Anderson “Boiler Bang” after-school program boosts STEM education in grades 6-12

Purdue Polytechnic Anderson and the Anderson Township Trustee’s Girls and Boys Club have partnered to create “Boiler Bang,” an after-school science, technology, engineering, and math program for students in grades 6 through 12.

The program includes a wood shop class, a robotics class, and exposure to tools and equipment sometimes not available to students before college, according to Lorri Barnett, business leadership, industrial tech and supply chain lecturer at Purdue Polytechnic Anderson.

Providing familiarity with a college environment is an important part of the program, said Larry McClendon, the Girls and Boys Club’s after-school program director.

“We want to have more than recreation with the kids,” McClendon said. “When you think of a STEM program, it covers it all for the kids and gets them college prepared.”

Read the full Herald Bulletin article about the “Boiler Bang” program.