Wednesday, April 11th, 2007
Students may attend free camp in mid July
By William Kincaid
FORT RECOVERY - The middle school will host the first annual Gateway Technology Summer Camp from July 9 to July 13 to engage students with science, technology and engineering.
During the regular meeting Tuesday night, Middle School Principal Ted Shuttleworth said the summer camp will be offered free to all students who will be in the sixth, seventh or eighth grade next year.
"The idea is to get the kids enthused about engineering when they're in junior high," Shuttleworth told board members.
The summer camp - entirely financed through a $10,000 grant from Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SMG) is intended to amplify the interest of those students who may be inclined to enroll in the high school's new Project Lead The Way engineering curriculum.
PLTW, now in its first year at Fort Recovery High School, is a national non-profit organization that partners up with middle schools and high schools to create a pre-engineering curriculum. It includes classes, which also count as college credit, that are intended to increase a student's knowledge and base foundation of engineering concepts.
"This new summer program is specifically designed by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and Project Lead the Way to help talented middle school students explore careers in science, technology and engineering," Shuttleworth wrote in a newsletter.
The camp, which is limited to 22 students, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. from July 9-13. During that week, according to the tentative schedule, students will attend daily classes taught by Norm Leugers in the high school industrial technology lab. The students will also take field trips to CAPT and JR Manufacturing, in addition to Edison State to observe a robotic demonstration.
The camp is free and includes transportation and meals.
St. Henry Consolidated Schools will also hold a similar camp from July 16 to 20, according to St. Henry Guidance Counselor Greg Kulwicki. The camp, which is also funded through a $10,000 grant from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, will be offered to 20 to 25 students who will be entering the 2007-2008 school year as eighth graders.
In other Fort Recovery news, board members accepted the resignations of Kathy Keller and April Kaiser, both teachers, and Toni LeFevre, a non teaching classified aide. The resignations will be effective at the end of the 2006-2007 school year.
Also, the board congratulated seventh grade student Abby Backs, who was the Mercer County spelling bee winner. According to Shuttleworth, Backs is the first Fort Recovery junior high student to win the county contest in 20 to 25 years.
