A Brown City teacher is looking to upgrade his STEM lab and is asking for community help to get there. Mr. James Kneebone, the Industrial Arts and STEM teacher at the Brown City Junior/Senior High in Southern Sanilac County is trying to purchase an American-made metal brake. In this instance, a brake is a metalworking machine that allows the bending of sheet metal. On his “Donors Choose” page, Mr. Kneebone says his “students are anxious to learn hands-on problem-solving skills.” For many of his students, this is their first experience with building. With the equipment, Kneebone feels it “will ultimately help these same students become better problem solvers, to learn about process, order of operations and gain an appreciation for the metal forming craft.” He also said, “Utilizing the metal brake, student’s paper drawings will be transferred to sheet metal, cut out, bent and realized in three-dimensional objects.” As of the weekend, several hundred dollars had been raised toward the $2,700 goal which was launched on January 1. Michigan has several MiSTEM regions with oversight and funding by various state agencies, but funding specific equipment often falls on the community districts. To learn more about the project, you can search for it on donorchoose.org The link to the page is https://www.donorschoose.org/project/metal-fab-problem-solving-lab/4706930/.
