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Innovation Huddle and EQT bring pilot computer program to Washington Park Elementary

Washington School District ›  |  Posted on
Retired Steeler and Hall of Fame player Jerome Bettis, founder, The Bus Stops Here Foundation; Ellen Rossi, EQT Foundation Manager; Lisa Brand, teacher and coordinator of Innovation Huddle program at Washington Park; and Dr. James Konrad, Washington School District Superintendent celebrate the success of the first year of Innovation Huddle at Washington Park Elementary School.

Two days each week after school, the creative minds of 22 fifth- and sixth-graders at Washington Park Elementary School in Washington County are challenged by technology. Lisa Brand, the teacher in charge of the Innovation Huddle pilot program explained that the program emphasizes several things in that overall technology experience including “entrepreneurship, trying new things, and being persistent.”

Washington Elementary is the first school in western PA to have the program which was started by former Steeler and Hall of Fame player Jerome Bettis’s “The Bus Stops Here Foundation” along with the EQT corporation foundation.

Bettis’s foundation has the Innovation Huddle program running throughout the Detroit, MI, area where Jerome was raised. After playing in Pittsburgh, the next logical move was to take the program to western PA.

Ms. Brand said that “Technology can be an asset to anything in life and whatever your passion is, technology can help. Our fourth-graders learn coding skills and how to work more with the programming aspects of computers. It was a natural tie to take it to the next level with this grant program.” Innovation Huddles is teaching students more about coding, and writing code, animation, entrepreneurship, and creating websites.

Retired Steeler Jerome Bettis visits Washington Park School to see how students are learning about coding, building websites, and entrepreneurship through the “Innovation Huddle” program.

“The grant from the Bettis Foundation allows the children to learn more about working together to solve problem by discussion and technology. We have had group discussions on community problems and how we might work together through technology to fix things. One of the issues we talked about is how to help with hunger like growing foods using technology, possibly through programs like hydroponics.”

Problem solving skills and creativity are encouraged through the program. Students learn that there is more than one way to solve a problem. Ms. Brand explained that when the students work together as a team, with each contributing to the process, they can more easily bring possible solutions to the table. Read an article in the Observer-Reporter for more information on the program.