Dickinson Public Schools celebrate six new STEM centers

DICKINSON, N.D. (KQCD) - The way we learn is always evolving, and students in Dickinson Public Schools are now part of a new hands-on learning program.

It was all cheers and smiles at Prairie Rose Elementary School Wednesday morning to recognize an innovative learning program that’s just taking off.

Thanks to the Cal Ripken Senior Foundation and area partners, six schools in Dickinson now have STEM centers.

“Real-world skills like troubleshooting, problem-solving, creative thinking, thinking outside the box, and how these STEM items and the STEM challenges we do with them really push those skills and type of thinking,” said Troy Kuntz, library media specialist.

The centers feature 3D printers, littleBits, snap circuits, Bee-Bots, Ozobots, and more.

Following the reception and ribbon cutting, partners of the project and area leaders were able to observe students in STEM activities.

“If you push this down, and you turn this off, it flies up, but when you put this on and the light is on and you turn it off, it doesn’t go up because the light is using a lot of the energy,” said Jouney Bradley of Dickinson.

“We could press the arrows, then we stop every time when we go past the red line,” said August Hibl of Dickinson.

“You can make your own tracks and see what happens,” said Skylor Johnson of Dickinson.

Staff hope the programs can expand into other district schools and enhance learning in other subjects.

“Using the Bee-Bots with the 3D printer attachment where we were able to attach markers and so the students were drawing with the bots,” said Kuntz.

And they hope the learning will inspire a career down the road.

Devon, Marathon Oil and Flogistix are partners in the city’s STEM labs.

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