On the bus: Vanguard's mobile lab connects students to class lessons, possible careers
Sometimes education takes place in the classroom and sometimes it takes place outdoors, but when Vanguard-Sentinel Career and Technology Centers gets involved, learning takes place on a bus.
Throughout the school year, Vanguard-Sentinel brings the AIM Mobile Career Technology Lab to its associate schools, where students in kindergarten through fifth grade have the chance to experience hands-on learning activities.
“We travel from Port Clinton to Upper Sandusky,” said Angie Morelock, Vanguard-Sentinel Public Relations and Communications director.
The mobile lab has a twofold purpose: provide the students with activities related to the lessons they are learning in the classroom and expose them to careers related to those lessons. The mobile lab brings a variety of science and technology experiences to the students. Lesson topics include force and motion, sound and light energy, and plant cycles.
“A teacher who is teaching a standard in the classroom calls us, and we bring a complementary lesson,” Morelock said. “Then we tie that lesson to a career.”
Third graders study soil samples under microscopes
On April 18, Morelock and Vanguard-Sentinel's director of operations, Bryan Zimmerman, drove the mobile lab to Atkinson Elementary School to teach third graders about soil. Zimmerman pulled a soil sample from the school yard, and students studied soil samples under microscopes on the bus.
What they saw gave them real-life views of the lessons on soil they had already been learning from their teacher, Stacie Lowery. They discussed the different types of soil, the causes of color in soil, the parasitic roundworms called nematodes they found wiggling in the soil, and careers that rely on soil studies, such as agriculture and building trades.
Zimmerman told the students that “many, many soil samples” were taken before their school was constructed.
“They had to make sure they could build a structure on this soil, and they had to be sure water could drain here,” he said.
Mobile lab has a dozen computers, variety of resources
The mobile lab is equipped with 12 computers, several microscopes and a variety of educational resources, including a marble track racer, an injection molding machine, heartrate data trackers and engineering kits.
“We apply our lessons to what the teachers are teaching,” Zimmerman said. “And we focus on terminology. We ask the teachers what terms the students are learning, and we talk about them.”
The educational resources on the bus are available for teachers to borrow for classroom use.
“The kids like getting on the bus, but teachers can borrow a kit. Our resources are available to our schools,” Morelock said.
This school year, the mobile lab has served nearly 670 students and will serve about 150 more before schools close for the summer.
Lowery is grateful the collaboration between Atkinson and Vanguard-Sentinel enhances her students’ education.
“The AIM Mobile Lab is a great resource that is available to us that provides a fun, hands-on activity that reinforces the standards that are taught in the classroom,” Lowery said. “We are very lucky to have the trainers and equipment available to us because of the partnership between the schools and Career Tech. Plus, it also gives the students the opportunity to learn about careers that are related to the lesson, which is great exposure at this level.”
The students walk off the bus with a little more knowledge and a taste of what their future can hold.
“It’s about career exposure,” Morelock said. “They know what their teachers do for a living, and they know what their parents do, but sometimes, that’s it.”
Contact correspondent Sheri Trusty at sheritrusty4@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Vanguard using mobile lab to connect class lessons to future careers
