RDAbbott hosts Summit County STEAM Leadership Cadre
Barberton, OH – NovationSi, the manufacturing subsidiary of RDAbbott, recently hosted five members of the Summit Educational Service Center STEAM Leadership Cadre at the company’s Barberton, Ohio, Service Center. A leader from the Greater Akron Chamber (GAC) Polymer Industry Cluster also participated this summer’s tour, which immersed local educators in an environment where science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are solving real-world challenges and providing employment opportunities.
During this four-hour event, NovationSi and RDAbbott employees provided:
a comprehensive tour of the companies’ 127,000+ sq. ft. facility;
an overview of a liquid injection molding cell;
a detailed summary of batch cards and weigh-up sheets;
mixing demonstrations and tutorials on a two-roll mill, three-roll mill, and Myers mixer; as well as
an overview of physical properties testing and color matching processes.
The participating educators also had a chance to describe their current polymer curriculum for various grade levels and brainstorm ways that RDAbbott and NovationSi could support their instructional plans and hands-on classroom activities to ensure STEM-rich student experiences.
NovationSi Plant Manager Steve Hersey had this to say about the cooperative event, “as a father of three and manufacturing site leader, it was very encouraging to see the passion and excitement of our partners in the Summit County education system. RDAbbott and NovationSi look forward to continued collaboration with the local educators and the initiative to develop a robust polymer manufacturing workforce in this area.”
The delegation from the STEAM Leadership Cadre was led by Dr. Missi Zender-Sakach of the Summit Educational Service Center (SESC), which helps the region’s school districts improve their STEM curriculum and instruction. Dr. Zender-Sakach was joined on the facility tour by Megan Pacifico of the Coventry Local School District, Jill Alessandro of the Revere Local School District, and Heidi Short and Sarah Florh of the Cuyahoga Falls City School District. Peter Geise of FocusCFO® represented the GAC and its Polymer Industry Cluster.
This is the first year that the STEAM Leadership initiative has included a summer bootcamp for educators who want to inform students about jobs in local industries. The bootcamp was made available through Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio, and builds upon local STEAM Leadership programming that began in 2017. During the last seven years, the SESC STEAM Leadership Cadre has served 21 districts and approximately 150 educators, broadening the occupational horizons of over 40,000 students.
As the head of the SESC STEAM Leadership Cadre, Dr. Zender-Sakach is focused on exploring partnerships with public and private entities and developing multi-year summer programming for educators. Year 1 starts with experiences on STEAM Essentials and Problem-Based Learning and progresses to Citizen Science during Year 2, followed by Global Influences in Year 3. With the addition of the bootcamp, Innovation and Entrepreneurship are the focus of Year 4. Bootcamp participants will receive graduate credit from Ashland University.
The ten educators who are participating in the summer bootcamp chose to focus their experience and a school-year project on materials science, with an emphasis on polymers. “They are some of the best educators in the area,” Dr. Zender-Sakach explained, adding that because “Ohio is a hub for polymer science and engineering, it is critical that our students have opportunities to learn from and collaborate with organizations engaged in polymer research, materials processing, and manufacturing.”
In addition to touring NovationSi and RDAbbott’s Barberton Service Center, these educators have also visited Bridgestone Americas Technology Center, Akron Rubber Development Laboratory, the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society, the Akron Chapter of the Society of Plastics Engineers, and many other local polymer organizations.