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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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