Ken Wechselberger
Stephanie Budzban, a sixth-grade teacher at Country Place Leadership Academy, was recently selected to receive the SAE Foundation 2020 Gary Dickinson Award for Teaching Excellence.
She was nominated by the AWIM volunteers from PebbleCreek for her creative use of the “A World In Motion” program as an innovative way to help students understand the STEM principles on motion.
Budzban, along with the other sixth-grade teachers, worked to build gravity cruisers, which are toy cars that do not require batteries or electricity to provide power to the vehicles. The project is different because there are no “directions.”
As part of the award, Ms. Budzban and the school will each receive $6,750. Due to the current COVID-19 conditions, an in-person date for the award presentation has not yet been set.
“Mrs. Budzban is very deserving of this award,” Country Place Principal Dr. Michael Cagle said. “Her passion, creativity and expertise shine through in every interaction she has with her students. She exemplifies leadership and innovation. She empowers our students to discover their genius and find their voices. She is a true gift to our kids, our school and our community.”
Gravity Cruiser is only one of many projects available to schools and students. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) have designed STEM based projects for all elementary and middle school grades. These projects are meant to provide for three to four member teams to work collaboratively to design, build, test, and modify vehicles. The project kits, which include all necessary materials and extensive teacher guidelines and lesson plans, are provided by General Motors.
This past school year of 2019-20 has seen 10 PebbleCreek volunteers work closely with teachers and the student teams in support of these projects in five West Valley elementary and high schools. Each project is meant to run about eight weeks, with volunteers providing support for the design, build, and testing. Teachers provide the learnings prior to the build/test activities. Actual volunteer time commitment is about one hour a week per class, and often we support two classes consecutively. Our small volunteer group worked with and supported 14 teachers in five schools. Overall, 1,500+ students were engaged in AWIM projects.
No prior training to volunteer is required. Our current volunteer group is composed of retired engineers, educators, lawyers, sales/marketing, and financial executives. Outstanding teachers and wonderfully engaged students have made for very satisfying volunteer experiences. Currently, with schools mostly teaching online, we are not yet engaged supporting AWIM. However, once students return to in-school classes, we expect AWIM projects will again be launched, most probably after January 1.
If you would be interested in joining our eclectic AWIM volunteer group, please contact Ken Wechselberger at 623-251-3684 or [email protected].