Laura Seney
Welcome to Live Wire, a podcast powered by Kosciusko REMC. We are a member-owned and locally operated cooperative that supplies electricity to portions of Kosciusko, Fulton, Wabash, and Whitley counties here in northern Indiana. Live Wire is a program where we come together to discuss co-op matters, energy, community topics, and to communicate with KREMC members. I am your host, Laura Seney.

Laura Seney
Welcome back to another episode of Live Wire. Joining us in studio today is Derek Pike, STEM Instructional Coach with Warsaw Schools. He is here to discuss his experience bringing Warsaw Elementary students to a KREMC Live Line Demonstration. Hey, Derek, how are you?

Derek Pike
Doing great. Glad to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Laura Seney
Awesome. Thanks for coming and being willing to talk to us.

Derek Pike
Absolutely.

Laura Seney
Can you share a little bit about yourself and your role as a STEM Instructional Coach?

Derek Pike
Sure. I've been with the Warsaw Community Schools for about 20 years, taught second grade mainly for several years, stepped into the instructional coach role about 3 or 4 years ago. And mainly Washington became a STEM school back in 2015. I mainly work with Madison and Washington Elementary. I'm kind of split this year to help them run their STEM program. So this was a recertification year. So this was a big year for all of us in kind of giving evidence to the Department of Education on what we do as a STEM. So that they can certify us for the next five years. So mainly a lot of things I do is help organize like animal dissections, run Lego robotics clubs, do a lot of coding. We have a lot of engineering projects where the kids build things. But then obviously the S in STEM is science. And so getting connected with KREMC for some of their live labs and stuff has been really helpful. So teachers can do some like live hands on things with their science standards that maybe they can't do as much in class.

Laura Seney
That's awesome. And that sounds like a really fun job.

Derek Pike
Absolutely.

Laura Seney
What do you enjoy most about it or what's most rewarding for you?

Derek Pike
I love having the entire school kindergarten through sixth grade. And like I said, this year I'm at Madison, so now I'm doing kindergarten, sixth grade with a new batch of kids and I love it. I think the highlight, each year is we are also connected with the Kosciusko County Soil and Water Conservation District. And so like 100% of the student body in the STEM schools get to go to some local creeks and they do water quality testing. So the kids kindergarten and all the way to sixth grade, they put on waders, get nets, and they dig around for what's called macro invertebrates, which are like maybe insects. And some of them are like pollution tolerance, some are pollution intolerance. So the kids study the creek and when they walk away, they know if the water quality in that creek is, clean or unhealthy. So I think that's the highlight. That's what I like to do, is just being outside and giving the kids some environmental kind of classroom activities to do.

Laura Seney
Yeah, it's great to provide those opportunities where kids can get out of the classroom and go out in the world and experience some of these things and have these hands on learning experiences. That's really great.

Derek Pike
Definitely. And they learn better than just opening up a textbook and doing some worksheet questions. It's a lot more interesting and kind of more lasting knowledge that they remember and stuff through hands on and actually doing the learning.

Laura Seney
Exactly. I think all of us learn better going out and actually doing something that is engaging and interesting rather than, you know, having to sit in a classroom and open up a book and trying to study that way.

Derek Pike
Yeah, absolutely. Just like when I learned how to change the oil, you know, I could read a book about it or manual or watch a YouTube video. But, you know, my father-in-law took me out to the car and showed me how to do it. And I learned more from that, like 30 minutes with him then reading a bunch of books on it or watching videos and stuff. So just like for adult life as well, we do things with our hands and lifetime that we learn a lot better.

Laura Seney
Exactly. So true. How did you first learn about the Live Line Demonstrations at KREMC, and what made you interested in bringing your students to them?

Derek Pike
One of our former secretaries, at Washington, she moved over to KREMC, so we had a perfect connection there. So I know looking at science standards last year, one of the sixth grade new standards was learning about Wi-Fi, broadband, fiber optics, and I had no idea how to teach that. And I approached the teachers, and there's no curriculum out there for that. So I reached out to, Tiffany O'Malley, which is one of the secretaries here and, good friend, you know, she, you know, with the Kosciusko Connect that just came out to rural areas and stuff. That was huge. And so reach out to them and just say, hey, this is a science standard that our sixth grade teachers have to teach. And we don't have any curriculum for it like you guys do. And so they brought a team out and they had stations. They had this cool fiber optic thing to show how it's water, that light is transferred and can bend and stuff. They also talked about Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in kids homes, how insulation, and if you have your modem or something in the basement, how your signal can be weaker depending on all the things that run on Wi-Fi. So things that our kids are learning every day or fiddling with and they're just fascinated by. So we had them out and they did a phenomenal lab with our sixth grade, sixth graders. And the teachers were so appreciative of that. So kind of reached out again this year to see if there was like a fourth grade standard with like, electricity. They know in the past when I was a kid, we had programs like that where somebody would come and do electrical safety. And I remember Louie the Lightning Bug in the 80s on Saturday morning Cartoons Teach, and that was my kind of only experience with that as a kid. So, reached out and discussed with Michael Whitaker, and he set everything up and had our live demonstration a few weeks ago.

Laura Seney
That's awesome. It's really encouraging to hear that you were able to reach out to a connection here at KREMC and Kosciusko Connect who was able to set you up and have some people come out and host that lab about how internet works and that the kids found it engaging and useful.

Derek Pike
Yeah. And the staff here was phenomenal. You just said, yeah, we've been looking for opportunities to get into schools and do some things. We have things ready to go. And so they say, hey, give us some time to set some things up and organize it. And then within a few weeks, they were ready to knock out some dates to schedule to come in and stuff.
So the staff here was like great and just helping life easier and organizing school buses to get here and do some learning.

Laura Seney
Awesome. I'm glad to hear it. Can you describe what the Live Line Demo is and what the students experience during that?

Derek Pike
Yeah. Goodness. When I got here in the morning, we were waiting on the busses. I was just blown away by just in their warehouse. They just had this massive trailer with some mock power lines, but they were the real deal. They were plugged in electricity and, so they had things taped off so the kids could sit in a safe distance away from it. But man, when they were I think the highlight was, I can't remember the squirrel's name, but they had a little stuffed squirrel. I think they had him on a big pole, and they just showed that, like, very high percentage of power outages is caused by squirrels running around and getting touching two wires at the same time. So, man, they popped him and it was a loud noise. The kids went crazy. And then and they did it with some branches as well. So just talking about electrical safety but how electricity works. And then if the power goes out in your house, a lot of people think the problem is right in their front yard. But, that's something I learned is that sometimes they have to drive half a mile, quarter mile down the road to find where the problem is and stuff. So just a lot of good information, just for safety, how electricity works and how those linemen get our stuff going in the middle of the night if we have problems.

Laura Seney
Yeah. And that's information and lessons those kids can carry into adult life when someday they own a house and the power goes out and they know, hey, linemen might have to drive through the whole neighborhood to find the problem to fix it.

Derek Pike
Exactly.

Laura Seney
That's awesome. Why do you think these hands on demonstrations like these are effective for teaching kids about electric safety?

Derek Pike
Well, in a general sense, that is, I think the perfect thing about STEM education is that it's a lot of hands on. Kids are up out of their seats. They're working in groups, are collaborating, communicating. They're working on 21st century skills. One reason we have them do like projects together is that when you're in the workforce, you're not usually just by yourself at a desk or a cubicle or, you know, like in class, doing a worksheet or a test all by yourself. A lot of times you have you're responsible for getting a job done. Maybe one person's a project manager, one person's doing a spreadsheet, one person's putting Google Slides for presentation together. And then, hey, we're going to meet, next Wednesday at 2:00 and we're going to go present to our boss or whatever. So everybody has a piece to do. So I've things where the kids are working on hands on where we give them roles and responsibilities. So one person gets the materials, one person is the leader, one person watches the time just showing that each person does a job. And then it's all hands on working together, sharing a project and stuff. So kind of I guess in a nutshell, that's what any kind of getting the kids up out of their seat, away from just textbook learning, but actually living it and seeing it coming to a visit here at actually the place that does it was huge as well. And I think we'll talk about this later. But, another thing that I'm responsible for teaching children is STEM careers. And so, I mean, I feel like this is working with electricity and stuff, and it is science. And whether you're a lineman or the front desk person or the IT person, these are all kind of STEM careers and they're all have different roles and stuff. So trying to make a mock environment for students in the classroom to mirror what kind of jobs they'll have someday. Yeah, I think it's awesome that these kids are getting out of the classroom and seeing firsthand the careers that they can grow up and have, and getting to see those firsthand so they get a good idea of what those careers involve and what they entail. And teaching them those collaboration skills is really important.

Laura Seney
Yeah, definitely. What are some of the key safety lessons that you have seen your students take away from the Live Line Demonstration?

Derek Pike
I think the biggest thing is instilling in kids a healthy respect for electricity. You know, when you say electricity, it's like, oh, oh, electrocution. And, you know, they think it sounds cool but scary at the same time. So just knowing that this is a power and it's real and it's something we can't live without. But it's also extremely dangerous too. So just educating children on, hey, that electricity is harnessed somewhere in your house with your power box or your outlets or your plug ins and stuff. So just knowing that, you know, it's important to understand we can't plug too many things in one bedroom. If you have a space heater and a fan going and your switch and all this stuff, and it can blow a circuit, and that's the reason why and just staying away from those and stuff. So I think the biggest thing is just educating them on how electricity is created, what it does for us, but also a safety component, I think is the major reason we wanted to bring them in and learn about it as well.

Laura Seney
Yeah, I agree, it's one thing to think of electricity as, oh, some little sparks you might see here and there. Like you get an electric shock off a blanket versus you come to a Live Line Demo and you see like a ball of fire or hear like this loud explosion sound to realize that the electricity in the power lines is much more powerful and much more dangerous than you might think if you didn't come and see it firsthand.

Derek Pike
Exactly. Because you don't want them to learn the hard way. You know, when mommy says, don't touch the stove because it's hot and I don't, I'll find out for myself. And they hurt themselves. But just seeing the blast of electricity, it's almost like they were in shock. And then they relaxed and laughed, was like. But they still kind of held that healthy fear of electricity. Which they need to see at a young age too.

Laura Seney
Exactly, which that kind of answered my next question a little bit. How do students typically react to seeing high voltage electricity? And what are those memorable moments from the presentation?

Derek Pike
Yeah, I think like I go back to the squirrel. Yeah, they, they when it popped, it's like every you heard everybody yell. And then it was silent. And then there was like a kind of a relief and then giggling and do it again. Do it again. And that was a testament to the guys that put that together is, I don't know, they were all men out there, but it's like, hey, if I was a little boy or a little girl, you know, what would I like to see up here? Not just me up lecturing and, you know, pointing to things, but actually hearing some pop and some snap and the yeah, the branches smoking and stuff like that. So yeah, that was definitely the highlight.

Laura Seney
Yeah. Our linemen definitely do a fantastic job putting that presentation together, making it engaging for kids. They really do a good job and we're grateful for them.

Derek Pike
Yeah I'd like to get some more schools going. And I reached out about them doing coming back and doing the, the Wi-Fi broadband thing that we did last year. So I think that's kind of in the works as well.

Laura Seney
Oh that's awesome.

Derek Pike
Yeah. So hopefully looking forward to a healthy partnership between KREMC and Warsaw Community Schools in the next few years. And stuff is open reach all kids at some point.

Laura Seney
Yeah. And we love having schools do their field trips here and bringing the students out. We love going to the schools and presenting because we're a cooperative. One of our core values is concern for community. So we're always looking for ways that we can invest in community and in our youth. And when we came out and did the broadband and Wi-Fi presentation, what were the big takeaways for kids then? What did they learn about the internet that they applied to their everyday life?

Derek Pike
I think one thing was cool is that they had some I can't remember what it was, but the lady put aluminum foil over it and they did. They had a meter testing the power of the Wi-Fi, and then they put like fiberglass, like insulation over it and maybe wood or something to block it. And so the kids rode down and did some kind of like science numbers on. I came around we decibels or something of Wi-Fi, so there wasn't one station that was better than the other. They rotated to three different stations and they were all like mind blowing. And I told him to talk maybe about, Bluetooth as well, because obviously, you know, when I grew up, everything was plugged in. And it's a mystery to me how I can play something on my phone, through my car and with no wires or anything. So I think that was a highlight for kids to know just how their Bluetooth speakers work and things like that.

Laura Seney
Yeah. That's fantastic. And I think that is becoming an increasingly important life skill is to know how the technology we use every day works and have those skills to use that technology effectively. So I'm really glad that we were able to come out to the school and provide that program for you guys.

Derek Pike
Yeah, it was very cool.

Laura Seney
How do parents and teachers usually respond to our Live Line Demonstration or to the internet presentation that we did? Do they also get a lot out of it and feel like it provides good quality information to their students?

Derek Pike
I would assume. So since I don't have a classroom, I didn't get a lot of like direct feedback, but I know I posted Madison and Washington's events on Facebook and I know we had, like I would say, 30 to 40 likes and thumbs up and stuff. So I know teachers were approached too. We sent them an email and just say, you want some feedback on like what you like and what could improve on. And several of the teachers said one thing that KREMC could do next year is being in that warehouse. The kids were fascinated by all the vehicles and all the trucks, and almost all of them really wanted to go get closer and look at them. I know that wasn't in the plans and stuff, but when they came back, a lot of teachers said, can we go back and look at the trucks or the bucket truck, you know, and stuff? So I think we passed that information along and that might be a part of it next year after the live demonstration, after the career talks, and maybe just walking around and explaining what the trucks are and stuff. So I don't know that answers your question about parents, but, I know teachers gave some feedback just based on what the kids expressed.

Laura Seney
That's really interesting to hear and that makes sense, the kids come into the warehouse. They might never have been in a warehouse of that size with that type of equipment before. It's encouraging to hear that they are curious and fascinated by it, and that's really interesting and something we can think about incorporating for later presentations.

Derek Pike
Absolutely. Especially when they're driving down the road with mom and dad and they see a bucket truck or something up work and at least they'll know, oh, mom, I saw that KREMC and I know what they're working out there.

Laura Seney
Have you heard of any stories or situations where students have applied what they have learned with the Live Line demo to a real life situation?

Derek Pike
Not at the moment, like I said, without having a classroom and being with the fourth graders. Not a lot. I know that's the goal. The goal is not to just learn it, go back to class, talk about it, and be done with it. But take that knowledge back home and maybe, around the dinner table and talk to mom and dad about what they did and what they learned, and maybe mom or dad can further that and talk about some electrical appliances and things in the house, things that they have. So, you know, that's the ultimate goal is not just educating the kids, but also then bringing that experience home and talking to little brothers and sisters and stuff about it. So no, I haven't heard anything directly, but like I said, I kind of jump around from classes to classes a lot.

Laura Seney
That makes sense. And obviously the information the kids learn at these presentations, they share with their family. And so that information spreads. And if one of those students were to have a downed power line in their yard or something, they'll know what to do and they can tell their parents, hey, don't go near that, call Kosciusko REMC.
So that information does spread throughout the community through our students, which is the goal.

Derek Pike
Definitely.

Laura Seney
Do you think that it is valuable for teachers and educators to take their students to these demonstration at KREMC and why? And like, how would you encourage, teacher or educator to bring their students here?

Derek Pike
Yeah, kids are always going to learn better taking them out of the classroom to the actual environments that of just, you know, if they came to the school in the STEM lab or in the like, a presentation room, they'd have to bring all that with them. And they'd have to leave a lot here and stuff. But I think just taking the kids out of their environment to see where, when mom and dad call KREMC, you know, this is where the call comes to, and this is where the people are housed. And then, you know, two in the morning, that's where they come to grab their truck and head out and fix power lines and stuff like that. So, yeah, like I said earlier, much better than just watching a video and reading a book about it. And I know, teachers have more buy in when it's not just taking them out of the learning that they could be doing in class, but when it's directed towards their science standards and teachers are more apt to like, hey, this is a valuable trip that, this is enhancing what I'm trying to teach in the classroom. And so it makes it more valuable for the teachers to take that time out of, learning to know they're still learning, but they're doing it in the live place.

Laura Seney
That makes sense. Have you heard and you mentioned you aren't directly in the classrooms. You don't always hear directly from students, but have you heard from any students who have heard our employees present on their career path? Because we usually have our different departments talk about what they do, like marketing, information technology, accounting, all the different facets of what we do. Have you heard any students like here about a career path, maybe here at KREMC or somewhere else? And they're like, that's what I want to do. That sounds really interesting to me and be really inspired by that.

Derek Pike
Yeah, again, that's the goal. Not her like directly, but we have also like when we do engineering projects, we have engineers from OrthoPediatrics, Medtronic, Zimmer Biomet, Johnson and Johnson that will come in at the end of the project. They'll talk about their careers as well. And it's not always engineers. Like we had OrthoPediatrics come out and they also brought, one time their HR person and a mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, and then a person that kind of organizes everything. And that's what I appreciate about when we came here is that it wasn't just the IT person, but it was also lineman and the guy to coordinate things here. And then we got a lady from the front desk as well. And just trying to teach kids too, that there's all kinds of careers out there, especially STEM related, because being a STEM schools expose them to that. And I'm just recommending today, hey, you don't have to go to college to be what you want to be. If you want to be something that doesn't, you know, have a college education for, then it's not something that you push. But if it's a career you do, then, you know, helping them in the right career path to make those decisions is tough. So that's something when I've gotten STEM re-certificate in that the Department of Education really wants STEM schools to instill and I totally agree with is from young ages talking about those STEM careers. We had an engineer that said he didn't think of that as a career. And then an engineer came to his high school class one time and talked for half an hour and stuff, and he said he was hooked from then. Now he's working on one of the orthopedic companies in town and stuff. And he said, if that person never would have come to his class, he goes, I'm sure I wouldn't have been an engineer. I would have been doing something else. So, so important that when we do field trips that we don't just ended on whatever the topic is, electricity or whatever, but let the kids know it's not just, you know, real world thing, but hey, you're going to have a career someday. Here's a few options. So that's why I loved here is that they took 4 or 5 people that came up, and they all had different responsibilities and jobs in KREMC and just kind of described each one. And so yeah, I'm sure picked some kids interests and stuff there.

Laura Seney
That's encouraging to hear. It's encouraging to hear stories about that. One kid who hired an engineer came into his class, talked about what he did, and that sparked something that, you know, later on became his career. It's really encouraging to hear. Do you have anything else that you would like to share about the STEM program, about your experience with the Live Line Demonstration? Anything else that comes to mind?

Derek Pike
No, I just appreciate the companies and stuff I've reached out to as a STEM coach. Like 100% of them see the value in reaching children from kindergarten on up. And sometimes one thing that I tell students is that when I was a kid, you know, me, my father, my grandfather, they graduate from high school or college and it's pretty much your doctor, lawyer, engineer, teacher, fireman, policeman. And you're that career for the next 30 years till retirement. Or I read some research lately that says kids nowadays in this generation will change jobs and careers at least 5 to 7 times in their lifetime. So what they go to college for isn't necessarily what they're going to end up doing. Because I don't know this generation, so many careers exist nowadays that didn't exist when I was a kid with the computer in it and internet and just like project managing as it is now. So letting kids know that, you know, start on one path, but oh my goodness, I've heard even, you know, we have some teachers now that they go into teaching. And then they leave and they go into other areas or vice versa. People go into other things and end up in teaching. So it seems like careers are more fluid now. I don't know if that's good or bad because, you know, the long term, when you're saving for retirement, sometimes leaving careers and stuff back and forth can be bad, but sometimes you have to do that to find your niche, because if somebody ends up in a career that they hate and they're in, they're stuck for 30 years like the generations before us, that's not good either. So yeah, I just appreciate this kind of opportunity to connect children with real world careers and people out there that can kind of guide them in the right direction. And that's what I like about the STEM program and businesses like this that see the value in supporting us and providing opportunities for kids to learn about STEM topics and STEM careers.

Laura Seney
That really is important that you highlighted the career landscape has changed a lot, within the last few generations, and it's really important to prepare students for that and prepare them to be a valuable part of the workforce and help them be prepared for the ways that it's going to change and evolve in the way that technology is going to change and evolve. So it's encouraging to hear that, you know, the STEM program at our local schools is preparing our students for that.

Derek Pike
Yeah. And the core thing is obviously always reading, writing and math. But that's why kids go to school. But when you can give them other opportunities in that brings the love into school. And that's usually what's talked about around the dinner table is kind of the STEM projects and stuff. So I feel like STEM is what, helps kids want to come to school and then the reading, writing, math, that's the most important thing. So it kind of all if it's done right, STEM is, an integration type way of teaching where if you're learning about whether you're reading about a reading class, you're writing about it, you're doing math on meteorology or something and temperature, and then you're learning about it in science class. So that's in a perfect world what STEM education looks like is you're using it to help literacy and math and stuff, and they just experience it throughout the school day.

Laura Seney
That's awesome. Thank you for joining us today. And thank you for sharing about the awesome work that you're doing in the local school system through the STEM program, and I hope that you have a good rest of your day.

Derek Pike
Yeah, thanks for inviting me. This was fun and I always love talking STEM, so I appreciate this opportunity.

Laura Seney
Awesome. Thank you.

Derek Pike
Thank you.

Laura Seney
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You have been listening to Live Wire, the official podcast of KREMC. To learn more about KREMC, visit our website KREMC.com or follow us on social media. Thanks for listening.