MC² STEM SCHOOL

On Feb. 20, I had the privilege to attend an exciting event in Cleveland—the grand opening of the new school building for the MC² STEM High School. It is the first of five new STEM schools in Ohio funded by the original House Bill 119 start-up grants. The school is part of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. MC² opened in September with a freshman class in a temporary space at the Great Lakes Science Center while the permanent building was under renovation.

Now completed, the building located on the GE Nela Park campus is the home of a unique setting with great access and connections to their professional mentors. The school will add other locations as it expands to upper grades, and is believed to be the first STEM facility in the nation located within a corporate complex. This design will allow students to shadow GE employees and to be mentored by them.
 

Ohio Gov. Ted Stickland was on hand to celebrate the grand opening along with Sen. George Voinovich, state representatives and Cleveland leaders. MC² students introduced the program and speakers at the press conference.

MC² is part of the Ohio STEM Learning Network, founded by Battelle and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Metro helped by providing planning and curriculum assistance from our principal and several teachers. Our friends at the PAST Foundation were instrumental in helping the MC² staff with programming for project based learning.

The new facilities include a state-of-the-art “Fab Lab” modeled on the concepts of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms. For the event, the students demonstrated a contraption they had designed that reminded me of the game “Mousetrap” on steroids.

GE has a staff member who plays a role in the school very similar to mine at Metro. Andrea Timan has been to Metro for a visit, and soon I will spend a day with her at MC². We see the value in collaborating about our ideas and finding more ways to connect the schools with our corporations.

More STEM schools are scheduled to open this fall in Cincinnati, Dayton, Akron and at Linden McKinley High School in Columbus. Several more are in the planning stages after receiving grants in the second round of H.B.119 funding. Ohio is an exciting place for education these days. I have been hosting a record number of visitors lately as Metro serves to model STEM education for many of these new schools. We’re excited to share our ideas and learn from our new friends as they create and share their innovative programs.