First Lady Visits Townsend Elementary Schopol
 | Author:
Nancy Marks
Nancy Marks: MT43 News Secretary and News Editor |
First Lady Susan Gianforte visited Townsend Elementary Schools Tuesday to see her STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) Initiative in action. First-grade teacher Shayna Gillespie reads the nursery story “The Three Pigs,” to her 20 students then coaxed them to “build a house that the big bad wolf could not blow down.” Mrs. Gillespie walked them through the definitions of an architect and an architect’s job. The first graders then worked together in pairs to draw a house, then build it. They had a certain amount of time to do the work. The completed works were then submitted to the blowdryer trial. Most houses withstood the damage.
Mrs. Gianforte congratulated Townsend Schools for their integration into the STEM programs. She has worked at encouraging all Montana schools to use the program for which she fundraises to support them. Asked her opinion on the focus in education on STEM instead of teaching students to read and write, she said,” I am introducing my second initiative which will include the Dolly Parton Imagination libraries all over the state to get books to children ages 0-5. The program puts a book in a child’s hands every month. So far 20 Montana counties carry the program.
