Patrick Getchis
M.A.
Patrick Getchis, M.A. is a STEM teacher at Wy’east Middle School in Odell, Oregon. Over the past 17 years, Patrick has developed a passion for bringing real world, hands-on STEM education to a diverse group of students. Although he teaches in a humble, small town agricultural setting, his classroom is equipped with 21st century tools and equipment for students to dream, design and build. As a young boy, Patrick spent countless hours designing contraptions in his father’s workshop. From experimental pedal powered airplanes, to Huck Finn style rafts, he was an early adopter of the Maker Movement. Earlier in his career Getchis’s students learned chemistry through designing a small-scale biodiesel reactor. He saw the enthusiasm in their eyes as they retrofitted a small diesel pickup and ran it on recycled vegetable oil. Patrick believes when learning is contextualized through meaningful experience, students will flourish. Since then, his classes have built campus farms to feed the food bank, engineered custom skateboards, designed drones, and fabricated custom ukuleles using state-of-the-art technologies such as laser cutters and 3d printers. Patrick is an avid robotics enthusiast and his students have won FLL state championships three times. His students love engineering wrestling robots, reinventing the Roomba vacuum, and designing solar cell phone chargers. He prides himself on finding inclusive, high interest project threads that naturally engage learners to apply science, technology, engineering and math. BA: Biology/Chemistry, Castleton University MAT: Secondary Science/Math, Lewis and Clark College
Offered Courses
S.T.E.M.: 3D Design/Printing with TinkerCad
Course No. CM403s, CM503s
Are you wondering how to generate a STEM buzz in your classroom? Tinkercad is an amazingly easy-to-use, powerful program for creating 3D digital designs that are ready to be 3D printed. This 3D modeling program empowers students to design all kinds of things, from custom homes to Mayan statue replicas, to cell models and engineered 3D-printed fidget spinners.
