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Hancock Public Schools awarded over $500,000

photo courtesy of Keweenaw Community Foundation

HANCOCK — In a Friday release, Supt. Steve Patchin said that in the past 14 months, Hancock Public Schools has received more than half a million dollars in grants to develop coding, update the school’s public library and establish what is referred to as a PRIME School.

The grants, he stated, include:

• $20,000 from the Michigan Dept. of Education to develop coding educational experiences across curriculum at each grade level, further developing their complex problem solving skills;

• $212,000 from the Library of Michigan to update library facilities, update book and media selection, add new community focused programming;

• $300,000 from the state of Michigan to establish a High School as a Society of Manufacturing Engineers PRIME  School. Focusing on curriculum related to manufacturing, it includes programming in areas such as Mechatronics, metrology, robotics, and additive manufacturing. Students will be able to earn a wide variety of industry recognized certificates.

The SME Education Foundation’s Partnership Response In Manufacturing Education (PRIME) initiative provides schools with a curriculum tailored to give students hands-on training on modern, industry-standard equipment, offering career-readiness opportunities to high school students. It allows them to explore futures in manufacturing, engineering and STEM-related careers aligned with manufacturers’ needs.

According to the organization’s website, SME is a nonprofit association of professionals, educators and students committed to promoting and supporting the manufacturing industry. SME helps manufacturers innovate, grow and prosper by promoting manufacturing technology, developing a skilled workforce and connecting the manufacturing industry.

“To support these initiatives we have added STEM Specials in the elementary school,” said Patchin. “Students begin developing computational thinking and advance problem-solving skills through work building VEX robots, designing and producing items using 3-D printers, solving engineering challenges in teams, and much more.”

These activities allow students to utilize knowledge they learn in mathematics, science, and English language arts classes, allowing them to apply these transferable skills in many different settings, said Patchin.

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