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District highlights STEM partnerships with Mercyhurst and Gannon, including high‑altitude balloon project
Summary
Rick Schneider previewed STEM and STEAM activities and partnerships with Mercyhurst University (mentoring, campus visits) and Gannon University (high‑altitude balloon payloads) that engaged students at Collegiate Academy and Erie High and will be showcased in more detail next week.
Rick Schneider, supervisor of secondary content, gave the board a preview of STEM and STEAM programs and community partnerships that involved students across grade levels.
Schneider described two primary partnerships this year: a Mercyhurst University mentoring and STEM exploration program that included campus visits and mentor connections for students, and a Gannon University collaboration led by an engineering professor focusing on high‑altitude balloon payload design, electronics programming and retrieval. He said the ballooning work allowed students to participate in coding, payload development, launch and retrieval steps.
Schneider said the Gannon program ran with a mix of students from Collegiate Academy and Erie High (he estimated about 70% Collegiate and 30% Erie High for the engineering course in the previous year) and that Mercyhurst involvement included roughly 20–30 students from the district. He said the programs kicked into full operation in October and will be summarized more fully at next week’s meeting.
Next steps: district staff will provide a fuller presentation with program details and student outcomes next week; Schneider encouraged board members to note planned community STEM events and university partnerships.
