21st Century’s mobile learning lab gives middle school students a taste of careers in agriculture

21st Century Equipment unveiled its new mobile technology learning lab on Monday, intended to help expose middle school students to STEM skills and job opportunities available right here in the Panhandle.

The lab is housed in a 40-foot enclosed gooseneck trailer, enabling it to meet students at their own schools for ease of access. The trailer is equipped with heating and air conditioning, allowing it to be used outdoors year-round. The project was made possible by funds from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development in the form of a $125,000 Developing Youth Talent Initiative (DYTI) grant.

Completed on Nov. 1, the mobile lab has already gotten the opportunity to serve over 300 local students under the direction of Jason Stratman, director of learning and leadership development at 21st Century Equipment.

“The goal is to make kids aware of the kinds of STEM job opportunities that there are here in western Nebraska,” said 21st Century Equipment President and CEO Owen Palm.

The job opportunities introduced through the mobile lab include a wide variety of H3 jobs in the field of agriculture, meaning jobs that are high wage, high skill, and in high demand. When students visit the lab, Stratman explains just how many of these jobs are available right in the Panhandle.

“You don’t have to go to Omaha, you don’t have to go to Denver, you don’t have to go to some faraway place. You want to be in the middle of agricultural country to do this type of work because this is where everything happens,” said Stratman.

The decision to target seventh and eighth grade students came from a realization that many recruiting efforts come too late in the decision-making process to be effective.

“By the time we start reaching out to kids who are juniors and seniors, many of them have already made a career choice,” said Palm. “So, when we saw this grant that was focused on seventh and eighth graders, it made perfect sense to reach out to those kids at that point in their education.”

One of the examples of the mobile lab’s programming described by Stratman involved the electrical station, which uses a pivot irrigation system as a combined illustration of several different STEM principles.

“They’ve basically got to look at a wire schematic and figure out why the motor wouldn’t run,” said Stratman. “We talk about the revolutions it takes to move the tire. We make them calculate the circumference of one pivot and the gear ratio, basically how fast that motor needs to turn to make the wheel turn that entire circumference.”

Other stations in the trailer include: a soils lab focused on soil composition, erosion, and testing pH; a TopoBox that uses augmented reality to visually express the effects of water flow on various terrains; a drone simulator that lets students identify targets in an open field; and much more.

The goal of the stations inside the lab is to connect educational curricula and agricultural skills and concepts to technology and experiences that students are already familiar with, which shows them that they are capable of pursuing careers in the field of agriculture that will not only be fulfilling , but also pay well.

Stratman said that the mobile lab is more or less booked through the month of December, but that there are many scheduling opportunities in January and all throughout the second half of the school year for area educators to take advantage of for students.

Stratman’s vision for the lab includes having a versatile range of stations that can tie into the curriculum of the visiting students, which will help drive home the concepts they’re learning in class through hands-on, real-world applications of STEM principles. This plan also helps create a varied experience for those who get to visit the lab more than once.

Parties interested in having the lab visit their location can contact [email protected] for more information and scheduling.