In these pictures, students in the after school STEM class discuss and begin work on a container that will hopefully allow their single potato chip to be mailed and arrive in one piece. (Ric Hanson/photos) [Click on each image to enlarge]

MS Science Teacher Kara Martin (right) explains the rules to students before they begin working on their shipping containers.

Advanced students with the Atlantic Middle School are involved in an after school STEM Excellence and Leadership Program. Stem stands for Science Technology Engineering and Math. The program, which is fairly new to Iowa, offers science tutoring to support 6^th through 8^th grade, gifted science and math students, in some of the state’s smallest communities. The program is funded through a two-million dollar National Science Foundation grant, and is administered by the University of Iowa College of Education’s Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development. About a dozen or so students are involved in the Atlantic Middle School Program. School Principal Josh Rasmussen said the after school program expands on an industrial technology program the school had going prior to the grant.

He says the program offers valuable lessons in critical thinking.

Kara Martin is the Middle School Science Teacher who has assigned the STEM students a project that challenges their organizational, cooperative and creative capabilities.

Students have an hour to design and test a package to safely ship a single potato chip through the USPS to another school. Upon receipt, the chip will be evaluated and scored. The goal is to engineer a package to have the smallest mass and volume, while at the same time protecting the chip. The package can be no larger than 3×5″, and there must be no writing on the package, such as fragile, or handle with care. A perfect chips scores 100 points, slightly damaged 50 pts, split chip 10 pts, major damage 5 points, dust 1 pt. Overall scores = Intactness score/(mass in kg x volume in cc).,

Andrea Reilly is the Middle School Talented and Gifted Program Coordinator. She says the grant provided by the UI Belkin Center allowed some of the eighth-grade students the opportunity to take field trips to witness real world applications of STEM. 

One of the students tasked with shipping the single potato chip in hopes it will come back in one piece, is 6^th grader Mary McCurdy, the daughter of John and Ann McCurdy, of Atlantic, who says she is really enjoying the experience.

Mary talked about what she hopes to learn from the experiment, outside the engineering principals.

Mary McCurdy talks w/reporters about the STEM experiment & experience. MS Science Teacher Kara Martin is in the background.

In addition to Atlantic, the STEM Excellence and Leadership Program, involves students with the: Adel DeSoto Minburn Middle School; Cardinal Middle School; Davis County Middle School; Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont Junior/Senior High School; Ford Dodge Middle School; Graettinger-Terril Middle School; Mount Pleasant Community Middle School; Spencer Middle School, and the Starmont Middle School.

A school bus driver from Red Oak was cited Thursday, after the Red Oak School District bus he was driving, sideswiped a parked car near the Red Oak Middle School. Red Oak Police says 77-year old Roger Lynn Waggener was driving a 2015 Bluebird school bus westbound at 4th and Hammond Streets at around 3:25-p.m., when the bus sideswiped a legally parked 2005 Chevy Classic passenger car. The car was occupied by 83-year old Marilyn Gentry, who was waiting for her grandchild to be dropped-off at the Red Oak Middle School.

No students were injured on-board the bus, nor was either driver. The car sustained about $6,000 damage, while damage to the bus was estimated at $2,000. Waggener was cited for Failure to Maintain Control.

Police in Red Oak, Thursday evening, arrested a man on assault, and other charges. 24-year old Jesse Dean Uhlmann, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 7:40-p.m., for Domestic Abuse Assault, Obstruction of Emergency Communications, and Contempt of Court, for violating a No Contact/Protective Order. Uhlmann was also charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance/Marijuana. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on two separate bonds: a $300 cash bond for the warrant; and a $1,000 bond for the Possession charge.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A top aide to Gov. Kim Reynolds has been hired by Apple months after helping promote a controversial $208 million incentive package for the company’s planned Iowa data center as a good deal for taxpayers. Tim Albrecht resigned as Reynolds’ deputy chief of staff, then began in March as a manager of strategic initiatives for Apple. The governor’s office says Albrecht’s position is “unrelated” to the $1.3 billion complex the company is building outside Des Moines.

SABULA, Iowa (AP) — A bridge connecting Iowa with Illinois will stay closed even longer than earlier estimates. The Dubuque Telegraph Herald reports Sabula Mayor Troy Hansen announced Thursday the bridge just outside the town won’t open until September. Since officials ordered the bridge closed for safety reasons in February, its reopening has been pushed back from May to July and now Sept. 3. The bridge provides access to a larger U.S. Highway 52/Illinois 64 bridge over the Mississippi River to Savanna, Illinois.

CLIVE, Iowa (AP) — A Davenport man has won a $4.38 million lottery jackpot without even paying for a ticket. The Iowa Lottery says Thursday that 52-year-old Chuck Anderson won the jackpot in Saturday’s drawing of the Lotto America game. The lottery has been promoting Lotto America, which began in November, by offering free plays to random players who bought tickets in other games. Anderson qualified for the free ticket by buying a Powerball ticket. Anderson opted to take a lump sum amount of $2.6 million.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A lawyer for the Iowa Public Information Board says agencies can keep secret the personal email addresses used by their board members for official business. In a draft opinion, the board’s legal counsel says private email addresses can be exempt from disclosure under the Iowa Open Records Act. He says the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board likely acted lawfully in redacting the email addresses of board members in records released to Bleeding Heartland, a blog that covers Iowa politics.

The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday on their social media page, that they are aware of a new scam targeting the area. “Individuals are providing their banking and online information for checks to be deposited in their accounts and then the next day they are to transfer the money to someone else.” Authorities say “We have seen similar scams be advertised as a “get rich quick” scheme. If you feel you have been scammed, please talk to your banking institution and law enforcement immediately.”

The Sheriff’s Office said also, “It is very important to share all the information you have received and provided, even though the scammers may have told you not to or have provided you with a story to use if asked. This is in the best interest of helping you and safeguarding other potential victims. Remember if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t.”

And, officials with the Creston Police Department are reporting a familiar scam. On their social media page, Thursday, the C-PD said “We are receiving reports that people are getting voicemails and text messages stating there are warrants for their arrest. It is the policy of the Creston Police Department to not divulge warrant information in any manner other than in person. If you receive one of these messages, rest assured it is a scam. Please report them to the Iowa Attorney Generals Office at 888-777-4590.”

SABULA, Iowa (AP) — A key bridge connecting eastern Iowa with northwestern Illinois will remain closed even longer than earlier estimates. The Dubuque Telegraph Herald reports Sabula Mayor Troy Hansen announced Thursday the bridge just outside the town won’t open until September.

Since Iowa Department of Transportation officials ordered the bridge closed for safety reasons in February, the estimate for reopening the span have been pushed back from May to July and now Sept. 3. The bridge provides access to a larger U.S. Highway 52/Illinois 64 bridge over the Mississippi River to Savanna, Illinois.

Motorists commuting from Sabula to Savanna, Illinois, or vice versa, must take a 36-mile detour. State Sen. Tod Bowman says he’ll discuss the matter with transportation officials.

CLIVE, Iowa (AP) — A Davenport man has won a $4.38 million lottery jackpot without even paying for a ticket. The Iowa Lottery says Thursday that 52-year-old Chuck Anderson won the jackpot in Saturday’s drawing of the Lotto America game.

The lottery has been promoting Lotto America, which began in November, by offering free plays to random players who bought tickets in other games. Anderson qualified for the free ticket by buying a Powerball ticket at a Kwik Star convenience store in Davenport.

Anderson’s Lotto America ticket matched all six numbers in Saturday’s drawing. He didn’t check the results for a couple days and then had to examine them a couple times before believing he’d won. Anderson opted to take a lump sum amount of $2.6 million.

A new state law establishes felony charges for being caught with contraband in a halfway house. Representative Gary Worthan, a Republican from Storm Lake, says “So in addition to parole revocation, it will be a separate charge with a separate sentence.”

It’s been illegal to bring drugs, alcohol or other contraband into a state prison, but Iowa’s Supreme Court recently ruled community-based correctional facilities were not technically part of the prison system. Worthan says a cell phone is contraband in a halfway house. “You don’t want a smart phone being brought in when maybe there’s a sex offender next door that can use that cell phone to victimize someone,” Worthan says.

The case that prompted this new law involved a man caught in a Burlington halfway house with a partially smoked marijuana cigarette. Curtis Halvorson appealed his felony conviction for bringing contraband into a correctional facility. In 2015 the Iowa Supreme Court tossed out his conviction, ruling halfway houses were not under direct control of the Iowa Department of Corrections.

Only 10 of the 150 members of the legislature voted against this new law. Critics say it’s over-reached because there were already charges available to file against halfway house residents caught with weapons, drugs or other items classified as contraband.

(Radio Iowa)

Page County Sheriff Lyle Palmer, today (Thursday), released information concerning an arrest that took place at around 2:10-a.m., Saturday. The Sheriff reports, deputies stopped an SUV near 310^th street and Hackberry Avenue, or about four-miles south of Coin.

During the traffic stop, it was discovered that there was Marijuana in the vehicle.  The driver, 28-year old Jesse Dean Blanchard, of Clearmont, MO., was arrested for Possession of a controlled substance (marijuana) and Operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.

Blanchard was transported to the Page County Jail, where he was held on $2,000 bond.

Blake Collingsworth speaks to the Atlantic Kiwanis Club on May 10, 2018 about the Josh the Otter Program

The Atlantic Kiwanis Club welcomed in some special guests at their meeting on May 10th including Blake Collingsworth who heads up the Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation and Josh the Otter Program. The Atlantic Kiwanis Club has been implementing the Josh the Otter water safety program in the Atlantic school district for about 8 years now and they were presenting their latest program to Kindergarten students at Washington Elementary on Thursday.

The program was started by Blake and Kathy Collingsworth after their son Josh died in a tragic drowning accident in the family pool when he was 2 and a half years old. In speaking with the Atlantic Kiwanis Club Blake Collingsworth stated that he wants the program to help kids understand at a young age that they need to be with an adult when they are around water.  After Josh’s death the family created the Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation and then wrote the Josh The Baby Otter book to help deliver their message.

Blake shared that the number one cause of unintended death of children 4 and under is drowning, something he was upset he didn’t know sooner. He also said drowning is the #2 cause of unintended death of children 14 and under. He hopes that the Josh the Otter program can change the statistics and save lives.

Collingsworth also works with the National Drowning Prevention Association and said statistics show that drowning deaths have decreased by 17% since 2010 and he believes his son Josh and this program is a part of that progress. The Josh the Otter Program has been implemented all around the United States, into Australia, and continues to grow. They have distributed over 250,000 books through service organization efforts.

Kindergarten students in Atlantic, Massena, and Anita receive a copy of the Josh the Otter book when they attend the program. Atlantic Kiwanis Member and project leader Steve Green said they hope to spread the program to the Griswold schools by next year as well. Collingsworth thanked the Atlantic Kiwanis Group for bringing his message to the area.

Find out more about the Foundation and program at www.joshtheotter.org