OrthoWorx Expands School Experiences, Sees Success In Virtual World
Press Release
WARSAW — OrthoWorx completed a successful National Manufacturing Week through their DiscoverME program, continuing strong engagement in the future workforce despite significant changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Expanding the DiscoverME curriculum offered, OrthoWorx provided new STEM and industry-focused lessons as well as virtual options given that field trips to local manufacturers and higher education partners were not possible.
DiscoverME introduces eighth-grade students across Kosciusko County to the world of advanced manufacturing, highlights career opportunities within the industry and promotes educational pathways to local career opportunities. Students in the Tippecanoe Valley, Warsaw, Wawasee and Whitko school districts participated in this year’s curriculum during the week of Oct. 5.
“This year we knew we would have to create lessons that could be implemented virtually for students who were participating in e-Learning,” said Nichole Rouached, OrthoWorx manager of communications and projects.
“Our goals this year were to provide teacher and student choice, highlight the technology with advanced manufacturing, and create fun and engaging activities for students that could be done safely in the classroom. The broadened focus, blending the manufacturing process with STEM objectives through nine new classroom activities, worked really well,” she said.
OrthoWorx saw growth in its third year of DiscoverME with greater emphasis on STEM learning objectives and hands-on learning opportunities. There was a 48% increase in students being more aware of the manufacturing ecosystem with 73.3% of students being more familiar with local companies and the manufacturing process. Additionally, 81.8% of students reported seeing manufacturing as a center of innovation, containing clean facilities and advanced technologies.
OrthoWorx engaged two Purdue University students as summer interns to create and modify all the curriculum and communications for the 2020 ME program. Stephanie Verser served as the education intern and 2019 Warsaw Community High School graduate Sarahy Duenas was the communications intern. The team’s initial goal was to amend the curriculum from 2019 and on top of that, they were able to create nine new engaging lessons.
“This opportunity allowed me to gain more experience on writing curriculum and has given me the opportunity to be creative with designing lessons that are responsive to local companies while still staying focused on student growth and state learning objectives,” said Verser.
The intern team worked alongside several OrthoWorx partners to help connect industry with the classroom. Corporate partners for the 2020 ME program included DePuy Synths, Instrumental Machine and Development, Paragon Medical, Polywood, Precision Medical Technologies and Zimmer Biomet.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, students were not able to tour any manufacturing facilities, the Warsaw Area Career Center, the Wawasee Area Career and Technical Center, or Ivy Tech Community College’s Orthopedic and Advanced Manufacturing Training Center.
“In place of these tours we have created engaging homeroom activities for students that highlight aspects of the tour as well as give them hands-on experience of designing, building and testing products,” said Rouached.
“Once again we have had tremendous support and cooperation from our partner manufacturing companies and school corporations involved, and we are so thankful that despite everything going on we were still able to bring the DiscoverME program to students and spotlight all the opportunities available locally to them, both in terms of careers and educational pathways,” said Rouached.