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("Rest" by Basic Comfort plays) ("Rest" by Basic Comfort plays) Alright you guys, get ready to do some science.

This is really an opportunity for us to build the pipeline for the stand professionals that our community needs.

This program gives kids another motivation to be here every day and engage.

That’s, I think, our biggest impact.

Kids are excited about learning.

Dr. Keli Christopher, founder, CEO of STEM Greenhouse.

What is your purpose and goal in creating SEM Greenhouse?

We’re here at Innovation Central High School, and this is a learning environment for part of your program, STEM 2.0.

Tell us about that and how this came to be.

I started STEM Greenhouse doing math programming for girls that led to doing a lot of middle school programming.

But let’s say the child is in the eighth grade.

They aged out of my program.

I had no other place for them.

And so we were really looking for a space where we could continue mentoring our students, and also just ensuring that their math and science classes were appropriate for getting into some engineering or science programming.

We want students to be able to get out of poverty.

Most of our students, like over 97% have free or reduced lunch.

And so it was important for us to give them opportunity to succeed.

How long has STEM Greenhouse been around?

And what really was the core piece that made you create this?

STEM Greenhouse was founded 10 years ago.

What I found was that not all students had the opportunities to go into a STEM career because they did not have the proficiency levels in math and science.

And I remember I went to my old elementary school to get started, and I looked at all of the test results and not one student in that middle school was proficient in science So I knew that this was something that was important to me.

I wanted other students to be able to just have that chance, have that opportunity, and I knew that part of that was math and science proficiency that we would have to focus on.

And a lot of STEM programs, you know, they might have robotics, they might have coding but very few focus on those foundational subjects to be successful in STEM.

You know, they’re going to have to take those entrant college entrance exams.

If you’re not proficient in math, you’re not going to do well in the those.

This is limiting your scholarship opportunities, it’s limiting what schools you can attend So by focusing on those core math and science skills, we’re just giving them a lot more variety of options, you know.

But so when you look to the future, what are your hopes and your goals there?

My goal would be to serve more schools in the way that we’re serving at Central, where we have staff that work at the school.

They’re there all day Our staff are helping all of the science teachers.

They’re helping all of the math teachers.

I think that’s sort of integration into the school building, it’s a model that I want to spread to middle schools, even some elementary schools, because we want them to come to high school with a certain level of math and science proficiency.

We want them to come to middle school school with a certain level of math proficiency.

So the sooner we can get integrated into that system, helping teachers and helping students, the better.

It’s’s no secret STEM is not easy.

It’s not an easy thing to get into.

It’s not an easy thing to maintain.

And so you need that continuous support.

I wish I had a program like this when I was getting into mathematics because it was a tough journey and we’re just here to make it as managble as possible for our students.

Math and science isn’t what they probably always thought it was.

It’s around them all the time.

It’s constantly evolving, it’s fun, it’s exciting.

And I think when they leave this program, they’re going to be excited to figure out even more about math and science and everything that’s involves STEM, because it’s so much more than they probably originally thought.

Kids are excited to go to school, and that’s.

I think that’s the secret, right?

You want to get kids to come here, they want to be a part of learning.

And when you get them excited about it, that’s the biggest impact I see is kids are excited to come, kids want to brag to me, that, I came to school five straight days.

I was in all my hours.

That’s the key.

This program gives kids another motivation to be here every day and engage.

We was like, mixing vinegar and bacon powder together.

You know, at first, I thought it was gonna, like, explode at first, but, like, the balloon, it just, like, it just.. filled up with air, you know, I didn’t know I could do stuff like that at first.

You know, science projects, I like that going now, ’cause you know, stuff will explode and you know, stuff like that.

So I like physics, and we do like, you know, Newton’s Law Of Motion, stuff like that.

I really like it, overall.

I’m a gamer, so I like doing a lot of, you know, computer stuff.

So I’m gonna do, like, electrical engineering, stuff like that.

It’s gonna help me, like, understand how to, like, to use computers and edit, you know, it helps you, like, you know, want to learn stuff like that.

I remember watching, like, the Black Panther movies and just getting so inspired by that, seeing people of color in, high tech environments and technology and laboratories and things like that.

I thought it would be really cool to have something similar, inspired, you know, by those movies And I just think it’s important important for students to be in spaces that celebrate their culture and their heritage.

Like, there really is no African art in these spaces, so now we can add something that they’ve never seen before before, and everybody can appreciate it and celebrate it.

Cultural relevance, I think, is the most significant part about our program.

I don’t know the exact statistic but I believe less than 5% of teachers in America are black or brown, and that doesn’t reflect the student population And so having educators, I kind of kind of even know, remind students of themselves is so important for them to see, like, oh, someone like myself takes school seriously, wants to be educated.

There’s just that relatability piece that’s so important that I think our program brings in terms of curriculum, in terms of the educational experience.

My goal is to build problem solvers and leaders.

I want to build the individuals that are going to solve the problems that we don’t even know are coming yet.

Does it fill your heart to see the changes that you’ve made over the last 10 years?

You know, this work has always brought me a lot of joy.

But I would say there was a time when it was very difficult because we’re doing something different, but now we’re just in a real good sweet spot of people that have recognized the value of this and that want to partner.

And so the potential, you know, those opportunities has really grown within the last few years, and I’m really excited about that.

Blandford Nature Center’s been here since like the late 1960s and so we started off going out to school and bringing nature and information to the Grand Rapids Public School system And now, you know, going from a few acres to over 200 acres of land to be able to bring schools out here and get them outside in learning about nature, and that’s continued on over the years.

So you really offer students an opportunity to get their hands dirty out in nature.

I’ve heard a lot about beeps that are running around.

Can you talk to me about what these students that are beeps are?

So the beeps are the Blandford environmental Education Program Kids, and so that’s a sixth grade program of 60 kids We offer opportunities for kids throughout the school year to do mentorships of the different departments at the nature Center, so they can kind of get a behind the scenes look at what we do, especially if they have different interests, whether it’s working with animals or working outside, with plants, working at the farm to kind of get that experience.

I’ve always came here when I was younger, and I’ve always really loved the animals and the nature, and and all the unique things here, and going to Blandford school definitely helped.

I’ve always just, like, loved animals and coming to the nature center, so I wanted to try an opportunity to come here at Blandford.

Today we’re here on a Monday, which means it’s wildlife time.

Talk to me about what you guys are doing today.

So with the wildlife department, it’s a lot of cleaning and feeding.

We’ll start off in the mornings with cleaning cages inside and we’ll get those cages ready before a different school groups start coming in for their programs and then we’ll get food ready for our indoor animals, and then we also get food together for the outdoor animals, and we’ll go out and feed the outdoor guys, as well, so.

We were creating the animals cages and giving them newspapers to use, and we’re just like making sure the old newspapers were in the cage, so they had a cleaner cage.

A lot of times we make, like, a deal where like, they always have to work with the rats and stuff like that, and then we mop and sweep.

And sometimes if like, one of us wants to do one part of a job and not the other part, we might, like, switch or stuff like that.

It is a lot of cleaning and feeding, but I also show them how we provide enrichment for the animals as well, of like, we give the turtles a spa day with giving them, like little olive oil on their shells and skin.

Do you guys want to oil up some turtles?

Yeah,.

My favorite part was probably when we got to take care of the turtles.

I like the snapping turtle, this snapping turtle.

I like handling the turtles.

And some of these animals, I’m sure really appreciate it, because not all of them come from the best backgrounds.

Right.

Can you talk with me about some of the animals you you have here and where you got them from?

So for our animals, we focus mainly on native Michigan wildlife.

We have animals that will come in, that we give a permanent home to from other wildlife rehabers in West Michigan, and sometimes other parts of the state or other states.

We’ll have animals that might have been hit by cars, that have permanent injuries.

We might have babies animals, but we’ll talk about with our animals, why they’re with us when we do our programming and explain, like, for example, I have a pet rabbit because a wild rabbit, Eastern cottontail, would not do well with being touched by kids and being picked up, even though we see them all the time around our homes.

You said, you know, certain animals don’t do well with being touched by humans, you know, shouldn’t be.

I want to talk about quilber, because you would think that maybe a porcupine wouldn’t be someone who wants to be touched by a lot of kids, but it’s a different circumstance here.

Can you talk to me about his story?

So with Quilber, he came to us with about I think it’s about five years ago now.

And so he had been found as a baby in someone’s backyard, and mom didn’t come back, and so they contacted a wildlife rehabber that took him in.

And so he became too used to the people that were taking care of him and so she asked if we could give him a home at Blandford, and I was like, yes.

So we took him in and worked with him.

So he would be used to being handled for programs, for the beeps.

That’s one of the things that they enjoy is that we will go into his enclosure, and I’ll have them get his food and then they can play with him, give him that enrichment, ’cause again, he was raised by people, so interacting with people is fun for him.

It’s not scary.

My favorite animal is probably Wilbur.

He’s really cute, and he’s playful.

How do you feel that time and nature, like time in the outdoors, is different from maybe time spent in a classroom?

What’s kind of that difference in learning?

I think, I mean, we definitely need them that classroom experience, but you need that real world experience as well.

I mean, just like, you know, I get a lot of kids that are like, I want to be a veterinarian, I want to work with animals, and it’s like if you can’t handle blood and guts, you are not going to want to work with animals.

And so it really gives kids that opportunity to see what it’s really like to work with animals kind of like all the different aspects, not just the fun aspects you might see.

I would say that it was really fun and I would recommend doing the wildlife one because especially if you really like animals and it’s really really fun to take care of them.

If you like to work with animals and it’s definitely like the right job to do.

If you’re sensitive with, like, gross things, it might not be the best, but yeah, I think it’s definitely if you have the opportunity, you should take it.

And then also just being out in nature is so good I think for everybody, whether you’re a kid or adult, just to get outside and kind of take some of that stress of being in a classroom.

You know, sometimes being in class and testing can be stressful, so being out in nature kind of is also just good for your mental health as well.

We talk about your students.

Their mentorship is coming to an end.

This is this group that you’ve had.

Is that a little bit of a bittersweet moment for them and for you?

It is, because I think, you know, for the kids, they always, I mean, they always enjoy it, I mean, the fact that they didn’t have to come this week, they could have been done last week and they asked, well, can we come out?

We missed one week.

Can we come out, you know, next week?

And I was like, "It works with my schedule.

If you guys want to.

Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.

I really like this ventorship and I’re really sad that it’s over, because it was really fun and I liked playing with the animals and I like, I’m gonna miss it.

Yes, I am pretty sad it’s over.

It’s been a lot of fun, probably one of my favorite things here.

It’s been awesome.

I love helping the animals and sing, like you what kind of animals there are in this enclosure, and just like experiencing it, it’s crazy.

It’s definitely something I would recommend.

I’m sad about it because it was like, it was really fun doing it’cause you got to take care of animals and all that stuff.

What’s your favorite part of doing this and being part of the beep’s experience I think it’s enjoyable for me to see that not only how the animals kind of enjoy interacting with the kids somewhat, but how the kids just go, oh, yeah, this is so cool.

And even sometimes, you know kids will come in and be like, I like this type of animal or I don’t like these animals And then they come in at them, they’re like, "Oh, I love this animal."

And they kind of change that perspective and appreciate all the animals all the more.

I think educationally, here at the museum, the opportunities are almost endless because every car has a story.. Our history is very important, and these things are part of that history.

To keep the car culture alive is extremely helpful.

Everybody knows about classic muscle cars and things, but then you have the Buicks that I’m working on.

They’re almost, like, lowering in public popularity, and, like, these kind of help keep that alive.

So for those who might not be familiar with the Gilmore Car Museum, can you kind of tell me a little bit about your mission and maybe your role in the community?

Our mission here at the museum is to tell the history of America through the automobile So you can imagine the automobiles had a huge impact on our society and the way we live, you know, and it still does today, and it’s always changing.

So we tell that story from the very beginning, with late 1800s, all the way up through the modern age.

In addition to being the largest car museum in North America, with over 90 acres and the hosts of 115,000 people annually, the Gilmore Car Museum also prioritizes education.

The Garage Works program gives high school students a hands on opportunity to learn automotive technology through restoration.

So it’s a high school program, it’s after school, and where we have high school students come in and they learn how to restore museum vehicles, and they learn all the techniques they need to know doing that.

So I had read online that the Garage Works program started in 2009.

Do you know at all kind of what the draw was there?

What maybe Gilmoremore Car Museum saw that the community needed that program for?

A lot of times in the public schools, they don’t have the automotive programs.

They used to have in the old days, right?

A lot of those programs are gone in the service of centrally located.

So we wanted to have a program where high school kids could come, not just learn about new automobiles, but learn how to really learn restoration techniques on older vehicles, antique automobiles, and students that wanted to come and work with our hands and have hands on experience.

And that’s what we do every day in garage works.

The program has made an impact on many aspiring mechanics throughout its 16 years, including third year Garage Works student J.R. Wildfong.

Well, I’m from Mancelona, Michigan.

That’s about an hour away from Traverse.

We drive about three hours down here, twice a week.

It’s a big commitment, but it’s been worth it.

This is one of my favorite places to be because I like cars, mainly the design, but the engine is really interesting too.

So can you maybe talk about what does, like, a day here look like for you?

It looks like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I’ve been working on that car for quite a while.

This 1932 Buick has been given a new life, thanks to JR and help from his mentor, Phil.

There wasn’t anything in here at all.

The engine was not even in the car.

It was still at the machine shop.

They brought it in, they installed the bottom half of the engine then put the head on, bolted the head on, and we put with J.R and myself and James, we put the whole valve train together, lined up the exhaust manifold and the intake manifolds, which was nice.

not easy.

We meticulously took our time and installed each piece as it’s supposed to go, made sure that it was right.

And now this past Tuesday, we started the engine for the first time, and it ran really well.

It was very gratifying.

These guys did a lot of hard work on this.

My mentors are really great.

They always help me.

They never make me feel stupid.

They’re always willing to show me how to do things, and they’re really encouraging In our program, it’s definitely a friendship, it’s a very close close relationship where we’re friends with our students, we try to mentor them, not just teach them the individual skill.

We try to mentor them in their life.

We like to think we’ve given them some some good life skills soft skills that they can pick up with us, too, that’ll serve them well in the future.

We encourage them and talk to them about their career, where they are, in their life, you know, where they’re going and we like to do that.

That’s very rewarding.

How does the local community kind of come help support that program?

We have a lot of support.

We get financial contributions from many people in the community, and we get a lot of support from these local clubs We had a gentleman donate all his old tools.

You know, he was finished with him and decided he was going to give him to our program.

As you look to the future, how do you maybe see Gilmore Car Museum playing a role in shaping the next generation of, you know, students in the automotive industry?

Yeah, I think there’s more and more and more opportunity for that as time goes by.

The museum is constantly changing.

We’re fortunate.

We have 90 acres of land here, right?

We have seven partners museums out here, and there’s a whole row, a street filled with partner museums, and we’re doing more building, more expansion.

So we’re really growing, thriving, and expanding.

So what would you maybe tell a student that was interested in figuring out the automobile tech industry and wanted to get involved in this?

Why should they do it?

This program is really valuable, and you really just learn a lot.

You can learn welding, you can learn woodwork.

And the vastness of just the car engine itself and all the working components in that are there is a lot that goes into working just one thing in engine.

And here, you can learn how to work on quite a few of those things.

So that would be extremely valuable knowledge.

And also, if you’re going to go into an automotive field, it does help to know, like, where did these things start from, how did these things used to work?

And also, if you’re going to be a mechanic, you never know when one of these classic cars are going to be rolling into your shop.

And if you already have the knowledge that you gain from here, that’s going to obviously be extremely helpful Now, let’s put that that there, and then just grab that other one out.

you’d like.

Yeah.

And ("Rest" by Basic Comfort plays) this day