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w w w.in s i g h t o n m f g . c o m September 2015 • /INSIGHT ON MANUFACTURING | 19 E D U C AT I O N & T R A I N I N G Rolling out the red carpet Math teachers to get star treatment at video premiere event BY NIKKI KALLIO IF YOU'RE A MATH TEACHER and you're sick of hearing students ask, "Why do I need this stuff, anyway?" — just show them. is month, the NEW Manufacturing Alliance is releasing nine new Get Real Math videos to show students math in action in the workplace. e new videos will be showcased during a Hollywood- like premiere Sept. 30 at the Meyer eater. at's not all — the alliance also wants to give math teachers the star treatment on the red carpet. Teachers in math and tech education departments from around the New North have been invited to attend the free event with their spouses, says Ann Franz, NEW Manufacturing Alliance director. ey'll be photographed on the red carpet and spotlighted as the stars of the evening. Manufacturers have been invited as well and will introduce the videos made at their companies. "Our real goal of this whole event is a celebration of manufacturers and educators working together," Franz says. e new videos are a follow-up to five Get Real Math videos from Sargento, Ariens and KI launched last fall. e nine new videos, funded in part by a National Science Foundation Grant through Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, will feature Robinson Metal, KI and NWTC, Franz says. Each video runs between two and five minutes and highlights a different math problem covering areas such as whole numbers, trigonometry and conversion to metric. ose are skills that would be taught in NWTC's Math Trades I class, but are also skills high school or middle school students would learn. NWTC math teacher Rachel Johnson is developing the teacher lesson plans that go along with the videos. "Everything being shown is a real- life problem," Franz says. "ese are not make-believe. ese are real-life examples of the math skills somebody working in a manufacturing environment would need to know to do their job." e original idea to produce the math videos came out of discussions in the alliance's K-12 Task Force — a frustrated math teacher, in particular, who was tired of hearing that dreaded question, says Andy Bushmaker, senior human resources director at KI in Green Bay and the chairman of the task force. "I think the videos will be a great tool for teachers to help with this," Bushmaker says. "It seemed like a great way to help teachers show students practical applications for math." Bushmaker wrote the scripts for the videos shot at KI, which star a maintenance technician, an automation intern and managers. One video features whole numbers in action related to building a welding stand for one of KI's robotic welders. e videos were shot earlier this summer. "Two of my passions are math and manufacturing," Bushmaker says. "I do have a degree in math, so it was kind of a great fit for me." Bushmaker wants manufacturers to be excited about these videos because they showcase the industry, particularly when more baby boomers are retiring and the skills shortage is growing. Andy Bushmaker, senior human resources director at KI, Green Bay