Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

OK Elementary School Gets Access to 2 STEM Centers

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 08/12/19

An army of volunteers from local nonprofits and companies showed up to an Oklahoma City elementary school to help set up two new STEM operations.

According to local reporting, employees from Home Depot turned a former lodge building into a learning center, with a paint job to the exterior and demolition on the interior. The Engage Learning center, named after the organization that will run it, will have its own staff and maker equipment. Engage Learning is an Oklahoma organization that sets up learning opportunities for students in the state; financial support comes from Devon Energy, which is headquartered in Oklahoma City.

While the space, which sits next to Mark Twain Elementary School, will be taken over by the younger students and their families during the school year, it will also serve middle schoolers and high schoolers, for organized STEM projects. The maker space will feature 3D printers, laser cutters, a wood shop and other tools community members can use.

The elementary school itself will also have a STEM area in its media center. The set-up inside the school was handled by volunteers from Devon Energy, which has provided help and mentoring for the school for 15 years. There, the STEM center will have LEGO kits, robotics, circuit sets, computing devices and 3D printers.

Financial support for STEM centers throughout the state is being provided by Devon Energy and the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation. The goal is for every elementary school in Oklahoma eventually to have a STEM center.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Philadelphia Middle School Facility Earns LEED Gold Certification

    The Alternative Middle Years (AMY) at James Martin Middle School in Philadelphia, Penn., recently received a LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, according to a news release. The School District of Pennsylvania partnered with KSS Architects on the project.

  • Fargo, N.D., Starts Construction on Consolidated Elementary School

    Fargo Public Schools in Fargo, N.D., recently announced the beginning of construction on a new elementary school, according to a news release. The district partnered with ICON Architectural Group and Kraus-Anderson Construction on the new Horace Mann Elementary School.

  • Designing for Every Mind

    Learning environments have the power to shape not just what students know, but who they become. When a school is designed with genuine empathy—for the full range of ways students think, sense, and engage with the world—it becomes more than a building. It becomes a catalyst for growth, confidence, and belonging. That is the animating idea behind neurodiverse design, and it is one that is transforming how more architects and designers are thinking about school design.

  • Health & Science Building

    Health & Science Building

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. The College of Western Idaho's Health & Science Building has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Project of Distinction award in the category of New Construction.