New IACMI Portable Teaching Tool Transports Composites Education Kits to Classrooms
August 22, 2023 — “You can see their eyes light up when they learn about something new. Aha, it happened!” shares Vanina Ghossein, her own face beaming. Her enthusiasm for a new curriculum she has helped develop around composites for K-12 is palpable. “I love everything about it–from planning an activity, looking for materials, deciding how students should do it, and seeing the sparks in their eyes for the first time.” IACMI – The Composites Institute couldn’t have a better champion for the newly unveiled InnoCrateSM.
What are InnoCratesSM?
Focused on STEAM(Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math), InnoCratesSM are a set of portable teaching tools, divided by age levels and filled with everything a classroom would need for a set of hands-on activities. Each kit has 12-18 lessons that can be done over time and has a mix of reusable and consumable items. The goal is to extend educational opportunities to schools that otherwise might miss out due to lack of resources, such as rural locations and underserved populations. It’s also designed to address the need for job skills in composites and manufacturing in general. The idea of science kits is nothing new, but this is the first set of boxes aimed to provide the building blocks of scientific skills needed for working with composites.
InnoCratesSM designed for grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12 are age-appropriate and align with Tennessee educational standards. Vanina has worked with graduate students in the educational department of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT) to help with teacher guides, develop worksheets, and make sure activities tied in with current state standards. Activities for elementary students include air or rubber band powered cars made from recycled materials, kinetic sand, and color changing slime. Those for older students require working with specific equipment used in the composites industry, such as computer-aided design (CAD) modeling, computerized numerical control (CNC) machines, and molding techniques for injection, vacuum forming, and extrusion compression. No matter the age, the goal is show them what’s possible with composites.
“Composite materials are used in everything from aircraft to automotive to sporting goods,” says Dr. Uday Vaidya, the brainchild behind this project. Uday serves as IACMI’s Chief Technology Officer and the UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair for Advanced Composites Manufacturing. “But even at the college level, composites usually don’t get that much attention. Every student who works with an InnoCrateSM will make that connection much earlier to how we use composites every day.”
Piloting InnoCratesSM
Since January 2023, Vanina and her team of UT engineering students have been researching, developing, and piloting these experiments with students from kindergarten to 12th grade. Middle and high schoolers have taken field trips to IACMI’s Collaboration Facility in Knoxville, Tenn., to experience the ping pong cannon, weave textiles on a loom, melt metal discs with a blowtorch, and challenge themselves in Polymer Magic, to see how many wooden skewers could be inserted into a balloon before it popped (the record is currently 24).
For elementary students, Vanina’s team spent 10 days working with more than 500 students at Beaumont Magnet Academy in Knoxville. Dedicated STEAM teacher Jessica Reiner watched it all and emphasizes why this approach is needed. “It’s so much easier,” says Jessica. “Sometimes the hardest part is getting the materials. We don’t have big budgets; many teachers spend their own money and time getting these materials. The more readily available something is, the more likely we can implement it.”
Working across multiple grades, Jessica sees how these experiments are helping develop necessary skills beyond science. “Abstract thought can be tough, using their imagination,” she adds. “Some have physical limitations like dexterity. That’s why I like this playdough activity because it strengthens their finger muscles to help them with writing.”
Perhaps even more important is simply planting those motivating seeds that science is a way to make processes better and improve everyday life. That’s why UT biomedical engineering junior Jordan Oxendineis here.“They’re SO CUTE! This is where I fell in love with STEM, in elementary classrooms, doing crafts like these. I want to help the next generation find that, too.” Instructor Romeo Fono Tamo agrees. “The younger ones reacted ‘WOW!’ all the time. The older ones were thinking more and seemed to appreciate what we were bringing to them.”
Third grader Alice has decided she likes the slime best. “It’s so cool how it changes color! It’s just satisfying how you can turn it from purple to pink with the heat in your hands. If you stop touching it, it won’t stay pink.” This is the first step in learning about thermodynamics and how temperature and mixing can be key to a material’s properties. Her classmate Eloise was more taken by the homemade car powered by a balloon. “If you give it a source of energy, it can move itself,” she observes. “Today I learned about parts of a car, like the axle. I might want to be an engineer. I don’t know.” Composites are set to make a big impact in the automotive industry, especially as EVs must become lighter and stronger. Could Eloise be a mechanical engineer in the making?
Faces Tell All!
One thing is for certain: their faces tell all! Excitement and disappointment. Vanina admits she lets them make mistakes. “If they build the car incorrectly, put the wheels on upside down or wind the rubber band the wrong way, it won’t move. It matters how you build something.” But when they are successful, she shares, “Their faces reveal like they figured out the secret of the world, like they’ve done something important.”
As Vanina reflects on her own journey as a former special education teacher in Lebanon or envisions what lies ahead for her 3 and 7-year-old daughters as second-generation immigrants, she gets emotional. “I came from a country where these opportunities were not there. I was fortunate to have supportive parents, but I can’t remember a year living in Lebanon when there was no explosion or war since I was born. Even here in the U.S. there are kids who don’t have it easy. This is why I want to reach as many kids as possible. These kits are important because not all the kids have the same opportunities to learn. Not only are we teaching them science, but we’re also giving them hope. Assuring them, you can do wonders!”
