By Mark Ambrogi
Carmel’s Midwest Academy is starting a fund for a projectorium.
Although school officials know that might not be an actual word, they define it as a room where students build, create, design and solve problems.
“We have a makerspace, and it’s become so popular that we need a larger space,” said Kevin Gailey, Midwest’s head of school. “So we want to take a 16-by-60-foot cement deck at the back of our school. We want to enclose it and turn it into a very large workshop where they can design and develop their own projects or prototypes for inventions they may be exploring. There is a lot of problem-solving, creativity and collaboration that goes on in those projects.”
Gailey said the space would cost about $200,000. Donations are being accepted as part of the annual fund campaign.
“We’re up to about $30,000 so far, so we’ll see how high we go,” Gailey said. “We hope to have the Projectorium built and in use by Aug. 1, 2018, but the fundraising is the key.”
Gailey said the plan is to put a garage door on one end so a car can back into it. That would allow students do automotive work, such as learning how to change a tire and change the oil and understand how an engine works.
Gailey said the history class might have a good project for the space.
“So say they’re studying medieval times. They could build miniature catapults in there,” Gailey said. “This would give them the space to build a larger project and not be on top of each other.”
Gailey said the robotics program would be able to take advantage of the space as well.
For more, visit mymwa.org/support-us/annual-fund/.
