Amherst's Marion L. Steele High School celebrates robotics and automation program expansion

AMHERST – Students at Marion L. Steele High School celebrated the opening of its new advanced manufacturing space Wednesday. Robotics and automation instructor John Agostinelli said the discussions around a makerspace, a communal public workshop, started in 2018, and it grew from there to include a classroom bursting with 3D printers and other creative works, and the automation and robotics wing celebrated on Wednesday. The school received a $1.6 million grant from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce last fall, and it spent the better part of the next year ordering equipment and getting the space set up to expand the school's advanced manufacturing and robotics course offerings. It hosted a ribbon-cutting and brief open house in the midst of the state's Manufacturing Month. County Chamber of Commerce President Tony Gallo noted how workforce development and education in K-12 schools has changed drastically over the past 15 years — from focusing on students as they neared graduation, to working with children as young as third grade to instill an interest in science, technology, engineering and math to meet the needs of an ever-evolving workforce. "This lab is more than just a room, it's a promise that will prepare our students not just for jobs, but for careers," Gallo said. "Not just for the future, but to help shape the future." "We have a bunch of visionary people doing this thing," Agostinelli said. Amherst's program is in partnership with Lorain County Community College, with students able to receive high school, college credit and industry-recognized credentials by completing classes. When the push for the makerspace and other programs started at Steele, Agostinelli was teaching fifth-grade math at the district's nearby elementary school. He joined a meeting in early 2023 about the automatic and robotics program and found what he had been trying to teach his students all along, he said. "As a math teacher, I wanted (to teach) those critical thinking skills," he said. "I'm like PLCs, robots, this is how you see it come to life. This is how we're going to do it — we've got to get those working skills going and we've got to get kids hands-on involved." PLCs are programmable logic controllers, essentially the "brains" that make decisions for automated robots, Agostinelli said. Agnostinelli ran with the idea, he said, with the support of Marion L. Steele Principal Joseph Tellier and others in the district. In less than two years, the high school's program has grown from 14 students to 88 freshmen through seniors, he said, with those kids on track to complete more than 100 industry credentials this year alone. Lorain County Commissioner Marty Gallagher and Andy Henthorn with U.S. Rep. Bob Latta's office both lauded the program. "I can't stress how impressive this is to see being taught in this level," Gallagher said. "It'll bring students out to at least give them a taste of what this is." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.