Civil Municipal Magazine Aug 2023

266 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 8 Ballinger spoke of the Imagination Lab and how it works with STEM, or science, math, engineering and mathematics. “The Imagination Lab opened in 2018 as a hands- on learning center,” she said. “We bring in every kindergartner through fifth grader in the district for 90-minute ‘odysseys.’ They have a STEM focus, but it’s not limited to STEM experience. Certainly, that joy for learning is present in everything we do. The engagement of students is fun to watch as they learn in ways that are different from learning in the classroom.” That day, said Ballinger, fifth graders came into the lab to design their own Thermos containers. They had to learn how liquids are kept cold or hot and the science behind it. “We believe that the best way to learn any subject, including math and science, is through creativity,” said Ballinger, “so we integrate art as much as possible in all the activities that we do. We really want students to go beyond traditional ways to approach problems. One of the things that we emphasize at the Imagination Lab is that we are not in search of a right answer. We are just trying to get students to think of possible answers and ways to decide if those are best solutions.” Olinger extolled Plainfield. “It’s a great community,” he said. “We are very fortunate to have a great relationship with the Town of Plainfield and their leadership. We do a lot of things together. We collaborate on a lot of things. We are also very fortunate in this community to have a very strong parent group of supporters who are always behind us and collaborate with us on the things we are doing. “We started a preschool program here a few years ago,” he continued. “It continues to grow. We have a waiting list every year of kids wanting to get into the program. We were fortunate enough that when we did some remodelling, we were able to expand our preschool program, and it is actually in one of our elementary schools. We have several classes there, both half-day and full-