Published December 22, 2020
Additional pandemic article:
LA GRANDE, OR – When the Greater Oregon (GO) STEM hub received nearly $20,000
in COVID-response grant funding, Pitsco
Education quickly surfaced as a trusted
provider of engaging STEM resources that
would be effective with students either in
school or at home – really, anywhere.
A perfect match! It was time to get Pitsco’s Try This kits to students thirsting for hands-on
activities. Well, not quite. . . . GO STEM Executive Director David Melville and Program
Director Donna Rainboth loved the Try This
kits for their education value, simple materials,
and connections with concepts employed at
local businesses, but the popular kits wouldn’t
meet the needs of all students in the region.
Some of the kits contained plastic straws, and
instructions were only in English.
Melville and Rainboth explained their
concerns to Pitsco Sales Manager Brandon Brill.
“The population we’re serving in two of the
counties is heavily migrant, and there are a
lot of farm workers, manufacturing workers,”
Melville said. “We saw a need for Spanish-translated
information in the kits.” Brill and
others at Pitsco concurred, and Spanish
instructions were added to the kits.
As for the plastic straws, “We couldn’t in
good conscience send out thousands and
thousands of straws to go into the landfill,”
Rainboth explained. “We want people to be
aware. Pitsco stepped up and said they would
phase out the plastic straws [and replace
them with paper straws]. It’s amazing to me
that you can have that kind of an impact
working together and being aware.”
With those challenges quickly resolved, 6,000 Try This kits (2,000 each
focused on engineering, straw structures, and parachutes) were shipped
to eastern Oregon, and the real teamwork began. Among the partners
involved in building and distributing boxes of supplies for fourth graders:
- GO STEM hub
- Pitsco Education
- Eastern Oregon University, GO STEM’s fiscal agent
- Oregon Community Foundation, which awarded the
$19,950 COVID relief grant
- Regional business and industry representatives on the
GO STEM advisory board
- Sodexo, which provided snacks for the boxes
- Eastern Oregon University football players, who, instead of
playing football on a Saturday in late October, worked in shifts
to package the boxes of materials
- InterMountain Education Service District, which delivered most
of the STEM boxes to schools
- Administrators and teachers
“Originally, we anticipated the kits would go to families right away,”
Rainboth said, adding that all students were learning remotely at the
time. However, schools began to open their doors to students. “Some
kits will be used in schools and some at home. It’s up to the schools on
how to do that.”
Harney ESD Superintendent Shannon Criss was one of the first to
express gratitude to Rainboth for the STEM boxes. “What a wonderful
opportunity for our kids, and I am using these kits as a sample with our
teachers on how to create more hands-on learning for kids,” Criss said.
Try This kits are an economical solution at $2.25 each, allowing the
GO STEM hub to serve a large number of students, but the academic
richness and related free resources and activities from Pitsco most
excited Rainboth, a lifelong educator and currently an assistant professor
of education in the College of Education at EOU.
“I reached out to all the fourth-grade teachers and principals in the
schools getting the kits and included a link to Pitsco’s Try This kits with
additional resources, which are really interesting and inquiry based,”
she said. “I wanted to make sure they knew about those as well as the
instructions in the kits.”
Melville said a couple of counties in the GO STEM region were first
on the list to be served. “Umatilla [County] had the highest incidence of
COVID cases in the region, and most of Harney County has one-room
school buildings, so access to Internet and resources is limited. We felt
this would be a great way to provide resources.” Eventually, every public
school fourth grader in the region received one of the STEM boxes.
Lisa Lathrop, fourth-grade teacher at Stella Mayfield Elementary in
Elgin, Oregon, said the science-laden building kits have been a hit. “The
students have really enjoyed them,” she said. “Students have said several
times how much fun they are having.”