Manchester Unveils $10K Grant-Funded STEM Classroom Makeover

The staff at Manchester Middle School had a dream: to create a classroom that not only fueled students’ scientific creativity but gave them a place to put visions in action.

Thanks to a $10,000 grant from the OceanFirst Foundation, that dream has become a reality.

The district unveiled the renovated classroom recently, with district officials and representatives from OceanFirst, including Katherine Durante, the foundation’s executive director, touring it and speaking with students in the school’s Future Engineers Club.

The afterschool club uses the lab to design and build underwater robots for an annual SeaPerch competition. Students from the club proudly displayed their competition robot and answered visitors’ questions about its design and operation. They described how the recycled salad tongs on the front of the robot are used to scoop up objects, explained that a video camera is used to guide the robot, and demonstrated the control device. They also showed some of the tools and the Chromebooks provided through the grant.

District officials said students in all grade levels at the middle school are now taking STEM classes as part of the school’s quarterly rotation courses. Eighth-graders take part in the SeaPerch robotics experience, which simulates a real-world engineering environment as students build submersible ROVs (remotely operated vehicles). Students must also create their own company, assign roles, set goals, track their progress through electronic logs and videos, and present a final project in a multimedia format. Sixth- and seventh-graders take part in different STEM activities.

Vice Principal Steve Ninivaggi wrote the OceanFirst Model Classroom grant proposal with the help of STEM instructor Maura Simister.

“None of the equipment or furniture needed to support the team-based approach of STEM projects is available,” Ninivaggi wrote in the proposal. “With the grant, they will be able to adequately equip the room with Chromebooks, lab tables, desks, a projector, a small portable pool (for testing the robots) and additional SeaPerch ROV kits so that students can work efficiently and safely in a space that properly simulates an engineering lab or workshop.”

The classroom now has all of that furniture and equipment installed, including a small portable pool in the school’s interior courtyard. Simister said that students are using the tools and technology provided by the grant on a daily basis.

The students expressed their gratitude with a giant card they presented to the OceanFirst representatives, signed by all the club members.

“Thank you for helping us remodel the STEM room, and allowing us to compete in the competitions,” one student,
Kevin Khemraj, wrote inside. “We wouldn’t have gotten this far without your support. Thanks again.”

“Thank you very much for bringing my vision to life for my students,”Simister wrote. “ You have allowed them the opportunity to experience a wealth of knowledge as well as exposing them to technology they may not necessarily have been able to use.”

(1. Members of the Future Engineers Club at Manchester Twp Middle School explain the design and operation of their underwater robot to officials touring the school’s new STEM lab classroom. 2. Katherine Durante, executive director of OceanFirst Foundation, chats with Manchester Middle School students in the school’s new STEM lab. 3. Students present OceanFirst representatives with a thank you card. Photos by Lee Bruzaitis, Manchester Township School District)