Innovate Albion

11/20/2025

We had an awesome time at the Hughes Elementary Science Fair last night! What an incredible group of young scientists. We love bringing out some of our fun robots including our middle school robot built by Sparks & Duct Tape.

A special shoutout to Charlie West, one of our NERD Spark team members for teaching the next generation of robot drivers the controls.

And to Mrs. Price, 3rd Grade Teacher Extraordinaire. She pours her heart into all the students at Hughes Elementary, coaches two LEGO Robotics teams and organizes the school science fair. We are so grateful to work alongside her and the entire Hughes School community.

11/19/2025

Our team at Innovate Albion says Congratulations to Bill Dobbins of Caster Concepts on receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Michigan Manufacturers Association! The hard working team at Caster Concepts, lead by Bill is much of the reason we are committed to our mission of bringing high-quality STEM Education opportunities to the Albion area.

A career in manufacturing can be rewarding and highly valued and those opportunities exist right here in our community. We are focused on building the next generation of skilled talent who can problem solve, work together and build amazing things right here in Michigan.

Join us as the Michigan Manufacturers Association honors Bill Dobbins, President & CEO of Caster Concepts, with the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award announcem...

11/16/2025

We are proud to support FIRST LEGO League Challenge teams across Marshall Public Schools in addition to our five community teams. About 50 student k-5 in our region are participation this year, many for the first time. There is incredible value in these experiences for students as their build STEM skills, practice problem-solving, build teamwork skills and push themselves to do their best. And all of this would not be possible without the VOLUNTEER coaches dedicating time, and energy into creating a value experience.

Students and coaches are working hard in anticipation of their upcoming competition on December 6.

11/14/2025

Last night we hosted our annual FIRST Lego League Scrimmage for teams from Innovate Albion and Marshall Public Schools. Seven teams participated and the building was alive with the buzz of excitement, nerves, overcoming challenges and support from friends and family. All seven teams will compete for real on Dec 6 at Battle Creek Lakeview. We know teams will be working hard to put their best foot forward in a couple weeks.

11/03/2025

Four years ago we were celebrating the successes of the very first Lego League Challenge team at Harrington Elementary School, Marshall Public Schools, thanks to Harrington PE. That year we also helped start a team at Gordon Elementary School, with some dedicated parent volunteers. Now, four years later both those teams are going strong and there are three more Lego League Challenge teams in the Marshall Public Schools district.

We've come along side our home district to ensure students have access to the valuable experiences at FIRST provides. From teaching the volunteer coaches everything they need to know. helping order t-shirts, offsetting the costs, to ordering pizza for competition days. INNOVATE Albion has been a partner since the beginning and we are PROUD of it.

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11/01/2025

What a day we’ve had! These teams did an excellent job navigating their first qualifier competition of the season. Both teams were selected to play in elimination matches. Though they played well both teams were eliminated in quarterfinals. They learned a lot and will hit the ground running with design improvements for their robots ahead of their next event on November 15.

11/01/2025

Fall robotics competition season has officially begun! Sparks & Duct Tape is back action with two teams at the Chelsea Qualifier. We’ll be competing all day and hope to be playing in eliminations rounds. The teams has worked hard since early September to design, build, fix, rebuild and learn to drive their robots. Today will be all about learning and fun. We will provide update as we are able!

10/31/2025

We are excited to bring the Girls Who Code program to 3rd-5th grade girls at Harrington Elementary School, Marshall Public Schools! Thanks to Tia, our Albion College volunteer and Ms. Tiara, Harrington Teacher for helping make this possible.

10/24/2025

Our daily work and focus is on the the future and preparing the next generation to be successful as they navigate Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. We do that inside a building that was built, by hand, in 1912. This juxtaposition can be seen on a daily basis throughout our Albion community.

We believe that the past, present, and future can work together. It is our responsibility to modernize our building and learning spaces while honoring history and ensuring that it is preserved.

This can be seen in our current project, the installation of an elevator. We certainly could have carved out a corner of the building to put in an elevator shaft but we did not want to risk the structural integrity of the original structure. It would have been easier (and less expensive) to choose a modern block to cover the exterior of the elevator shaft but we wanted it to appear as if the elevator shaft had been a part of the building since the beginning. We are proud of this project and are grateful to our skilled contractors and subcontractors that have brought this vision to life.

The end result is an accessible building ensuring that students and families, no matter their physical ability will be able to fully engage in our hands-on experiences.

10/05/2025

Well it certainly didn’t feel like fall but we had fun anyway at the lHughes Elementary Fall Fest put on by a dedicated group of parent volunteers. We met so many great families! Our activities included archeological dig sites for kids to practice their archaeology skills and candy corn catapults.

A special thanks to the students and parents of Hughes RedHawks Robo Renegades (HR3) FIRST Lego League team for volunteering with us.

09/26/2025

We love working one-on-one with classroom teachers to find innovative ways to teach concepts while incorporating hands-on learning, STEM and problem solving in their classrooms. We are here to be a resource to all educators!

09/23/2025

As fall approaches we're still remembering all the fun we had with our Camp Invention campers to kick off our summer programming this year. Camp Invention is two weeks of creativity, hands-on fun and team work for students in K-6. If that sounds like fun for your student you're in luck, our 2026 camp registration is open and you can register now using the code "CAMP2026" to get $50.00 off. More info and registration here: https://www.invent.org/program-search/camp-invention/mi32/11200

*You must registered by September 30 to get $50.00 off.