Briana Pace | Southern Indiana Business Report
Washington Carnegie Public Library’s STEM program has grown exponentially. It’s become so big, the meeting room it started in isn’t big enough anymore. Last July, the library purchased a building within walking distance of the parking lot, to transform into the new STEM lab, the Launchpad. This summer, the project, along with others across America, received a grant from T-Mobile to help.
The Washington Carnegie Public Library received $50,000 from T-Mobile’s Hometown Grant program. They were one of the very few among the 26 awardees that received the full grant amount.
The library’s STEM program is doubling in size and with that, they need more furnishings for the new building. The grant will help with that.
“The receipt of the grant was not just a win for the library in general, and those that use our public library, but it was a win for rural libraries as well,” library director Teresa Heidenreich said, “just to be recognized in such a financial way, and to just be able to expand our program.”
The program launched in 2018, thanks to a grant from the Community Foundation and the Regional Opportunities Initiative, in a small meeting space inside the library. The STEM lab is funded entirely by grant money and community support, not tax dollars and was created to be a space where kids could go to learn about STEM without any high stakes.
“A lot of science and math kids get turned away from with all the testing that comes with it,” STEM program coordinator Cailey Moreland said, “It’s a lot of stress on them, and so we are just offering a really fun avenue.”
All kids, kindergarten through 12th grade, are able to use the STEM lab, along with their families. Children under five years can also participate in the program. Opening the program to that age group is a large part of why the meeting space it started in is too small.
“When you have a little daycare that comes and maybe a local preschool that wants to come and enjoy the space, and we’re only open so many hours in that room, you know, you might have 50 little children,” Heidenreich said. “It’s not really conducive to learning, so I think I think this will just be fantastic.”
The lab has snap circuits to learn the basics of circuitry, sensory STEM toys and more.
“It’s really just a time for our community to be able to learn together,” Moreland said.
There is a large homeschool community in the area; many of them have adopted the STEM lab into their curriculum. The public library acts as their school library, so during the day, they’ll come to the library to do their work and use the STEM lab.
The building the STEM program is moving to use to be an apartment; the lab will be inside its attached four-car garage.
“When we saw that open up we were like,” Heidenreich said, “the garage area would be the perfect industrial-looking type STEM space.”
The front of the building has the potential to become a new, additional meeting area for the library. It won’t just be for conferences though; it will be a community resilience hub.
“In the case of, you know, hardship on our community, you know, disasters, where it would just be another location for people to be able to,” Heidenreich said, “just outreach for people who may need that space when that time comes.”
They are currently seeking support and applying for grants to fund the hub. The library is a cooling center, but when the library closes, it does as the cooling center too. The hub would provide another option for a heating and cooling center that could be open longer than the library.
The STEM portion of the building, The Launchpad, is expected to open in early August. The goal is to cut the ribbon on the project Aug. 1.