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DEPCO, LLC announces the purchase of Gears Educational Systems, LLC

Pittsburg, KS – September 22, 2011 - DEPCO, LLC, Pittsburg, KS, announced today that they have acquired Gears Educational Systems, LLC, Hanover, MA, and will move them to their Pittsburg, KS facilities. Gears Educational Systems is an innovator in providing hands-on engineering products to middle schools, high schools, and colleges. They differentiated themselves from competitors by offering robust products using industry-grade components. Gears products are designed and built to last for years in the classroom, resulting in better value. Their products are used in hundreds of high schools, colleges, and universities around the country. Gears Co-founder Michael Bastoni is a veteran educator that has direct classroom experience in STEM education. He uses this experience to develop kits that address the needs of students and teachers. In the mid-1990s, he began developing prototypes of the engineering kits that would evolve into our flagship product—GEARS Invention and Design System (IDS). GEARS-IDS was used as a trainer for his students so that they would be better prepared for regional and national engineering robotic competitions. His teams were very successful and won many top awards. More importantly, these students often continued their studies at engineering schools. Gears Co-founder, Mark Newby, has spent over twenty five years in the high-tech industry as an electro-mechanical sales engineer. He has worked closely with machinists, metal fabricators, electrical and mechanical engineers helping create and assist in the design of electro-mechanical products. Gears’ founders Mark and Mike incorporated in 2002 to refine and expand the Gears-IDS in order to share it with the educational marketplace. It was their intent for others to have similar, year-round engineering programs with all of the advantages and success that Mike and his students were experiencing in the classroom. Mark Newby says, "DEPCO's expansive warehousing and assembly facility will meet the needs of our growing customer base. This along with producing best in class online curriculum aligned to our products makes the acquisition ideal." “We are very excited to be able to add the Gears’ products to DEPCO product line. This gives us the ability to offer the most rugged and expansive mechatronic and robotic kits available to educators. We (DEPCO) continue to provide tools, not toys, to better train our students today to become the technicians and engineers of tomorrow” says Terry Graham, President of DEPCO, LLC. DEPCO intends to keep both Mark and Mike closely involved with sales and the development of new products to grow the already extensive product line. For more information about DEPCO and GEARS, please visit the following websites: www.depcollc.com www.gearseds.com

2011 ACTE Annual Convention and Career Tech Expo

November 17th through the 19th

There is so much to do and see at this 3 day workshop!

-Better understand expectations for learning presented by the Common Core State Standards and strategies for teachers.

-Speak with Ranesco about incorporating technology in your classroom

-How to increase enrollment, retention and graduation rates with the use of Millennials.

-Explore the skeletal system and diretional terms in muscle and bone morphology, as well as concepts that will lead into other body systems. Build human anatomy using clay and a specially designed skeletal model.

-Understanding of the National Business Administration Standards

-Awarness of how the changing environment affects what and how you teach, includin implications of STEM, post-millennial perspectives, technology and internet.

-Tour Linn State Community College and Cadaver's.

Sign up today! http://bit.ly/eajbzV

HOSA Scholarships

Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) is a national student organization endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education and the Health Science Education Division of ACTE. Their goals are to promote health care careers and improve the delivery of health care to everyone.

HOSA began in 1967 and has since then grown to nearly 120,000 members. Thanks to companies like DEPCO, LLC and other HOSA partners, HOSA will provide 53 members with scholarships totaling over $58,500 this year. HOSA's numerous qualified applicants prove that it makes a substantial impact on the lives of many young people and their career choices into the health care industry. DEPCO, LLC and Applied Technologies also assist the HOSA organization by providing education curriculum and hands-on equipment for student training. The educational products are correlated to the National Consortium for Health Science Education (NCHSE). More information on the products can be found at http://www.healthscienceeducation.com/index.htm.

This year, over 6,500 delegates, advisors, and guests will attend HOSA's 34th Annual National Leadership Conference in Anaheim, California.

A full list of the scholarship recipients can be found at http://www.hosa.org/2011_scholarship_recipients.pdf.

Preschool Activities

There are many ways to keep preschool kids entertained, but are all of them educational?

The Block Academy, a developmentally-appropriate literacy curriculum for 3 to 6 years olds, is a curriculum which concentrates on the scientifically-proven concept that children learn in an assortment of ways by using all of their senses. It uses hands-on, experiential learning; sensory motor integration; and brain/skill development through the use of manipulatives by Mega Bloks.

Burden Free. Total content is provided for the educator. Not only a handful of activities, but every activity, procedure, and exercise is detailed for every hour of every day. This reduces the educator's preparation time, it provides continuity if an educator is absent, and it provides a flexible curriculum that can be used in entirety or with chosen elements.

Comprehensive. It is truly comprehensive as it incorporates science, math, music, physical activity, arts and crafts, character development, snacks and recipes, and weekly parent newsletters.

Flexible. The curriculum allows for a flexible schedule for all-day and half-day programs. The educator may use as little or as much they choose. There are enough resources and activities to plan for a 10 to 12 month program period.

Sensory Integration. Facilitates the developing brain by using information from all senses. MindBuild provides daily sensory integration activities to enhance brain development. This approach also reaches out to children with learning disabilities who have difficulty with sensory integration.

For more information: http://www.blockacademy.net

STEM Education Explained

Since 2001, the acronym, STEM, stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This approach to teaching incorporates technology and engineering into mathematics and science, implementing a "meta-discipline." This provides students with problem-solving, discovery, exploratory learning, and requires students to actively engage a situation to find its solution. Overall, this application was designed to promote effective and relevant connections between STEM classroom content and STEM career pathways, thus providing learning opportunities for students and provides teachers with a resource where they can access highly effective content and related support materials to consolidate into their curriculum.

College-level academics is now being taught in high schools with encouragement from the STEM approach. According to studies all students benefit from the STEM program because it teaches independent innovation and allows students to explore greater depths of all of the subjects by utilizing the skills learned; these skills are going to be required in order for today's students to be tomorrow's global leaders. Today almost all employers require employees to have an understanding of critical-thinking while also working cohesively in groups and independently.

Recently, there has been a drop in students majoring in science or technology related fields. Many say this is due to lack of preparation in high school classes. The National Science Foundation says that around 80% of jobs created in the upcoming decade will require some type of math and science skills. So that the US doesn't suffer as a whole when a majority of baby boomers retire, a balance will need to be created to encourage more students to achieve in their academic environment.

For products centralizing around STEM Education for your classroom check out: http://www.depcollc.com

Where have all the math and science students gone?

According to a recent CNN documentary, American students rank 17th in science and 25th in math. The documentary, that airs May 21st, follows three high school students involved in a national robotics competition. Schools use robotics and other hands on learning to get students more involved in the math and science industries. Educators and industry leaders are worried about the future of careers in these areas as well as engineering and technology in general. Qualified applicants for these jobs are getting harder and harder to find.

The "Don't Fail Me: Education in America" documentary follows the students' preparation and competition at the FIRST Robotics Competition that was held in St. Louis, Missouri on April 27-30, 2011. A similar competition will be held in Kansas City June 19 - June 24 in Kansas City, MO. The SkillsUSA conference will be the 47th annual National Leadership and Skills Conference (NLSC). It is expected that more than 15,000 students, teachers and business partners will participate.

This particular conference doesn’t only focus on math and science. Students can showcase their knowledge in 96 different trades that vary from electronics and computer-aided drafting to culinary arts and broadcast news production.

Contests are run with the help of industry and trade associations such as Depco LLC. The competitions are coordinated by these same industrial organizations. Many technological vendors will attend and be on display.

The week-long event will be open to the public and free of charge.

You can read more on CNN's documentary, "Don't Fail Me: Education in America," at the following link.

http://bit.ly/iOK6t4 #cnn