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A sewing station at Imaginarium.
Four-year-old Reese Bishop makes art at an Imaginarium craft station at Wednesday’s grand opening event.
Eight-year-old Walker Dorsey hard at work at Imaginarium’s woodworking station at Wednesday’s grand opening.
Above, a steady crowd of parents, children, educators, and community members enjoyed the Imaginarium grand opening event Wednesday afternoon.
Above, a steady crowd of parents, children, educators, and community members enjoyed the Imaginarium grand opening event Wednesday afternoon. Left, the six-foot-tall balloon robot was a big hit at Wednesday’s grand opening for Imaginarium.
Imaginarium founder-owners Melanie Curtis and Dell Jacob at Wednesday afternoon’s grand opening.
A sewing station at Imaginarium.
Four-year-old Reese Bishop makes art at an Imaginarium craft station at Wednesday’s grand opening event.
Eight-year-old Walker Dorsey hard at work at Imaginarium’s woodworking station at Wednesday’s grand opening.
Above, a steady crowd of parents, children, educators, and community members enjoyed the Imaginarium grand opening event Wednesday afternoon.
Above, a steady crowd of parents, children, educators, and community members enjoyed the Imaginarium grand opening event Wednesday afternoon. Left, the six-foot-tall balloon robot was a big hit at Wednesday’s grand opening for Imaginarium.
Imaginarium founder-owners Melanie Curtis and Dell Jacob at Wednesday afternoon’s grand opening.
The Emporia Main Street incubator space was filled with the sounds of children experimenting with all the various offerings at the Imaginarium grand opening Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 24.
Owners Dell Jacob and Melanie Curtis, both certified teachers, were happy with the large turnout.
“There are STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) centers all over the country,” Jacob said. “They’re mostly in large cities. We knew we wanted to bring a STEM center here — we wanted to have it in our community, too.”
Filled with engineering materials, robotics, sewing, woodworking and science supplies and creative stations, the new nonprofit organization aims to bring STEM education to area children.
“We have about 70 children already enrolled,” Melanie Curtis said. “But there’s plenty of room for more students.”
Enrollment is currently open, with classes beginning after the Labor Day holiday. A full list of classes offered is on the Imaginarium website at emporiaimaginarium.org.
“Brilliant Builders and 3D classes are hot,” noted Jacob.
Open to students from kindergarten through ninth-grade, courses range from Creation Lab, in which kindergarteners through sixth-graders will create, tinker, invent, and solve real world problems with access to most Imaginarium supplies, tools and stations; to the Future City Competition Team, in which sixth through eighth-graders will spend about four months creating cities that exist at least 100 years in the future and represent the team’s solution to a citywide sustainability issue.
Imaginarium offers a pair of Homeschool Intro classes crafted to introduce students of all ages to all aspects of STEM, including 3D printing, robotics, engineering, sewing, woodworking, and more. The entire range of Imaginarium classes are held weekday afternoons and evenings. Each class meets once a week for either 30 or 60 minutes, and lasts for a full semester. Payment is billed monthly to credit or debit cards.
Jacob and Curtis partner with area schools for STEM-based field trips, demonstrations, custom classes and professional development, as well as providing lab time for preschoolers and homeschool families.
Imaginarium founder-owners are already thinking big. “We hope to expand in the future, and offer classes to adults and preschoolers and teenagers down the road,” Dell stated. “This space is not large enough for that and right now, there’s only the two of us, but we’re already thinking about it.”
“We’ll be here in the incubator space for the coming 18 months, though,” added Curtis.
For more information, stop by Imaginarium at 729 Commercial St., phone them at 620-208-6363, or visit their website at emporiaimaginarium.org.
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There was plenty of STEM learning offered in the old Home Economics and Shop classes yet schools got rid of them. I'll never understand that.
Short-sighted policymakers, Create, who don't understand interdisciplinary courses work. When you see Home Ec as "how to make dessert" instead of "what is the chemistry behind baking," or shop as "how to make an ashtray" instead of "what are the physics behind construction," these courses seem unimportant.
Heck, it won't matter in a year's time. With Cathy Hopkins and Dennis Hershberger slated to take seats on the State Board of Education, I am pretty certain we're about to see science removed from our school curriculums.
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