Reynoldsburg elementary schools receive grants to expand STEM experiences

On Feb 3, 2022

Reynoldsburg elementary schools are receiving three grants totaling $12,500 from the Ohio STEM Learning Network to expand STEM experiences at the district’s elementary schools.

Summit Road and Taylor Road each will receive $5,000, and Herbert Mills will receive $2,500.

This courtyard at Herbert Mills Elementary School will be the site of the school's Global Outdoor Learning Lab, which will be funded through a $2,500 grant from Ohio STEM Learning Network.

These awards are part of $687,500 in grants awarded to 133 schools across 55 Ohio counties, according to Rob Evans, communications manager at Battelle Education, which manages the Ohio STEM Learning Network in partnership with the Ohio Department of Education.

“The schools and educators awarded will create powerful new experiences to amaze and inspire students,” OSLN director Kelly Gaier Evans said in a statement. “We invest in these programs to foster the next generation of Ohio innovators.”

More than 1,200 students are enrolled in the three elementary schools. Summit Road has 475 students and Taylor Road and Herbert Mills each has 390 students, according to district spokeswoman Valerie Wunder.

At Taylor Road, the grant funds will be used to fund the purchase of mobile carts called Makerspace carts that will serve as “moveable tinker spaces for students to exercise creativity, collaboration and design challenges,” according to a district press release.

These carts will “get kids building things” and align with the innovative problem solver section of the district’s portrait of a graduate, according to Reynoldsburg chief academic officer Jocelyn Cosgrave.

“They’ll be able to move those carts around and students can build things and create things and invite things that are going to be used for larger projects that they’ll create,” she said.

Among the items in the carts are Legos and Infinity Cubes, molding clay and vinyl cutters to craft different designs, Cosgrave said.

At Summit Road, Cosgrave said the money will be used to enhance the existing outdoor learning spaces. The school is built near protected wetlands, and the funds will be used to put more native plants and pollination areas in the outdoor learning spaces, she said.

“Students can go out and study weather patterns and the creatures that live in our habitats and outdoor gardens,” Cosgrave said.

Principal Jamie Johnson applied for the grant at Taylor Road, and teachers Cassandra Comer, Cynthia Meisel and Marianne Patterson applied for the grant at Summit Road.

At Herbert Mills, the funds will be used to construct an outdoor learning space called the Global Outdoor Learning Lab in a courtyard at the school.

“It will provide different experiences that each align with the UN global sustainability goals,” Cosgrave said. “So if one of them is clean water, for example, then they’re going to have things in the outdoor learning lab that shows students the ways in which you can filter your water and clean your water for sustainability purposes.

“The goal is that they would have things directly align to those UN sustainability goals, so they’re going to work on a few more of those with their outdoor learning lab.”

Second-grade teacher Angela Forino, who wrote the grant application, said the Global Outdoor Learning Lab was envisioned as a space that would allow teachers and students to take advantage of the learning opportunities presented by nature and outdoor activities.

“It’s going to be like a tinker-space and a maker-space outside so we can use both nature, as well as our maker space and tinker space activities (as part of our curriculum).

“Nature is the biggest classroom we have, and we wanted the students to be able to go outside and explore and really get into the different aspects of nature. As well as just to have another space that was open enough – especially with COVID right now; we’re kind of confined – where they can brainstorm together and do projects.”