14A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • March 11, 2015
Polk County Schools/Education
Event helps expose students
to what engineering is about
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
Steve Tillery shows children a trick — the boomerang hoola hoop — during recess on
Thursday. He tosses the hoop with a spin on it, causing it to return to him.
IES principal leaving for
post at Western Oregon
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
INDEPENDENCE — Steve
Tillery steps out onto the play-
ground at Independence Ele-
mentary School and is bom-
barded by kindergarteners.
“Look what I can do!” says
Kenya Greene, putting a
hoola hoop over her head
and spinning it around.
She next challenges
Tillery, 53, to jump rope with
her, which he does, even
though the rope was made
for someone much shorter
than himself.
This will be the last year
Tillery will be principal at IES,
a post he’s held for the last
seven years.
He has taken a job as
Western Oregon University’s
director of clinical practices
and licensure.
“The easiest way to de-
scribe that is overseeing stu-
dent teachers and their place-
ment and progress,” he said.
Tillery will be working
with principals in the K-12
system to see what qualities
they are looking for in new
teachers and how WOU can
help provide those qualities.
He also will help ensure
new teachers are meeting the
Teacher Standards and Prac-
tices Commission require-
ments as part of licensing.
As licensing requirements
change, he will make sure the
college matches those
changes, Tillery said.
He is looking forward to
the new challenge, including
getting back to teaching.
Tillery will
teach edu-
cation ma-
jors — fu-
ture teach-
ers — for
six credits
each year.
With 32
years in ed-
Tillery
ucation,
Tillery could retire, but said
he isn’t ready yet.
“I have at least another 10
good years left,” he said. “So I
thought, what haven’t I had
the chance to do yet that I
would still like to try.”
Heading across Highway
99W from IES to WOU was not
an easy decision, Tillery said.
“It’s a people profession,”
he said. “That’s what I’ll miss
most is the people — children,
staff, relationships, parents.”
Tillery said IES was a
building with tremendous
culture when he arrived.
“It’s a family environment,
one that we show love in all
that we do — love for learn-
ing, love for each other,” he
said. “We instill hope.”
Now, as he takes his expe-
rience in the trenches with
him to Western to teach
teachers, he would tell his
new students to remember
that it is an honor to hold
that title of teacher.
“You have the opportunity
to change lives,” Tillery said.
“Parents are entrusting their
children to you. If you don’t
love what you’re doing,
you’re doing a disservice to
children, parents and future
generations.”
His parting words to the
children of IES would be
similar, adding that they
have the world at their feet.
“Don’t kick those doors of
opportunity closed by making
choices that will limit what
you can do or what you can
be in the future,” Tillery said.
MONMOUTH — Fiden-
cio Becerra explained to his
daughters Kamila and Alex-
ia how an arch is a more
supportive structure than
something that is flat.
He spoke Spanish, reading
the information provided in
both English and Spanish,
stacking his hands and
showing how it worked. This
engineering station display
provided a piece of paper
and challenged families to
lay it flat across two cans.
How many erasers can
you stack if it’s flat? Not even
two. But when it’s arched
between the two cans, it can
hold all 12 erasers.
“If you put it straight, the
bridge can fall,” Alexia Be-
cerra, a third-grader, said. “If
you bend it, it doesn’t fall.”
The lesson on arches was
just one of about a dozen
different stations during
Family Engineering Night at
Monmouth Elementary
School on Thursday.
The program was paid for
through a grant from the
Oregon Education Invest-
ment Board to increase sci-
ence, technology, engineer-
ing and math (STEM) learn-
ing in pre-kindergarten
through college.
“The point is for families
to get the sense that engi-
neering is all around us,” said
David Heil with the Founda-
tion for Family Science and
Engineering. “It’s very differ-
ent from the typical night at
school, where they (parents)
drop off kids and stand in the
corner talking shop. They’re
going to play together.”
Indeed, parents and chil-
dren took to playing quite
naturally and immediately.
Students enjoyed playing
with each other as well.
Kristen Ketcham, Rylee
Jo h n s o n a n d D a m i a n
Bonacci, all in fifth grade,
tested tone and volume of
sound with tubes. Different
materials were rubber-
banded on one end. Stu-
dents were asked to hold the
tube up to someone’s ear
and tap lightly on the end.
“This one is the loudest,”
Kristen said. “It sounds like
knocking on a door.”
Rob Harriman talked
about foundations with
Kassie Bonacci, a second-
grader, at a station set up
with sand, pebbles or rocks.
“Which one would be
best if you were going to
build a house?” he asked.
Bonacci said a house built
on sand would sink, so the
rocks were better for stability.
Heil said he hoped the
night would help lower anx-
iety when it comes to engi-
neering and increase confi-
dence.
“We want to turn families
into potential sources of en-
gineers,” he said.
The grant Central School
District received for the pro-
gram will bring Family Engi-
neering Night to all three of
the district’s elementary
schools, MES Principal
Dorie Vickery said.
The grant also provided
teachers with training in
how to incorporate more
engineering into classroom
activities and into after-
school programs.
“It’s a very small shot in
the arm to get us started
with STEM,” she said.
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
Fidencio Becerra explains to daughters Kamila and Alexia why an arch is a strong
structure at Monmouth Elementary School’s engineering night on Thursday.