A 'ripple effect' of opportunity: Dalton Boys & Girls Club opens STEM center for students

Brady Hix, The Daily Citizen, Dalton, Ga.
·5 min read

Feb. 16—As Milan Fraire peered into the glass window of a Robo brand education 3-D printer at the Boys & Girls Clubs' Dalton location, he couldn't help but light up in amazement.

"This can do anything," Fraire said as he watched the machine create a plastic name tag bearing its company logo. "It's my first time using it. It's actually doing a really good job."

The 3-D printer, along with a selection of educational tools and technology, were recently showcased during the opening of a new STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) center at the club site.

The STEM center was provided thanks to a $1.1 million partnership between the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by two of the legendary baseball player's sons in 2001.

During the last three months, TVA and the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation have provided 27 STEM centers across the TVA's seven-state region, including Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia.

Each STEM center provides children with access to tools such as Google Chromebook laptops, a computer-storing technology tub, a 3-D printer, a custom-designed curriculum and other educational tools such as robotics sets, Ozobot coding robotics sets, circuit play dough kits and Lego-style building blocks.

Dalton's Boys & Girls Club STEM center is the 26th center to be implemented and is the only one in Georgia. Other features included are a mobile workbench, seven elemental clover tables and 28 stackable chairs.

"This is not just a drop in the pond," said Robbie Slocumb, the CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs serving Chattooga, Gordon, Murray and Whitfield counties. "This is really going to be what we call a ripple effect."

Slocumb said the STEM center will be able to provide children at the club site a host of new opportunities.

"This club services 14 different schools in the Whitfield County area and makes a big impact every day, with over 100 kids coming here and being a part of this," he said. "This really provides opportunities for our kids. It levels the playing field and gives them a chance to learn about circuitry and robotics and different things that they might not have thought about doing before. This really gives them a chance."

Dan Pratt, the senior vice president of regional relations for TVA, and Bobby Klein, a member of TVA's Board of Directors, attended a recent ribbon cutting for the center, where they spoke about the program.

"TVA's mission is to improve the quality of life in the valley every day, and everything we do to accomplish that is through partnerships," Pratt said. "Through the partnership with the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation and with amazing community organizations like the Boys & Girls Club and North Georgia EMC, everyone had a hand in putting this together. It's a really fantastic opportunity here."

Klein said he is "encouraged" to see the work that has been done with the STEM centers across the region to promote robotics and skills to children at a younger age.

"This really is a tremendous asset for the community," Klein said. "It's going to do a lot to teach the youth of this community and to educate and help them as they progress through life. I know our partnership with the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation is going to be very valuable throughout this valley."

Talking to children trying out many of the educational tools, Pratt said the center could open the door for future career opportunities.

"We will be hiring technical people who know how to program and know how to use the tools of today like this amazing equipment you have in front of you," he said. "Watching you all take that and absorb it and learn it, there will be lots of opportunities with TVA and in the energy industry waiting as we go forward. We're proud to just be a little part of it."

Attalia Tanner, a fifth-grade student at City Park School, said many children can benefit from the STEM center for years to come.

"It's really fun," she said. "There's a lot of fun things to do."

Her favorite of which are the center's Bee-Bots, which are small programmable robots made to look like bumblebees that glide across a placemat resembling a town with multiple intersections.

"You can program the bees and tell them where to go," Tanner said. "It's pretty cool."

Slocumb said the STEM center is just the "tip of the iceberg."

"That's the neat thing about it," he said. "The things that we're going to be able to do and the opportunities that we're going to be able to create for our kids with this, it's really going to make a difference."

The STEM center is available to children from elementary school age to high school. Slocumb said the club is successful when the children excel.

"We want them to be able to have this opportunity five or 10 years down the road, where they can come back and say it really made a difference in their lives. It gives us a tool to provide something for our kids that maybe they didn't have and it helps them not only academically, but socially and physically."