STEM School Chattanooga honors 3rd group of teachers to finish fellowship

Bill Kilbride is the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce chief executive officer.
Bill Kilbride is the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce chief executive officer.

STEM fellows

Hamilton County Schools * Chattanooga School for Arts & Sciences Kristin Burrus * Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts Scott Rosenow * Clifton Hills Elementary Cristol Kapp * East Hamilton Middle High David Manley * East Lake Academy Beverly Hamilton-Adkins * Howard School Andrew Browning-Couch * Loftis Middle Ashley Reagan * Normal Park Erin Woodrow * Ooltewah Middle Angela Mullins * Orchard Knob Elementary Judy Bullington * Red Bank Elementary Alicia Clevenger, Elisabeth Wilson * Red Bank Middle Kimberly Elbakidze * Sequoyah High Stephen Tompkins; Blount County Schools * Heritage High Robert Stewart Bradley County Schools * Ocoee Middle Dustin Fromm; Park View Elementary Heather Hayes Cleveland City Schools * Cleveland Middle Suzanne Gregory; E.L. Ross Elementary Becca Cathell Etowah City Schools * Etowah City School Debbie Lennex Loudon County Schools * Eaton Elementary Tarah Karczewski; Fort Loudon Middle Joseph Davis; North Middle Anne Harvey; Philadelphia Elementary Angela Bright-White McMinn County Schools * Rogers Creek Elementary Teresa Tallent Polk County Schools * Copper Basin High Craig Green Sweetwater City Schools * Brown Intermediate Rebecca McBride Source: Public Education Foundation

The robot-based factory of the future will have only two employees: a manager and a dog, said Bill Kilbride, president and CEO of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce.

"The purpose of the dog is to keep the manager away from the equipment," Kilbride joked at a Tuesday afternoon ceremony at STEM School Chattanooga to honor 27 teachers from nine public school districts in southeastern Tennessee who completed a fellowship in science, technology, engineering and math teaching and best practices.

The fellowship, a partnership between the Public Education Foundation and the Southeast Tennessee STEM Innovation Hub, is designed to give teachers the tools to be leaders in STEM education. The fellows completed a year-long professional development program that includes two summer workshops, quarterly seminars, a job-shadowing experience and a community partner project.

"You'll lead in your schools, and you'll bring other teachers along," PEF President Dan Challener told the teachers, who are the third group to complete the fellowship. "You guys are a great group."

Kilbride, who worked as an executive in the carpet industry before taking the helm at the chamber about nine months ago, shared anecdotes about how important it is for today's workers to be technologically savvy.

"We are worker short," Kilbride said of the Chattanooga region. "We have more jobs than we have people to fill them."

He told of a man who applied five years ago to work assembling cars at Chattanooga's Volkswagen assembly plant wearing overalls, work boots and a T-shirt with a beach blanket under his arm that he planned to sit on for his commute home to keep grease off his car seat.

But that's not an issue at the VW plant, Kilbride said, where "you can eat off the floor."

What's important for workers is to be able to watch the computer controls and dashboard on the plant's robots so "when it's time to put the tires on the car, you hit the red button."

Rebecca McBride, a fifth-grade teacher at Brown Intermediate School in Sweetwater, Tenn., was among the fellows who spoke Tuesday.

"I learned a lot through this program," said McBride, who teamed up with an architect to design an outdoor classroom.

Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@times freepress.com or www.facebook.com/tim.omarzu or twitter.com/TimOmarzu or 423-757-6651.

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