The Center for Creative Solutions recognized Barker Middle School for its culture of creativity Monday morning. Nine students and their school received Student Innovation Awards as part of Northwest Indiana’s celebration of World Creativity and Innovation Week. The Center presented a $200 check to the school’s STEM Program, thanks to the generosity of the Morgan Family Foundation.

For the past nine years, Barker Middle School has sponsored three community challenges: Egg Crash, Ramp Challenge and Water Bottle Rockets. The STEM program collaborates with area businesses, agencies, the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago, Valparaiso University, Purdue Northwest and the Society of Women’s Engineers, to name a few.

Barker students work with 3D printing and virtual reality equipment, and make video documentaries and public service announcements. They were STEM state finalists in 2021 and 2013.

Winners of the Student Innovation Awards are pictured above. Left to right, they are: students, Wyatt Debald, Dei Oldenkamp, Alexis Gresham, Makenna Nowatzke, Desiree Jimenez, Addyson Heichel, along with their STEM teacher, Amy Hamann. Not pictured are students, Seth Gaddis, Gage Kelley and Elijah Vittatoe.

Sponsors of World Creativity and Innovation Week include WIMS Radio, Society of Innovators at Purdue Northwest, “Arts on the Air” of Lakeshore Public Radio and the Center for Creative Solutions.

(Article written by Center for Creative Solutions, Inc.) For more information, go to the CenterforCreativeSolutions.com, send an email to creativity52@comcast.net or telephone 219-326-7259. For an international flavor of World Creativity and Innovation Week, go to https://wciw.org/about-us/