State's top nerd visits K-12 STEM students in Stockbridge

STOCKBRIDGE - A day after touting progress in the push to equip students with the skills employers need, Gov. Rick Snyder dropped in on Stockbridge students making waves in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

Snyder said he was impressed to see high school students helping elementary students in projects that include underwater camera systems, drones, 3D printing and computers.

"They are given the freedom to learn, to explore, to try new things and to actually have some failures," Snyder told reporters at Stockbridge High School on Wednesday. "I love that part about how they are doing videos of the whole process, because part of innovation is not just having everything work, but understanding how you have to continue to try new ideas until you find something that really succeeds."

A spokesman said Snyder's Stockbridge trip was tied to his State of the State address on Tuesday, in which he spoke of equipping students with the technical skills they'll need to succeed.

"This is (a place) he was really looking forward to visiting," said the spokesman, Josh Paciorek. "They are learning valuable career skills that are going to help them find jobs in the industries that are really exploding."

The high school's underwater robotics team has been making yearly visits to the South Pacific to find World War II relics and has been featured on a segment of "60 Minutes." The team also used its remotely operated vehicle to explore shipwrecks in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary near Alpena.

Students on Wednesday briefed Snyder on their efforts to build computers, underwater robots and drones, and demonstrated their work using 3D printers.

Robotics teacher Bob Richards said students from kindergarten through 12th grade work on those projects in small teams and are good at presenting their work.

"I think we really wanted to show him what a community can do when it pulls together and supports a project or a group of projects," Richards said. "The community had a choice with a bond and the K-12 STEM program, to commit to science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. This provides validation for what the students are doing and what the community is doing."

The students have sent letters to Snyder every year, telling him about their work, he said.

"We show him a clip of a robot or a drone, something cool, and it must have just piqued his interest, or his staff's interest," he said.

Stockbridge robotics team seeks WWII relics in Palau

Contact Ken Palmer at (517) 377-1032 or kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.