Elevating expectations
MCHS students collaborate with nonprofit and education center to build donation board
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LEWISTOWN --When students and businesses collaborate, students win.
As part of Mifflin County School District's effort to increase collaborative assignments between its students and the community, the computer aided drafting and design students at Mifflin County High School were given the opportunity to work on a real-world problem.
Kim Forsythe, the ecology teacher at MCHS, is a committee member for the Chocolate and Art Gala held by the nonprofit ClearWater Conservancy in Centre County. As part of the committee, she is responsible for planning and idea generations for the Connections Program fundraising initiatives. The Connections Program offers grants for public and private schools to send students to Millbrook Marsh Environmental Education Center.
While planning the gala, Forsythe nominated students from Rebecca Conner's technology class at MCHS to fulfill the conservancy's request for a interactive donation board to be used at the gala this weekend to raise money for the Connections Program.
Starting a month ago, six students started researching the conservancy and nature center to conceptualize and create the donation board. From there, they built a 40×56 inch board which has 105 laser engraved planks that sport the conservancy and nature center's logos and a space for the donor's name and a map of the facility is engraved on the board behind the planks.
At the gala, donors will be able to interact with the donation process as they will place their name on a plank and add it to the donation board to build a replica of the board walk in Millbrook Marsh.
"This project was 100 percent student driven," Conner said.
Conner said the students created designs and had the committee periodically look over the designs and then modifications were made based on the committee's suggestions. Conner and Forsythe said they only helped facilitate the process and helped with any questions with the computer programs or machinery used to create the board.
Madison Bressler, one of the team members, said, "It was really unique to learn what the real-world will be like."
Team member, Anna Ream, also said, "It put us in a position for a lot of critical thinking and creative ideas."
For any business or organization interested in collaborating with the school for future projects, contact Rebecca Conner at rjc27@mcsdk12.org.