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Special Double iSSue

Fall/Winter 2024

TEACHING anufacturing

TODAY WI ™ TODAY Wi tM

WISCONSIN’S 4K–12 EDuCaTION CONNECTION SINCE 1997 CONNECTING & ExPLORING MaNuFaCTuRING IN WISCONSIN

First-Grade Inventors and Eighth-Grade Fab Labs Build Student

Mentors Turn Imagination into Reality Competencies in Belleville Schools

Through Classroom Partnership Late Teacher Planted Seeds Of Success

Madison Metropolitan School District Briggs’ classes spend three days with the first- The fabrication laboratory (fab lab) at Bel- by enthusiastic faculty and administrators.
First-grade inventors and eighth-grade grade students, helping them choose materials leville High School is more than a collection “Ed will be remembered for his dedication
mentors are turning imaginations into realities and use tools to build their item. of high-tech machines used to propel discov- to and belief in his students,” says Belleville
through a classroom partnership at Orchard First-grade students leaned forward and ery and critical thinking. That’s a tribute to Superintendent of Schools Nate Perry. “Ed
Ridge Elementary (ORE) and Toki Middle stretched out of their seats, eyes wide and the commitment of Ed Neumann, a dynamic would always learn along with his students.
School. hands waving as the eighth graders walked into and award-winning tech education and trades He’d try to learn the machines before his
October marked the third annual col- the classroom. One young student got out of teacher who championed the idea and set Bel- students, but often he’d refer questions to a
laboration between teacher Lee Brigg’s his seat to personally request his eighth-grade leville schools on the path to fab-lab learning. 16-year-old, because they were the expert.”
eighth-grade design and fabrication class partner because “he has hair just like me!” Neumann died unexpectedly on Christmas
and ORE’s first-grade classes. Starting with Before long, teachers Becky Christy and Day in 2022, at age 46, during a deer-hunting Fab Labs Open New Frontiers
a sketch and writing descriptive sentences, Megan Schumacher’s first-grade classrooms trip. Today, the legacy of the man who advo- Today, Nico Berthelon, Neumann’s
first-grade students brainstorm and design looked like a toy workshop as students worked cated for the lab and engineered two of the energetic successor, advances that legacy, con-
their “magnificent thing” – any item they want district’s three WEDC Fab Labs grants—for a necting trades to academics, entrepreneurship,
to build with an eighth-grade buddy. Then, combined $44,600—is being carried forward
Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 28

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