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Show Standard-Examiner METRO Sunday Spotlight ate he oe three ey ee Son uae SaSARS a Partners donated by two other classmates. Davis explained howhe uses math to measure and make screws, bolts and other pieces of equipment. The group stood wide-eyed as he demonstrated the machinery. The students were on a daylong trip. The company has adopted the school, built a classroom onsite, and brought in students forfield trips. Employees also go out to the school for special projects. Davis said he considers it his responsibility. “My kids go to that school,” he said. “This teaches them why they should leam math, and lets them see it can be used. Most of the kids had no idea you could measure things in the thousandths,” he said. In another room, 12-year-old Chelsey Slater and her friends learned where salt comes from. David Butts, a chemical engineer, shook up a mixture in a tube, and showed students howsalt crystals were left at the bottom. He explained the difference between table salt and sodium chlonde, andlet the students taste the mixture. “This is much better than sitting in a classroom, I actually can see what they are making,” Chelsey said. “Plus, there is no homework,” she said with a grin. The students asked Butts a lot of questions, and the conversation somehow strayed from minerals and salt to Mosquitoes and malaria. “Mosquitoes have killed more people than all other disasters, wars from the beginning of time,” Butts told the group. “But I was stung by a mosquito, how comeit didn’t doit to me?” asked sixth-grader Seth Hancock . Butts explained only certain mosquitoes carry the disease. “They are not in the United States, not in this area, ” he said. Across the hall, Tracy Wood and Mary Larkin showed students how they use chemistry in their work. They helped the students make slime, but made it clear it is a product their company does not produce. “A lot of what we do is technical. What we’re doing is showing you the funner side of chemistry,” Larkin said, mixing up a combination of alcohol, sodium and other items to produce a thick, green substance. “Here, shake it like you mean it,” she said, handing the jar to Trevor Wayment. He shookthe jar and the liquid turned to a thick gel before his eyes. “Ooh, neat,” he said, touching a glob in his hand. “I didn’t know we could makestuff like this,” he said. Ken Wamnick, a vice president whoset up the partnership,said a different curriculum has been developed for every grade. It took time andeffort, “but that’s what we are doingthis for, the kids,” he said. Lunchtime tutors FARR WEST — Sixth-grader Robert Dial is unaware that he is part of an innovative partnership with Weber County. All the Farr West 12-year-old knows is that heis getting some one-on-one help with his homework and understanding prepositional phrases for the first time. “Oh, OK, I get it,” Robert said after Roger Brunker said that prepositional phrases help explain a sentence. Robert flashed the first smile of the afternoon, and started writing down answers in a notebook. “A prepositional phrase can be anywhere, don’tlet it fool you,” said Brunker, an employee in the auditor-clerk-treasurer’s office. Brunker spends two afternoons a week at Farr West, helping students like Robert. That means giving up his lunch hour, driving the 12-odd miles to the school, andsitting at desks built for sixth-graders. But Brunkersays it is worthit. “I comehere, all'the kids know my name, and want me to help them. To have a student grasp a concept, think ‘I can understandthis,” that’s whatit is all about. It’s a good feeling that I can do something worthwhile for these kids,” he said. Weber County’s partnership involves employees going to the school, tutoring children and helping out any other way they can. Right now, only a handful of employees are involved, but Brunker says the program iS growing. “It’s addictive,” he said. “Once you are here, you see how badly teachers need help in their classrooms,” he said. Sixth-grade teacher Elaine Lessig said she usually has Brunker work with students who havefallen behind. That way, they catch up and she can teach her class all at the same speed, she said. Since Brunker has been coming, students’ test scores have gone up, she added. It is the individual attention that is makingthe. difference, Lessig said. That seemsto be true for Robert. He became frustrated when he could not figure out why a prepositional phrase is not alwaysat the end of a sentence. Brunker patiently explained the answer, and urged him to continue. “You are smart. You've just got to try and believeit,” he said. Fellow sixth-graders Jayni Larsen, and Melyssa LaRose, both 12, came over and asked Brunker for help with their geometry while he was tutoring Robert. They could not remember the formula for figuring the area of a square. “I hate finding the area,” Jayni said. “Yeah, we just don’t get it,” Melyssa added. Brunker explained how to do the problem. He laughed as they walked away, saying he hoped hetold them the correct answer. “These kids will bring out these books, and I will say, ‘Oh no. I haven’t studied this for 18 years,’ ” he said. But Josh Osborn, 12, said he trusts Brunker completely. “He explains stuff better, and makesit fun,” he said. “Plus, when I comeout here for help, there is just one of him and one of me,” Josh said. Chris Hancock, another six , agreed. “It’s easier to understand whenthere is just one person explaining it to me,” he said. “It’s almost like he is a friend now,” Chris added. The hour was up, and Robert finished an entire language lesson. “Go ahead, cross that puppy off your list,” Brunker said, as Robert put a big “X” through the assignmenton his “to do” list. As he walked back to the classroom, Robert gave Brunkera high five. “He is definitely great, and he's my friend,”Robert said. It’s also a job WASHINGTON TERRACE — John Elsnab, 16, is turning his love of metal and working with his hands into a job, and he doesn’t even have to leave Bonneville High Schoolto do it. Elsnab is one of a half dozen students who work for Bonneville Precision, a company run out of the school’s metal shop class. The students fabricate and market machine-tooled parts for the aerospace industry. Started about five years ago, the company gets contracts from GSC Foundaries, Tri Star Fabricators, and other businesses. It makes enough money to pay the students’ salaries and buy equipment to keep the shop competitive. Elsnab said it beats flipping hamburgers after school, and also allows him to use what he is learning in the classroom. “You have to get everything so accurate, you use stuff like trigonometry. You see why you are learning it,” he said. “It makes it a lot easier to understand trigonometry when you get to use it,” added Brandon Barber, a 16-year-old sophomore and Precision employee. Mont Forsyth, Bonneville’s metal shop teacher, said running the company meansarriving at school at 7:30 a.m. and staying until 7 p.m. But the business has trained a lot of students for the workplace, and allowed the shop to purchase up-to-date equipment the school district could never afford. “It gives the kids experience so they are better prepared once they leave high school,” he said. The business runs year-round, often full time in the summer, Forsyth said. It handles orders from 80 to 5,000 parts. “Westay busy. The biggest problem we've had is a companies willing to give us a chance,” he sai Bonneville Precision began as a partnership with GSC Foundries. Employees were working with students and decided to let them try filling a work contract. It has now expanded to the point where GSC relies on the students, said Chuck Love, machine division manager. “Wefeel we were teaching a pool of people, helping them develop basic work skills. When they get out of school and comeinto the workforce, they will be better trained,” he said. Elsnab said it also is helping him get ready for college. “I already have 14 college credits,” he said, adding he receives college credit for the work he does at Bonneville Precision. By the time he graduates, Elsnab said he may have earned as many as 28 credits. Leaming in stars LAYTON — Itis 10 p.m. on a Saturday night, and the school week is over. But 15-year-old Buck Lozier’s learning has just begun. Buck stood outside on his back lawn, squinted one eye, peered through a 6-foot telescope, and counted the moonsofJupiter. “I can see a few swirls on the planet, and four moons, almostin a straight line,” he said. Buck loves to study astronomy, but does not have a telescope of his own. The oneheis using this night was given to Central Davis Junior High School by Iomega Corp. The company donated parts for 35 telescopes, worth about $400 each, to 35 schools in the Davis School District. It then took 24 teachers on a 30-hourretreat, where they assembled the telescopes and learned how to use them and pass the knowledgeto their students. “If we can get students interested in science and math early on, the more technical a sociéty we will have. We’ll have a better pool of engineers 10 to 15 years down the road,” said Brent Watson, a project manager and one of two Iomega engineers behind the partnership. The company also meets with teachers once a month to keep them current on astronomy. There are JAY DROWNS/Standard-Examiner plans to donate 14 moretelescopes to the district, Watsonsaid. As part of the agreement, the schools had to agree to let the students check out the telescopes overnight. “We told them it had to be like a book in the hbrary,” Watson said. Wayne Sumner, another Iomega engineer, added: “We had to twist a lot of principals’ arms to get them to do that.” The pnncipals wanted the telescopes to be a showpiece, he said. “But telescopes are meant to be used at night,” Sumnersaid. Buck said he was delighted with the arrangement. He moved the telescope around,try:ng to get better viewof Venus. “I’m going to takeit to Antelope Island tomorrow,” he said, explaining the lights from the city hampered his view. “This has a mirrorreflector, kind of like the Hubble, but a lot smaller,” he said. Buck signed up three months agoto take the telescope home. “It took that long, there were so many kids wanting to checkit out,” he said. Viewing the planets is a much better wayto learn than just reading about them, he added. Max Holbrook, Buck’s earth science teacher, said the telescope has curved mirrors, which collect and focus on light. “It makes it so you can see galaxies in the distances and into space several million miles,” he said. “It’s large, but small enough so kids can check it out and take it home,” Holbrook said. Buck said now he wants a telescope of his own. Bonneville High School sophomore Brandon Bar- Precision, a real business in the school’s metal ber works on a milling machine at Bonneville shop that makes parts for industry. Wannick ‘The challenge in our From 3B chamber’s Partners In Education Committee. The committee finds a school, identifies its needs and tries to match it up with a business, he said. Both schools and businesses benefit, Urry said. The children broad- Bigg | He wants | each schoolin Weber County matched with a business. en their educations, and businesses teach future workers important skills, he said. “They will be able to add more to the workplace and become more valuable to us as business people,” Uny said. Nancy Lyon, Davis School District foundation director, said part- nerships are part of a newtrend in education. The Davis district has dozens of informal partnershins where com- panies sponsor schoul programs, of- fer incentives or make donations she said. “Our partnerships are growing and changing all the time,” she said. “The challenge in our district is to formalize the partnerships so we have a better idea of who is involved and how many partnerships district is to formalize the partnerships so we have a better idea of whois involved.’ — Nancy Lyon teachers 1 tance. “We ypreciate the assishaven't had anyonesay ‘bug off he Warnick said the goal is to have every elementary school in Weber County matched up with a business, then mov the junior high and high school lev “Th the e co schools 5 S sct i part said about p there actually are,” Lyon said. Warnick said with a laugh ienge i ill hools in system. t ) try and of them,” he and “I’ve been watching Star Trek for a couple of years and wondering what is up there,” he said. “One day, I hope to do something with the stars, maybe space exploration,” he said, gazing up at the night sky. Value of the dollar GARLAND — Several years ago, Bear River High School teacher Fred Chnstensen said he realized a lot of his students wanted to go to college, but most would not make it without financial help. That is when Christensen, adviser of Future Farmers of America, took action. He began seeking donations from the communityto set up scholarships for his students. Now, Christensen has a partnership with his entire community. There are about 100 individuals and businesses who donate to the FFA program, in amounts ranging from $25 to $500. “People have been so generous. A lot of them are my former students,” said Christensen, a teacher for 34 years. He said $200 to $500 mayseem to be a small amount compared to what is required for school, but it is an incentive. Students must use the money for sometypeofpost high school education. “But we do not specify what type it must be,” he said. “Anything I can do to encourage a kid to improve themselves, I'll do it,” Christensen said, The hope is manyof the students will return to the agriculture industry after completing their schooling, he said. “In today's job market, less than | percent of the population are farmers, but as manyas 34 percent are in some type of business that provides for or supports agnculture,” he said. A monetarypartnership also is helping Ogden’s Lewis Elementary School. Key Bank provides funds to teachers for projects and materials, and supplies things from filing cabinets to Magic Markers. “It's great to know there 1s a business in the community that cares about you.” said Mary DeLaRosa, Lewis’ principal, DeLaRosasaid the company also provides grants for projects and the library, “It's been very nice for us,” she said VNS/Standard-Examiner “And every now andthen, the company will havea teacher appreciation day and take us out to dinner. I's a great morale booster,” she said West Weber sixth-grader Jared Taylor grimaces at the taste of a sodium chioride solution mixed up by chemist David Butts, who showed students how salt crystals are formed in brine. |