed by sponsoring organizations – Columbus Regional Hospital, FORVIA and Purdue Polytechnic. These are actual problems for which the sponsoring organizations have provided descriptions, tours of the organizations for context and liaisons to mentor the teams. Typically, each sponsor will have three or four teams working on its problem and these teams will compete to have the sponsor choose its solution. There are numerous examples of successful implementations of winning solutions.
Brown County Middle School is an Indiana Department of Education Certified STEM School committed to the integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics throughout the curriculum. The Corporate Problem-Solving Challenge is an eight-week program that requires application of STEM knowledge and develops problem solving, teamwork, and presentation skills. It represents a significant portion of the students’ science grades.
The Columbus Regional Hospital team members are Adrianna Watkins, Evelynn Reynolds, Willow LaVere, Radha Noble, and Marlee Piper. The FORVIA team members are Logan Tyler Peck, Bryson Moore, Jeremiah Ohr, and Ashlynn Walters. The Purdue Polytechnic team members are Mercy Lee McMasters, Gracie Wells, Allison Blee, and Lilly Pittman.
Kevin Roush, eighth-grade science teacher, guided the student teams. Mark Stidham has provided community outreach and company coordination as well as liaison with FORVIA. In addition to the above organizations, Cummins, LHP Engineering, and The Toy Chest sponsored teams this year.
Members of the community, especially those interested in exploring opportunities to participate in projects and to be of service to our community, are invited to attend. You may also join us via Zoom using a link obtained by visiting www.RotaryClubofBrownCounty.org and clicking on the “Contact us” URL
