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SMYRNA, Tenn. (AP) — On a recent afternoon, Smyrna Middle School students sat attentively at their desks and learned how industrial engineers apply their knowledge in the car industry.
After a presentation by two retired industrial engineers from Nissan's manufacturing plant in Smyrna, the students received eight minutes and a ball of modeling clay to create their own cars of the future, presenter Julie Corcoran said.
The students intently pushed and pulled the clay, forming their ideas of car design into reality.
"It was encouraging to see the young minds working. They were so attentive and polite," said Corcoran, who, along with fellow retired engineer Wes Ballard, led all the sixth-grade science classes at Smyrna Middle through the principles of car design as part of the Business Education Partnership Foundation's SPARK program.
BEP is thinking outside of the book with the SPARK program, which brings local professionals into Rutherford County classrooms with the goal of "sparking" an interest in different fields of study as well as providing teachers with a ways to develop interactive classroom activities and lessons, said Amelia Bozeman, director of BEP.
SPARK stands for "Students with Professionals Acquiring Real Knowledge," Bozeman said.
BEP and SPARK dovetail nicely with growing trends in government to match the public education system workforce needs, officials said.
Gov. Bill Haslam, for one, has introduced a variety of initiatives, such Drive to 55, to fill job-skills gaps in Tennessee's economy.
Drive to 55 seeks to increase postsecondary education, in both college and technical school, to increase the increase the number of Tennessee residents with college degrees or certifiations 55 percent by 2025 and includes initiatives like Tennessee Promise, which would waive tuition to two-year colleges, and Tennessee Reconnect, which will help adults return to the classroom.
"To continue to grow the state's economy, we need the best workforce," Haslam said at an appearance last year in Murfreesboro.
The call for better educated workers can also be heard from Capitol Hill in Washington.
President Barack Obama addressed the job-skills-gap issue in his State of the Union address and at his speech in January at McGavock High School in Nashville.
At the speech, Obama noted a need for schools to engage in more hands-on learning and school-to-work style programs to give more students options for continuing education.
Bozeman said her goal is to open students to more options by using the business community to spark student interest in continuing their education.
Advanced manufacturing, information technology, logistics and health care are experiencing the biggest skills gaps and prospective growth, she said about careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.
While Corcoran and Ballard sparked interest in STEM fields with their hands-on engineering activity, Bozeman said SPARK volunteers come from a number of diverse career fields, and teachers who need a guest speaker on any subject can contact BEP for help.
"We have a great pool of accomplished, talented volunteers who are ready to share their career experiences with students and help them develop an understanding of how they can build careers based on their own interests and favorite subjects," Bozeman said.
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Information from: The Daily News Journal, http://www.dnj.com
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