Montco Bomb Unit Explodes Clay Pots For Creative Learning In Local Middle School

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA — Colonial Middle School students were treated to a very unique lesson recently courtesy of the Montgomery County Bomb Squad.

The Colonial School District is working to promote STEAM, a teaching method that encourages students to think creatively, outside-the-box, beyond the established curriculum. STEAM values "the learning process as much as the results," school district officials said.

For one recent project, students were tasked with creating "bang pots." Students, guided by art teacher Traci Rovinsky and science teacher Kelly Wistreich, made clay spheres by hand, then filled the pots with soil, then added seed to grow plants in the pots. The final step was using dynamite to blow up the pots, as was done by sculptor Steve Tobin.

Only one problem: no explosions are allowed on school property or township property.

So the teachers reached out to the FBI, who referred them to Montgomery County Sheriff's Office Bomb Unit Commander Lt. Allen Stewart. Stewart was happy to help with the training. He said that he could appreciate the school's STEAM curriculum because he is always looking for new ways to come up with creative training methods.

Sheriff's Office Bomb Unit Deputies Timothy Metz and Jon Cagliola were dispatched to Colonial, where they placed the firecrackers into the clay and held the explosions successfully and safely.

Well done!

Images via Montgomery County Sheriff's Office