(Photo by Chuck Clegg) From left are Tammy Chambers, Sunni Irvin, Mazie Harrison, Paul Huston, Grant Stackpole, Emily Postlethwait, Cassie Porter, Blake Bassett, Zane Fluharty, Nathan Fields and JC Kimble.
On Sept. 17, Dr. Eric Emch welcomed Nathan Fields and George Davidson from Inventionland.
Along with those guests he also welcomed Board President Linda Fonner and Vice President Brian Castilow to the dedication of the Short Line Art Room. With the help from Inventionland to design, Mrs. Jackie Shepard has worked diligently to create a room that will add a new dimension to the learning process.
Inventionland is based in Pittsburgh. It is a 60,000 square foot immersive work environment that hosts tours for roughly 15,000 students, educators, designers, business professionals and inventors every year. Their facility inspires creativity, promotes innovation, and fosters education.
Specialized designers, artists, writers, illustrators, photographers, videographers, strategists, seamstresses, and fabricators work in 16 unique themed sets, such as a shipwrecked pirate ship, faux cave, treehouse, pet shack, giant shoe, cupcake kitchen, giant robot and a castle complete with turrets and drawbridge. The inspiring setting includes three running waterfalls, life-like trees and butterflies and grass-lined sidewalks.
Inventionland is made up of a team of talented and creative people who work in concert to provide inspiration for students, educators, inventors, and everyday idea people who want to make the world a better place.
The Short Line school held a full assembly in the main gym to welcome and dedicate their Art Room. In the room are a dozen panels that stand six feet tall and with a hand-held controller, it can change colors to fit the mood of the project. Each panel is a basic white board which students can use dry ink pens to write upon. Class assignments’ can be placed on the panels. Students can work math problems on the lighted panels. They are designed to add interest to school projects.
Superintendent Cassie Porter spoke to the assembly of students explaining her thoughts and hopes for the project and thanked Dr. Emch and Mrs. Shepherd for their work in obtaining grant money and helping to see the project through to completion. Nathan Fields Director of Inventionland Educations explained that his mission was to find ways to help enhance education in classrooms. Move it from the everyday delivery of information to new and inventive ways to present learning classroom material.
“This is a new technology to help students learn. I believe it is a great way to help students who learn from books or screens to use new and innovative ways to engineer things. I am very grateful to Mr. Emch and Mrs. Shepard for their efforts to bring this into the school, “ said Wetzel County BOE President Linda Fonner.
Superintendent Porter added, “One good thing is we are looking towards the future. By taking this art room up to a matrix base we are giving our students right here in school the ability to gain skills sets to better prepare them for the future. With the money from a grant, we were able to place this in the school. We are planning to have light panels placed in other schools with grant money to help enhance classroom education. Sensory rooms have ways to help students connect with educational material.”
The Shortline School under the guidance of Emch, strives to make the education experience more meaningful and a bit of fun. This accomplishment would not have been possible without the entire staff and the school’s educators taking part in the programs that will give Shortline students a better understanding of their future.
“Mrs. Shepard and I worked together on this project, meeting with Inventionland to go over the design for the room as well as a redesign of the school logo. Mrs. Shepard used the motto “Engineers in more ways than one” and Inventionland used that as inspiration for the new logo. The art room and maker space provide our students an environment to be creative and create, said Emch.
“It’s not about changing the path, it’s about teaching them to navigate the bumps.”