Brian Roebke photo
Einstein Project worker Grace Neuville of Green Bay works with Stanley Zabrowski on his bobblehead project last week at the Brown County Library Wrightstown Branch.
By Brian Roebke
Editor
Kids had some fun exploring the world of STEM on July 22 at the Brown County Library’s Wrights-town branch when Denise McFarlin and her young assistants from the Einstein Project worked with students to create bobbleheads.
It was the second year of the project by ATC, short for American Transmission Company, a Wiscon-sin-based company that moves energy along the regional electric grid in parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois.
“The goal of the Einstein Project is to provide the community with more design, creating, and making experiences,” McFarlin said.
Serving more than 5 million electric consumers, ATC’s Mobile Design Lab helps kids curb “the summer slide” where they traditionally lose months-worth of knowledge during summer break.
She was in Wrightstown with the Einstein Project’s Sandbox Mobile Design Lab for Wisconsin children. The free program is designed to introduce STEM enthusiasts to hands-on programs in computer science including 3D printing, laser cutting and coding.
McFarlin and her young assistants travel through Northeast Wisconsin during the summer to schools, parks, libraries, camps, and special events doing STEM programming for youth and families. Einstein also has a staff that works through the school year.
During the school year, she teaches third and fourth grade at Aldo Leopold Community School, which is an experiential school in Green Bay.
“Our philosophy is that you can learn much more by doing than by just reading is out of a book or hearing it in a lecture,” she said.
In its inaugural year, the Mobile Design Lab, in partnership with ATC, accelerated learning for about 3,000 Wisconsin children with nearly 80 hands-on programs.
The project started at the Makerspace, which is located on the campus of UW-Green Bay inside the Stem Innovation Building.
“Back at the Makerspeace, our leader, Dennis Rockhill, is the designer of all things project related,” she said. “He has designed a bobblehead.”
There’s a 3-D printed base, a nail the head bobbles on, they’re reusing cardboard mailing tubes and lids, putting them on a spring inside to create the bobble effect.
“Kids are using their design brains to decide what will be bobbling,” McFarlin said.
She noted tape is out of style, and almost all of the attaching is done with a hot glue gun.
McFarlin said the Einstein Project staff are the “queens of leftovers,” using any kind of leftover they can get from projects in the Makerspace or donations from the community, including bottlecaps, yarn, CDs, plates, cardboard, and spare wood.
They’re like the guy who keeps everything he has leftover in his garage because he never knows when he might need it.
“If you went to the warehouse, it would be a garage times 25,” McFarlin chuckled.
For more than three decades, the Einstein Project has provided leadership in transformational change in STEM education in Wisconsin. Their support for teachers and schools starts with high-quality, hands-on instructional materials. It continues with transformational professional learning to help teachers foster curiosity and wonder in their classrooms.
McFarlin said they’ve built kits for teachers to use that include the lesson plans and materials to tech about things related to the national science standards.
ATC proudly supports STEM education programs that empower youth with the skills needed to succeed in tomorrow’s energy workforce.