LIMA — Apollo Career Center can add some new hardware to its trophy case after sweeping both competitions at MakerFest 2016.
After winning the skilled trades competition at last year’s MakerFest, Apollo continued its dominance by taking home the Maker Cup trophy in the same contest. But the career center wasn’t done there.
Apollo also won the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math competition. The win earned Apollo its third Maker Cup trophy in two years, making it the only school to receive the award in the event’s two-year history.
“I’m on top of the world,” said Judy Wells, superintendent of Apollo. “Our kids did fabulous, and I think that’s a credit to our teachers who have put in so much effort.”
Bruce Johnson, instructional supervisor at Apollo, echoed Wells’ sentiment.
“It speaks well of our kids and of our instructors,” Johnson said. “When you have students and staff that are passionate about what they do, you get good results.”
In the first two days of MakerFest, 20 individual competitions were held. There were six skilled trades contests, which ranged from welding to automotive repair, and 14 STEM competitions that included everything from cupcake making to pallet building.
Though students from several other schools took home individual medals for each competition, Apollo earned the most points overall. Wells noted that many students from Apollo’s feeder schools earned medals as well.
“It was great to see them win also,” she said.
Despite the success Apollo has garnered over the last two years, Johnson said the students didn’t spend any extra time preparing for the competitions. He said the classroom instruction Apollo provides on a daily basis was enough for his students to succeed.
“We don’t want to prepare for the contest, we want our kids to learn the skills they’re supposed to learn and let everything go from there,” he said.
As for next year’s competition, Wells is hopeful they will be adding even more awards to their trophy case.
“I’m very competitive and so are my kids,” she said with a laugh, “so we’ll see.”
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