Greenbush, PSU team up to make campus visits better

  Wednesday, March 30, 2016 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

It’s spring and on the Pittsburg State University campus that means the tulips are blooming, the birds are chirping and bright yellow school buses are circling the parking lots. Over the next couple of weeks, more than 1,000 elementary and middle school students from schools across the region will visit the campus.

A new program that will make its debut Friday is designed to make those campus visits more meaningful for younger students.

The Gorilla Experience, a joint effort between the university and the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center at Greenbush, adds a robust learning component to the typical campus visit.

The first Gorilla Experience will take place from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Friday, April 1, at the Kansas Technology Center and will include 113 students from Cherokee and Labette County. The students will have hands-on experiences in things like screen printing, construction, automotive technology, plastics manufacturing, robotics and engineering design.

“For the first experience, we limited the number of students so they could be accommodated in the various activities,” said Denise Grasso, associate executive director of the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center. “We have several more districts wanting to register, but due to logistics, we were unable to accommodate everyone at this time. It is our hope that with future experiences, we will be able to accommodate all districts that are interested.”

Melinda Roelfs, director of admission at PSU, worked with Grasso and PSU’s academic departments to develop the Gorilla Experience pilot. She said the program turns a field trip into a meaningful learning event.

“With the involvement of Greenbush and PSU academic departments and faculty, we've added a learning component to the program that would not have been possible in the past,” Roelfs said. “We certainly want the students to be excited about being a Pittsburg State Gorilla when they leave campus, but using this format also provides a learning experience that the teachers and schools can build upon.”

Roelfs and Grasso said the idea for the Gorilla Experience grew out of a conversation between PSU President Steve Scott and Southeast Kansas Education Service Center Executive Director Mike Bodensteiner.

Friday’s pilot is just the beginning, both Roelfs and Grasso said.

“We are planning in the future to have more Gorilla Experiences and to be able to accommodate a greater number of students,” Roelfs said. “The goal is for the Gorilla Experience program to take the place of all elementary and middle school visits that the Admission Office currently hosts on campus.”

And they’re working with academic departments across campus to broaden that experience to reflect the entire university.

“We’re working to determine the various experiences that could be offered to visiting intermediate and middle school students in areas ranging from technology to chemistry to physics to math to the fine arts to physical education and more,” Grasso said.