Program ‘sparks’ students at Mont Harmon

    Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox paid a special visit to Mont Harmon Middle School last week as part of an initiative to bring better technology education to rural schools.
    Cox was in Price along with principals of BrainStorm, Inc., a firm that specializes in technology adoption and education.
    The company recently partnered with Carbon  School District to expose students and teachers to better technology training.  Cox had toured BrainStorm a few months ago and urged the company to focus on delivering educational opportunities to rural communities.
    “He didn’t even hesitate,” said John Wade, a principal officer at BrainStorm. “He told us to reach out to a rural school or school district.”
    Carbon School District, with its emphasis on one to one electronic devices and an overall philosophy of embracing technology, was a good fit for the company.
    On Tuesday, they made the first step by presenting a SPARK Technology Fair with the theme “Your Spark, Your Mark.”
    Students received first-hand lessons in such things as virtual technology, HTML coding, graphic design, video production and video editing.
    Later, Cox spoke of his desire to see more of such training initiatives in the state.
    “I care very deeply about rural Utah and I am very concerned about the divide I see growing between urban and rural America,” he said. “Brainstorm’s culture of learning, their culture of disruption, trying to find new and better ways to teach people how to do things is exactly what we need for kids across the state, especially in rural Utah.”
    BrainStorm principal Eric Farr said last Tuesday’s technology fair was only the beginning.
    “This is not a flash in the pan or just about 2018,” he explained. “This is our starting point and we want to use our expertise, our creativity and our enthusiasm to point students toward technology careers.”
    While the company is working at the district level they also know teachers are an important component to helping students realize their full potential. Their emphasis is to not only teach students but help teachers as well.
    “That is why I offered the challenge to them to find a school in rural Utah–to change lives,” Cox said. “I truly believe that collaboration is happening here. It will not only help these kids, it will help the companies that are involved that are doing these kinds of things.”
    He said that he intends to challenge more companies to do the same in other places in rural Utah as well.
    Carbon School District Superintendent Lance Hatch said he intends to use the district’s collaboration with BrainStorm to fill gaps in existing technology training.
    “This is a great partnership and opportunity. This is filling a hole in what we do. Our vision is that these students will eventually be able to have a deeper experience. For example with coding we hope to have a whole class on coding for them or a whole class on video production someday. Having an experience like this for students can make all the difference,” Hatch said.