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Marion Local third grader Mayah Schwieterman watches as her chair is set up.
MARIA STEIN - Thanks to some hard work and creativity from four of her peers, Marion Local third-grader Mayah Schwieterman is now happily able to study in a regular classroom chair like everyone else.
Seventh graders from math and STEM teacher Jeanna Heitkamp's STEM class crafted special chair risers and a step stool for Mayah, who was born with a rare type of dwarfism, as a part of the Mercer County Board of Developmental Disabilities STEM Invention Challenge.
The challenge, also being held at Celina City Schools and St. Henry Local Schools, was in conjunction with Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, said Janel Sanning, community relations coordinator for the West Central Ohio Network, a council that supports Mercer DD and other county DD boards in the region.
It took Marion Local seventh graders Henry Hoying, Coltin Van Gundy, Gus Bruns and Isaac Tobe about two months to complete the project using a 3-D printer. The group went through about seven or eight prototypes and worked on the project in class, during study halls and after school.
Mayah Schwieterman poses with seventh graders Coltin Van Gundy, Gus Bruns, Henry Hoying and Isaac Tobe.
"We were worried we weren't going to come up with anything," Heitkamp said. "Maybe I worried; they (her students) didn't as much. It was a little stressful."
Mayah's mom Angela Schwieterman said the family was notified of the project some time in the fall.
"I like to let her talk for herself," she said. "And she wanted a chair just like everyone else."
Angela Schwieterman added that the project made her daughter feel special, and that she liked being able to verbalize to the four boys exactly what her needs were.
The students crafted the step stool using pink 3-D printer filaments, Mayah's favorite color, and even printed her name across the front, "to make it more special," they said.
Both the step stool and the chair risers are adjustable with three different height settings to meet Mayah's needs in the future. The boys also installed grips on the bottom of them so they don't slide around.
"Mayah was absolutely thrilled with the result, and we couldn't be more proud of this amazing example of inclusion and creativity," a Mercer DD Facebook post read. "Thank you to Mayah and her family, Mrs. Heitkamp, the 7th grade boys, and the ML administration for supporting this."
The risers and step stool will allow Mayah to comfortably sit in the district's larger fourth grade desks next year, Angela Schwieterman added.
However, Mayah wasted no time in putting them to use, as she took them along with her back to class following the presentation.
Mayah Schwieterman's feet rest on an adjustable step stool Marion Local seventh grade STEM students 3-D printed for her.
