Schools to benefit from local collaboration

Partners in Science Excellence and Avery Dennison are collaborating on a STEM project.

Back in May, Partners in Science Excellence held its spring meeting, during which it lauded its members, partners and participants.

It also began formulating plans then for a practical project to help facilitate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (or STEM) education throughout Lake County and beyond.

Thanks to the work of various PSE participants, including representatives from Glendale, California-based adhesive manufacturer Avery Dennison, which has a sizeable manufacturing presence in Northeast Ohio, that practical project materialized over the following few months.

Its manifestation is scheduled next week at Avery Dennison’s Mentor site at 8080 Norton Parkway.

Although not open to the public, it will involve the development of STEM coursework and lesson plans aimed at Lake County’s elementary and secondary school students and teachers.

“There’s a lot of materialscience and technical knowhow that goes into the company’s pressure-sensitive materials,” PSE Chairman Tony Marinelli typed in a July 31 e-mail exchange about the project. “(Avery Dennison) wanted to leverage those skills to give back to those students.”

Specifically, Marinelli said, numerous Avery Dennison representatives, along with various Lake County stakeholders, will work to develop lesson plans and coursework applicable to STEM education that reflects what the company’s employees do on a daily basis.

“We see this as having the potential to affect quite a few schools and lots of students in Lake County,” Marinelli said in an Aug. 2 phone interview. “And we hope, in the future, to be able to use this collaboration model to benefit schools all over our area.”

Avery Dennison and PSE have long been partners, one Avery Dennison representative confirmed at the May meeting, after accepting PSE’s Friends of Science Group Award.

“Much of our efforts are based on technology and working that technology into science learning in the hopes of preparing (young people) for jobs,” said Collin Moore, principal scientist: Global Innovation at Avery Dennison Label and Graphics Materials. “The economy is so small anymore. It’s so global and you’re competing with people from around the world.”

Moore said a big part of what the group is trying to do is to make science learning for today’s students meaningful to them and for it to have a lasting impression.

“If what you’re doing isn’t meaningful to you, it’s not meaningful, period,” he said.

In a recent missive about Partners in Science Excellence’s background, the organization confirms it’s sponsored over $235,000 worth of “classroom excitement” by distributing grants for inquiry-based science projects throughout Northeast Ohio schools.

It was formed in 1989 by local business representatives and members of the Tri-County Education Community, which incorporates Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties and is affiliated with the Lakeland Foundation, the group reports.

“Part of PSE’s mission is to unify the efforts of educators and businesses to improve, expand and promote science education,” the statement reads. “Our primary program provides yearly grants to other sources of science education, such as the Mentor Marsh. In addition, PSE provides teacher in-service workshops that encourage the creative teaching of science.

Avery Dennison appears to be plenty excited about the implications of the Aug. 9 event.

“We hope to experience again, as a team, that sense of wonder that comes from discovery,” typed Avery Dennison’s Brandi Davis in an Aug. 2 e-mail exchange. “We hope to inspire young minds to feel that same wonder, understand how these lessons translate to real-world work scenarios, and perhaps even consider STEM related careers for their futures. We hope to make a positive, longterm contribution to the success of the schools in the communities where we work and live.”

Davis also confirmed that this is the first event of its kind in which the company has participated.