Volkswagen announces 8 more Hamilton County schools to receive science eLabs

January 30th, 2018 by Meghan Mangrum in Breaking News Read Time: 5 mins.

Normal Park sixth-grader Abel Windemuller, right, shows a prosthetic tool developed in the Normal Park eLab to Orchard Knob students after an event announcing the addition of eight new VW eLabs in Hamilton County public schools at Orchard Knob
Middle School on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018 in Chattanooga, Tenn. The schools receiving eLabs are: Brown Middle School, Hixson Middle School, Ooltewah Middle School, Orchard Knob Middle School, Soddy-Daisy Middle School, Brainerd High School and
Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts and Hixson High School.
Photo by C.B. Schmelter /Times Free Press.

Gallery: Volkswagen announces 8 more Hamilton County schools to receive science eLabs
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Can a go-kart run o solar power? Can a water ltration system be created that does not require electricity? Can a horse use a prosthetic leg?

Those aren't questions being asked by professional engineers and scientists. They are questions that have been asked — and answered — in eight Volkswagen eLabs in Hamilton County Schools.

On Tuesday, Volkswagen, in partnership with the Public Education Foundation, Hamilton County Schools and the state, announced eight additional schools that will receive their own Volkswagen eLabs.

"[The labs] have changed how students learn," said Dan Challener, president of the Public Education Foundation. "They have access to truly extraordinary teachers, some of the most advanced tools and
technology anywhere in the world in our schools. ... The students in these eight schools have spent the fall semester wrestling with fascinating, very real challenges."

Students at the eight schools — Brainerd High School, Brown Middle School, Chattanooga Center for Creative Arts, Hixson Middle School, Hixson High School, Ooltewah Middle School, Orchard Knob
Middle School and Soddy-Daisy Middle School — will have the same opportunities in their eLabs starting next year.

"These labs give our students room for more innovation, a bigger maker space and time for
creativity," said Orchard Knob Middle School Principal Ti any Earvin.
Schools getting eLabs
The e ort to open a total of 16 eLabs was unveiled last year through a $1 million donation from
These Hamilton County schools are receiving new eLabs:
the state and Volkswagen Chattanooga. Tennessee provided the $1 million as a part of the
package of nancial incentives it o ered when wooing the German automaker to Chattanooga.
Brainerd High School
Brown Middle School
The labs are lled with digital fabrication tools, including automated manufacturing equipment,
Chattanooga Center or Creative Arts
programmable microcomputers, renewable energy kits, 3-D printers, robotics and laser cutters.
Hixson High School
They are sta ed by Volkswagen eLabs Innovation Teams, made up of Hamilton County
Hixson Middle School
teachers who receive specialized training and an eLab specialist who sta s the lab full time.
Ooltewah Middle School
Orchard Knob Middle School "You cannot imagine what is going on in there — it's so great to see all the innovative things
Soddy Daisy Middle School students are doing with the tools of the future. The students truly love to work in these eLabs,"
said Nicole Koesling, senior vice president of human resources at Volkswagen. "Volkswagen
truly is and always has been devoted to education. Every one of these students are the
workforce of the future. ... I think it is crucial to have things like the eLab to really learn how to
use these tools."

Schools with existing labs have each utilized their labs in unique ways. The specialists decide how to work with their school teams and in what capacity the labs are used.

At Sale Creek Middle/High School, where students repurposed old computer parts to build robots and clocks, eighth-grade students spend two days a week as part of their science classes in the labs
working on semester-long projects.

Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences has tried to make the labs available across grade levels and curriculum, said Upper School Principal Jim Boles.
 Students from an Algebra 2 class used math equations to build a miniature water ltration
system, but students from a social studies class also used the vinyl cutter to re-create
propaganda and design their own in relation to what they were learning.

"It gives teachers a stronger project option of their unit, it gives students the opportunity to
demonstrate their learning," said Kristin Burrus, the school's eLab specialist and a Tennessee
Teacher of the Year nalist. " It's neat that they are learning these skills with these tools, but
what is truly transformative is the problem-solving skills they are acquiring."

In this round of applications for eLabs, 16 middle and high schools in Hamilton County applied.

Each school is responsible for committing $5,000 annually in cash or contributed materials,
which can come through fundraising and donations, to ensure that the labs are continually
refreshed and materials replaced.

The eLabs e ort came as the region began to face challenges in building a prepared
workforce for the future.

One of newly appointed Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Bryan Johnson's big focuses
since he took the helm last summer has been to create ready graduates, or students prepared
for the workforce and highly skilled jobs that are out there.

In 2015, a Chattanooga 2.0 report stated that around 15,000 existing jobs were not lled by
Hamilton County residents because they did not meet the education requirements.

In the coming years, 83 percent of job postings in the county paying a livable wage of at least
$35,000 a year are expected to require education past high school.

Those jobs are highly likely to go un lled, as only 35 percent of Hamilton County's public high
Chattanooga Public Education Foundation STEM Director of Innovative... school graduates complete a training, certi cate or degree program within six years after
Photo by C.B. Schmelter /Times Free Press. graduation, 2015 data shows.

Pushes for better workforce development opportunities have come from the city and county,
the school system and business leaders. The eLabs are one example of this, and last fall
Johnson announced the unveiling of Future Ready Institutes, or speci c industry-themed small
Schools that have eLabs learning academies that will be o cially announced next month.

These Hamilton County schools already have eLabs: "We know there are skills like problem-solving, collaboration, determination that [students] are
going to need regardless and these labs and experiences allows them to build them," said
Chattanooga School for the Arts & Sciences Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke.
Dalewood Middle School
East Hamilton Middle/High Overall, working in the labs not only helps teachers align curriculum, standards and lessons,
The Howard School but they make learning tangible and fun for students.
Hunter Middle School
Normal Park Museum Magnet "[Class] is better, it actually gives science a new meaning," said Drew Hillian, 14, an eighth-
Red Bank Middle/High School grader at Sale Creek Middle/High School. "You might have been able to sit down and
Sale Creek Middle/High brainstorm an idea before, but you couldn't actually build it. Now we get to see through the
actual process."

Contact sta writer Meghan Mangrum at [email protected] or 423-757-6592.

This story was updated Jan. 30, 2018, at 11:59 p.m.