Another Successful Science Fair!

By Vidur Prasad

Update on 6/1/16

On Saturday, May 14, more than 1,100 students in grades 5-12 exhibited their research projects at the 68th annual State Science Day at The Ohio State University. There were over 315 schools represented.
 
DRSS is proud to announce that we received the Harold C. Shaw Memorial Outstanding School Award from the Ohio Academy of Science! This award is given to schools who had at least four students receive a "Superior" rating at the State Science Fair or had more than four projects with 80% of the students receiving a "Superior" and no "Good" ratings. DRSS was one of just seven schools across the state to be recognized. 

In addition to receiving the Harold C. Shaw Award, DRSS seniors Shari Gordnier and Vidur Prasad each received recognition for competing multiple years at State Science Day. Shari received the Five Year Award and Vidur received the Four Year Award.


Original Post

DRSS held its annual science fair where the students amazed judges!
This past weekend, the Dayton Regional STEM School (DRSS) hosted its annual science fair with students, ranging from the 7th to the 12th grade, competing to show their scientific acumen, as well as presentation skills. Mr. Bottelier, our Physics and Engineering teacher, said at the science fair, “This is my favorite day in the entire year!”

 
All honors science students in the 9th and 10th grade are required to participate in the science fair, and many of them enjoy the opportunity to be able to explore any avenue of science that they find interesting. Students were able to study a wide range of topics, such as the effect of rising sea levels on tsunamis—a project by Neeti Prasad. Some of the students who participate in these science fairs as 9th and 10th graders continue to do so during the 11th and 12th grades because of the love of science that the science fair inculcates. 

DRSS has a long tradition of encouraging students to not only learn science in class, but to apply it in projects that have a real-world impact, aligning with our slogan, “The Real World Starts Here.” The projects this year were no different: Shari Gordnier—the first place overall winner—investigated the effects of superheroes on kids’ self-esteem. This project has real ramifications in helping deal with many of the serious mental illness problems our country is facing. These science fair projects were often the first time students discovered that their research—that they proposed and worked through—could have a real impact. 
 

Shari Gordnier took 1st Place in the Overall Science Fair Award category.

At the science fair, students also had the opportunity to compete for hundreds of dollars of special awards. These special awards, ranging from topics as diverse as Philosophy to Life Sciences, gave students the opportunity to be rewarded for some of the amazing work that they have done. In addition, students were also able to get feedback from special award judges who came from a variety of organizations. Gold Sponsors included Aptima, Inc., Engineers Club of Dayton, Integrity Applications Incorporated, Messer Construction, Solid Blend Technologies, and the WSU Department of Religion, Philosophy, and Classics. Silver Sponsors included the WSU Boonshoft School of Medicine Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the WSU Department of Biological Sciences, and the WSU Department of English. The Collins Family served as Bronze Level Sponsors. You can find more pictures of the event on our Facebook album.

Many of the students at the DRSS Science Fair received Superior scores, and will advance to the District Science Fair, with the opportunity to continue advancing to the State Science Fair. In the past, the judges at DRSS have been tough enough that many students who advance from the DRSS Science Fair, and take the valuable feedback, cruise through to the Ohio State Science Fair. 

Pictured above are the DRSS students who will move on to regional competition.

I have competed in science fairs ever since the 3rd grade, and have always been blown away by the quality of the projects, and more importantly, the creativity that students show. Many times entrenched scientists are not able to think outside the box and try the truly creative ideas that one sees at science fairs. On behalf of all of the participants, I would like to sincerely thank Mr. Bottelier, Ms. Campbell, Ms. Kancler, and Ms. Camden for arranging and hosting the science fair: it was an amazing experience!
 

Cyber Patriots Await Final Results

By: Marc Ayala

Congratulations to all of our DRSS Cyber Patriots teams for another successful competition season. Our high school teams earned Second, Third, and Fourth place in the State Competition round and moved on to the highest tier regional round! Both middle school teams also moved on to their semi-finals round. The three high school teams and both middle school teams competed February 20th and 21st, and are waiting to receive the round’s results. If these teams manage to score high enough, their hard work during the school year could win them a trip to Washington D.C. for the national competition. 

Cyber Patriots is a national competition where middle schools and high schools students are tasked with the job of an IT professional, finding security vulnerabilities in computer systems and troubleshooting network problems in only six hours. 

DRSS Middle School teams eating lunch before the competition.

DRSS would like to thank the students, adult mentors, and volunteers for making this season one of our most successful through their dedication and hard work. Cyber Patriots is open to anyone, especially students who may be interested in Cyber Security or a related field. We are looking forward to the start of the 2016-2017 season this coming Fall and hope you can join!

Dr. David Goldstein Bridges Gap Between DRSS and WSU

By Vyshu Ramini

Dr. David Goldstein is a frequent contributor to both the students and many of the faculty members of DRSS. What many of the people he encounters may not know is that along with being the President of the DRSS Governing Board, he is also the Chair of the WSU Biology Department.

Dr. David Goldstein serves as DRSS Board President and Chair of the Wright State Biology Department.

Dr. Goldstein first got involved with the school in its beginning stages. He was fascinated by what the school hoped to accomplish and soon joined the governing board, where he has been president for the past two years. As president, he helps in making many decisions for the school about programming, the hiring process, and school budget, along with many other areas. He is a participant in many of the school events and has even given several students opportunities to intern in his lab at Wright State.

Dr. Goldstein on a tour with state and local dignitaries during the first Great Things Breakfast, which he attends every month.

“Wright State provides expertise in many areas of interest to the school that contribute to the educational model,” at DRSS, said Dr. Goldstein on why STEM’s partnership with Wright State is important. In order to make sure that the students are involved with Wright State, he hosts students, makes connections at Wright State for job shadowing and internship sites, and promotes the involvement of Wright State faculty with DRSS. The university provides STEM with many educational resources for both the teachers and the students. It allows students that continue their education there to have a head start and create connections with faculty, along with giving them many chances to grow in their learning.

One of things he enjoys most about STEM is how excited all the students are about education. “I like the sense of shared mission that the students, teachers, and administration bring to creating that excitement about education.  I like knowing that students are getting the sort of training in thinking, creativity, and practical skills that will allow them to solve the problems that the world will present in the years ahead,” he said. He especially enjoys the creativity and passion in the STEM community.

Wright-Patterson Volunteers Bring Real-World Experience to Engineering Course

By Keshawn Mellon

Currently at the Dayton Regional STEM School, volunteers are coming in from the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB), to teach the Principals of Engineering (POE) course to juniors and seniors.

These volunteers’ names are Lieutenants Micheal Benitez and Keith Wyman. Both of them are first lieutenants, and both are from the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC).  Every semester, the school puts in a request for volunteers through WPAFB, and they send it out to other organizations that they’re connected with so people from those organizations can apply. Each volunteer has real-world experience, and has taken the college course, helping them see how the information they’re teaching can be implemented in the real world.

Lt. Wyman presenting new material during the POE course.

While there is a curriculum for the class, the instructors go deeper with the content by utilizing a teaching technique called project-based learning, also known as PBL. PBL is when a teacher teaches students new information and then use projects to enhance the learning process and apply the information they learned. This learning technique is used throughout the STEM school. Also, the volunteers can apply what they specialize in into the class material. For example, if someone specializes in aerospace engineering, they can find a way to infuse the engineering of a rocket into the course.

Lt. Benitez explains the concept of Resultant Force to students in POE.

In addition to using projects to enhance the learning process in the POE class, the students do hands on activities. In the class, the volunteers give a lecture every unit that provides the students with new information, similar to what college professors do. But, instead of testing over the material, students work in groups on a new hands-on activity. This assignments use the students’ engineering skills, and the newly presented information, to build something.  The things they build range from simple machines, such as gears or gear trains, to bridges, circuits, model rockets, computer programs, and even video games.

Thanks to our volunteers from WPAFB, juniors and seniors at DRSS are applying their newfound engineering skills that they are getting from a high-quality engineering class to build many things and gather new experiences that will be beneficial to their future careers. Thanks Lieutenants Benitez and Wyman!

A Teacher From The Beginning

By Katie Jones

 Lily Chen, called 莉莉老师 (Teacher Lily) by her students, is one of three Chinese teachers at the Dayton Regional STEM School. Mrs. Chen is the 10^th and 11^th grade Chinese teacher. Born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, Mrs. Chen grew up on a campus setting, where having a teacher for a father influenced her greatly as a child. “My dream as a child was to be a teacher. I believe I was born a teacher,” she explained. 

Lily Chen, 10th and 11th grade Chinese Teacher at DRSS.

She moved to Ohio in 1989 after attending the University of Minnesota for her master’s degree in education. She started teaching at STEM when it first opened. When interviewed and asked what her favorite part of teaching was, she said “seeing my kids smile.” She likes seeing her students enjoy learning about Chinese. One of the annual projects she does to help them learn classroom expressions specifically is the “I Am a Chinese Teacher” project, where students are paired up to be teacher and pupil in a skit.

Outside of her job, Mrs. Chen also enjoys writing and reading. She loves to spend time with her family, and has made it a tradition for her family to always spend Christmas together, no matter how far apart they live from each other.

She cares greatly for her them, and is fond of her students as well. Mrs. Chen is dedicated to both her family and students, and STEM is lucky to have her.

The DRSS Community Alliance: Spotlight on Diversity, Acceptance, and Education

By: Alex T. Smith

The Dayton Regional STEM School Community Alliance is a school club that meets Fridays from 3:30 - 4:30PM in Mrs. McDaniel’s classroom. The goal of Community Alliance to create a space of acceptance for all students regardless of their culture, gender identity, race, interests, social class, sexual orientation, religion, or personal beliefs.  But at a school as diverse and accepting as ours, is a club like this really necessary?

To find answers to this question, I decided to look into the reasons why Community Alliance was founded in the first place. I met with Maggie Moreda, the co-founder of Community Alliance. Maggie said, “I wanted to create a safe space within our school community where people could come together and learn from and support one another. We all need to feel safe to thrive both socially and academically. Community alliance can be that safe space for students. It brings us together as a high school."

Since the Dayton Regional STEM School already has a large diversity within its student body, the reasons Maggie had for forming this club also made sense. But is a club like this still necessary with the level of acceptance there already is for the diversity in our school?

Maggie agreed that our school is generally more accepting than other public and private schools, however she stated that it in no way makes Community Alliance any less necessary, because there is always room for improvement. Maggie notes that the proof of Community Alliance’s importance stems from the positive changes that members have had. Maggie says that she has seen the students involved in Community Alliance mature and become more accepting since they first joined.

She said, “Students have worked together to create presentations about topics that are important to them. Together we have meaningful discussions where we learn about each other and create a better understanding of the world around us. The real world is full of people with different backgrounds, identities and experiences. I wanted a group that focused on representing that. After all, the real world starts here.”

Community Alliance members posing after a meeting on chronic disabilities.

  

To find out how students involved in Community Alliance feel about this, I interviewed Fatima Boumachad, a member for two school years, to tell me what she thought about her experiences with in the club. Here is what she had to say: “I always look forward to attending this club because I know that every time, there will be an awesome presentation on something new and I get to become a part of a group discussion or activity that not only helps us learn more, but also lets us be ourselves without worrying about other people’s opinions.”

Just like Maggie, Fatima also notes that she and the other members have been positively impacted by what they have learned from group presentations.

Fatima said, “I have learned about various beliefs, cultures, illnesses, and other aspects that define each person as an individual. I also got the opportunity to learn about peoples' life stories. I listened to people talk about the steps that they have taken in life to reach the point that they are now.”

I followed up by asking her what she would miss most about Community Alliance if it no longer was continued. She said, “Being a part of this club, I get the opportunity to learn about so many different things that I would never have known about otherwise. I feel that this is important because it offers me a chance to learn more about others and I get to teach others about myself. Community Alliance is one of my favorite clubs because of its welcoming environment and amazing lessons. I’m so glad that I am a part of this club and look forward to any future meetings.”

At the end of the interview I asked Fatima what her favorite part of Community Alliance was. She said, “Community Alliance encourages people to welcome everyone regardless of their differences, and I feel that if everyone learns this aspect, the world would be a much better place.”

To the relief of members, Community Alliance has gotten off to a great start over the last year, and with 15-20 regular attendees, it seems that the club itself has no intention of going away anytime soon. To answer the question of if Community Alliance is really necessary, at least to its members the answer is a resounding yes.

Full disclosure: Alex T. Smith is the co-president of the DRSS Community Alliance.

Portfolios Are Hitting The Dayton Regional STEM School!

By Neeti Prasad

Portfolios bring excitement, challenge, fun, and tears. Whether it is a PowerPoint presentation or a website, everyone at DRSS has gotten the feel of what a portfolio entails.

When you think about what’s special about the Dayton Regional STEM School, portfolios come to mind. Portfolios give students the opportunity to express their Five Qualities. The way they design their website to the way they write their reflections shows their talent.

Students put a lot of work into portfolios but they often ask, what’s the point? Portfolios give students a chance to reflect back on projects that they have completed over the school year. They let students ponder about how they have grown since the year before. But portfolios are not limited to just this.

Maryam Boumahchad, 7th grader, working on her portfolio.

Students participate in various extracurricular activities. They achieve so much in extracurricular activities. At competitions, students' achievements get recognized through awards. Every extracurricular activity involves students working hard and developing new skills in order to check off a new goal. You can grow and learn so many skills in all extracurricular activities. After all these achievements, students are proud and often want to share their success. Students can share their experience in extracurricular activities through their portfolios.

Portfolios may seem like just another tool to show off a student’s resume, but in fact they are actually way more than that. Portfolios have integrated the ideas that make our school unique. The Five Qualities and critiques are helpful when shaping the portfolio. Whether you are starting your portfolio or adding finishing touches, you will and would have used all of the Five Qualities. Here's how:

Persistence. Whenever you run into a challenge in your portfolio, whenever you just didn’t know where to start, persistence was your friend. Persistence teaches us that you can’t give up and you just have to keep going to solve the problem. This is the motto that should be used for all portfolio makers.

Collaboration was used when you helped someone with their portfolio, or received help from someone else. Collaboration allows students to help each other out even on individual projects. This quality allows students to learn how to cooperate with each other.

Communication wraps the whole project up. At the end, when you present your portfolio to the class or to business partners, you are sharing your growth and accomplishments with them. Without communication, the effort you put into your portfolio would not be shared with others.

Inquiry? Of course! Inquiry encourages us to ask questions, and there are many to be asked when constructing a portfolio. Is this a professional design? Have I met all of the requirements? Using collaboration and communication, we can get these questions answered.

Creativity is the fun part. Creativity allows you to pick designs, express yourself, and make your portfolio special to you. When you get creative, you are turning on the artistic switch to make your portfolio stylish as well as professional. But creativity doesn’t just have to do with designing your portfolio. When you write your reflections and write about you, you are crafting a story.

Feedback is necessary. If a student thinks he or she can make a good portfolio without feedback, that student is dreaming. Critiques are useful because they give you another perspective of your work. They show you the sections that need to be worked on and sections that are absolutely marvelous. Though not all critiques are ‘pretty,' critiques are important to consider. The feedback you get could save you from making poor decisions about your portfolio.

In the process of making a portfolio, there are so many skills you can learn. You can improve your presentation skills, artistic skills, writing skills, and that’s not even half the list. Portfolios can get you an A in class in the short run and a job of your dream in the future. It’s a project worth respecting!

Is Being Green For You?

By Shetasia Akridge
 

Have you ever wondered how recycling can affect the economy? Have you ever thought about recycling items at your home, job, or school? One year ago, Mr. Nelson and Ms. Shores started The Green Team. The Green Team helps improve the recycling process at DRSS. For example, The Green Team members come to the middle and high school lunch period to help place different foods and waste products in the proper bins. In addition to paper and plastic products, outside of the cafeteria they are also recycling Christmas lights and collecting used batteries for proper disposal.  The Green Team is currently accepting new members from students in grades 6-12. The Green Team meets every Friday at 4:00PM after school to discuss past projects and organize new activities.

As one of their duties, Green Team members help sort waste during lunch time.

The Green Team, in conjunction with Mrs. McDaniel’s Technical Reading and Writing Class, will be applying for a matching grant to purchase an earth tub, which would help make composting at DRSS much more efficient. They also want to create a “Green Team” t-shirt to instill a sense of community pride. Ultimately, they hope to make DRSS a "zero-waste" school and recruit more high schoolers to help recycling efforts at DRSS.

Currently, Green Team has been organizing activities and advertising information across DRSS High school. For example, they’re working on a parody song to inform people around the school about their efforts. Other students are working on independent research projects and forming new ideas about ways to change how we compost our waste. In addition, on Fridays they breakdown the throw away system (known as TerraCycle). Mr. Nelson explained, “We actually redeemed about $420 worth of materials through TerraCycle. The Green Team is currently recruiting more members - especially High school students - to organize more activities for the DRSS.”

Mr. Nelson also discussed how DRSS is a "think-tank type of school," rich with project-based learning initiatives, so having the Green Team as a program at DRSS makes it more instructive. According to Mr. Nelson, “Montgomery County Solid Waste District paid a company to come in and prepare a plan for DRSS of things we need to accomplish to become a zero-waste school. If we accomplish our goal of becoming zero waste, then we would become the first school in Montgomery County to do so.” In addition, at DRSS the school utilizes the program "Paper Cut" for student and staff printing, which saves more paper and money by only releasing print jobs once the user is at the printer. This program helps the students at DRSS use less paper, which decreases costs and helps save trees. On the horizon, the Green Team is planning an energy audit to try to figure out how to reduce electricity bills at DRSS. 

The Green Team meets on Fridays at 3:30PM. If you'd like to join the team, please contact Brittany Shores at brittany.shores@wright.edu.

Keep up the great work Green Team members!

Ray Hampton – The David Beckham of the STEM School

By Maddie Kelly

Ray Hampton doesn’t look too different from your typical STEM student, but he is among the small, yet substantial number of student athletes that attend DRSS. Last year, Ray heard about the Dayton Aeros, one of four teams that are part of the Dayton Area Rugby Club, and decided to join the team with two other DRSS classmates (one being his twin brother, Ben). Since that day, he hasn’t looked back. Having people he knew join with him made him “more comfortable to start the team, but once I got there everyone else was really accepting.”    

Ray Hampton is a junior and an active student athlete at the Dayton Regional STEM School.

Rugby isn’t the only extracurricular Ray is involved in. He has played soccer at Xenia High School, his home district, for three years now, and is a Science Olympiad coach, a volunteer at St. Brigid’s Parish School of Religion, and a member of JCOWA, math club, and National Honor Society. He says being involved during high school is important to him, especially with athletics, which “is a way to bond with classmates and stay healthy.” He also recommends that any DRSS students who might be interested in playing sports reach out to their home school district. He says, “In my experience, they really work with you so you can enjoy the high school sports experience. They want you to be on the team.” If that’s not an option for some sports, like rugby, club teams like the Dayton Aeros offer the opportunity to play sports with other STEM students and to get to know students from all over the Dayton area.

While Ray has always been active in athletics, an important inspiration for continuing to stay healthy was his 10^th grade Wellness & Fitness class. “That class definitely made me want to be more athletic and pay attention to food, nutrition, and activity.” He also mentioned Ms. Tash, the instructor, as being a big motivator for staying healthy. Another one of his favorite things about the school is how a lot of the projects have a community impact and “a purpose behind it besides to get a grade.” 

Ray and his twin brother, Ben, participate in a Brazilian Jujitsu clinic that took place in Ms. Tash's class.

Besides being involved in multiple sports and extracurricular activities, Ray is focused on his future. He wants to be a pharmacist “because I like math, chemistry, and helping people. The STEM School focuses on math and makes me like it even more.” While the real world application of the school’s projects appeals to him, he also appreciates the community the school has. “People aren’t really excluded from each other, there’s a sense of community and trust.” This is similar to his thoughts on being involved in athletics and being a part of a team: “It creates a sense of unity with peers, teaches responsibility, accountability, character, and trust.”

Humans of DRSS: Shari Gordnier

By Dena Schaeffer
 

Shari Gordnier has already achieved many great accomplishments in her high school career, but what does she plan to do in the future? As a senior at The Dayton Regional STEM School, college is one of her top priorities this year. 

This past summer, Shari participated in the first ever TEDxYouth@Dayton Conference. Many phenomenal points were given to prove that anyone has the ability to become a scientist, no matter the level of education or who you are.

Shari at the TEDxYouth@Dayton event giving her speech, which you can watch here.

Shari has attended the Dayton Regional STEM School since the eighth grade. Already in high school, she has taken courses to work towards her career, such as government, psychology, and sociology. The college she will be attending is Baldwin-Wallace University, and she plans to double major in National Security and Psychology to achieve her goal career: becoming a mission operation specialist.
 

Shari swims competitively for both Centerville High School and the Kettering Swim Team. Since she is an active team member, there is not much free time. However, when there is, she enjoys “watching shows on Netflix, and then compulsively guzzling fanfiction about said shows.” In addition to this, she is also a member of the Junior Council of World Affairs (JCOWA), so she spent much of her time studying for the recent Quiz Bowl that took place this winter. She has done many fantastic things so far, and there is much more to come!

Shari said that one of the things she would miss the most would be the transition of going from being "a typical high school student who speaks ridiculous conversations" to a professional at the flip of a switch.

We’ll miss you too Shari Gordnier!

Students Have Amazing Internship Experiences At Aptima, Inc.

By Vidur Prasad

The Dayton Regional STEM School has a variety of partnerships with companies and universities to give students the opportunity to work in the real world. One company, Aptima, Inc., accepted two students as interns last summer, where students even worked on drone technology!

The Dayton Regional STEM School (DRSS) has always strived to give students the opportunity to interact with local companies and organizations to gain experience in the professional world and fulfill the slogan, “The Real World Starts Here.” One of these partnerships is with the local defense contractor, Aptima, Inc. Two DRSS students, Keaton Bonds and Vidur Prasad, were given the opportunity to work at Aptima during the summer of 2015 on real world applications to help Aptima, and the Air Force Research Laboratory. 

Keaton Bonds worked on creating a game-like simulation to determine how people can handle working on multiple tasks at the same time. He collaborated with researchers at Aptima to implement software to allow the Air Force to gain a better understanding of how people’s performance, such as drone pilots, is affected when they must complete a multitude of tasks at the same time. Keaton has said that he has enjoyed the experience, and will continue studying Computer Science at the University of Michigan.  

Vidur Prasad collaborated with Aptima to create a system to determine the amount of workload placed on drone pilots by looking at the complexity in video footage. Since high workload can degrade performance, and drone pilots often have to stare at video footage for hours at a time, Vidur created software to estimate the complexity in a video by looking at the number of people, amount of motion, and other features in the video, allowing the Air Force to reduce the workload on pilots in real time. He said, “The main thing that attracted me to DRSS was the opportunity to apply what I learned in class in a real life setting, such as at Aptima.”

DRSS has a graduation requirement that gives all students the opportunity to complete an internship, allowing students to gain experience in the real world. It is this facet of DRSS—that real world experience is baked into the curriculum—that many students find so attractive about the school. In addition, the partnership with companies, such as Aptima, extends further than just internships. In the past, Aptima has sent judges for the DRSS Science Fair, giving students valuable feedback and critique on their projects. Amazing opportunities have come over the past several years, and will follow for the future, because of our partnership with Aptima; the Dayton Regional STEM School would like to thank them for everything that they have done!

Great Things In Your Community: A Partnership Between DRSS and Capabilities Inc.

By Chrissy Horton 

Right here in Kettering, Ohio, the students of the Dayton Regional STEM School (DRSS) and clients of Capabilities Inc. held their first meeting on January 14, 2016 for the new, community-based partnership between their organizations. The clients of Capabilities Inc. help improve the functioning of DRSS classrooms by helping teachers prepare materials, copy student worksheets, and organize homework folders. The students of DRSS help the clients of Capabilities Inc. prepare for work/office settings, and help them build their personal resumes and cover letters. The relationship between these two organizations are extremely beneficial to them both, in which DRSS receives valuable volunteer help and the clients of Capabilities Inc. receive on-the-job training.

Capabilities Inc. is an organization that strives to provide people with differing abilities the maximum support to achieve and sustain their goals. The community outreach director of DRSS, Arch Grieve, stated that: “The folks from Capabilities, Inc. did a lot of work on their first day here, including helping teachers copy worksheets, preparing materials to be used in one of our Language Arts classes, and helping some of our teachers get caught up on filing homework folders. They were truly a great help and we are looking forward to their next visit!”  

An example of how Capabilities Inc. fulfills their mission is by helping them prepare to enter the workforce, in which a few members from the DRSS Key Club help them with. Their first meeting was held in the conference room across from Mrs. Campbell’s classr. During this meeting, the selected members of Key Club and clients of Capabilities Inc. were introduced to each other. For the first portion of the meeting, everyone began by creating art pieces to show their individuality and creativity. As time passed the students and clients began to join their art projects together, as they were eager to engage with each other. Soon after this aspect of the meeting, DRSS students started to help the volunteers begin their first drafts of a possible resume they could use in the future. The Key Club members who attended this meeting are able to help these volunteers with their resumes because of the Technical Reading and Writing class they have taken with Mrs. McDaniel, in which two main projects of the class were to create cover letters and resumes for themselves.

Jessica Whitaker of Capabilities Inc. was the individual behind bringing about this partnership. When asked about the partnership, she explained that: “I feel that the partnership between the Dayton Regional STEM School and the Capabilities Community Club is mutually beneficial. Our members look forward to the next day we can work with the STEM students and staff. Hopefully this is the start of a long term partnership!”  

The second visit of the Capabilities Community Club took place on Thursday, February 11th, 2016.