(Courtesy photo) The Nashua Adult Learning Center's new Xploration STEM van allows STEM teacher Jeremy Griffus to take his classes and workshops on the road.

NASHUA – No educator would ever consider downplaying the value of reading, but they’d also be quick to agree that there are certain lesson plans that cry out for a hands-on approach in order to grab, and hold, kids’ attention.

There’s no better example of that than subjects like science, technology, and engineering – and yes, even math – classes in which kids from kindergarten through high school – and their instructors – have discovered the benefits of hands-on learning supplemented by textbook learning, rather than the other way around.

Over at Nashua’s Adult Learning Center, instructor Jeremy Griffus, who first came to the center as a volunteer while still in high school and was later hired as a part-time afterschool teacher, is now the coordinator of the center’s Xploration STEM program, a new position that had its beginnings in Griffus’s enjoyment of doing STEM activities with the kids in the afterschool program.

It wasn’t long before other teachers – Griffus’s supervisor among them – began noticing how much fun the kids seemed to be having while learning the finer points of the STEM subjects.

The supervisor eventually went to Carol Baldwin, the center’s executive director, suggesting that she pay a visit to one of his classes.

“I went to observe him in action, and was immediately impressed with what I saw,” Baldwin said. Griffus – who the kids call “Mr. Jeremy” – was “guiding children through complicated STEM activities, and they were exited … they were completely engaged,” Baldwin added.

She said she saw, in Griffus, a “gifted” young man whose talents would make him the ideal choice to bring his unique style of learning to all of the ALC’s afterschool programs.

It wasn’t long before word started getting out beyond the friendly confines of the ALC campus, so Griffus designed a small booklet to distribute to elementary schools not just in Nashua, but throughout Southern New Hampshire and into northern Massachusetts.

Born was the “Xploration: STEM Traveling Enrichment Program & Classroom Workshops,” commonly referred to as “Xploration STEM.”

School officials began signing up in droves for Griffus’s program, Baldwin said. But while almost immediate success and continued growth are exactly what any program director or business person or agency leader strives for, there was one component of the program that needed some attention.

Since the program’s debut, Griffus had been using his personal vehicle to cart around his equipment and supplies, but, as Baldwin pointed out, the practice was becoming inefficient and unsafe.

One solution – the best option, they agreed – was initially “a pipe dream,” Griffus said with a laugh.

It was an exciting time at the ALC last fall: The agency was marking its 50th anniversary, and planning a gala celebration at Rivier University’s new Science and Innovation Building.

The celebration included a fundraising component, and it was agreed there would be two beneficiaries: A sorely needed new roof for its Lake Street headquarters, to be installed this spring, and a cargo van to transport Griffus and his STEM gear to the schools that sign up for his programs.

The van, a Dodge Ram, was delivered in December, then outfitted with a colorful vinyl “wrap” that, along with its vanity license plate “STEM2U” makes the vehicle an eye-catcher wherever Griffus travels.

Spacious, well-appointed and dependable, the van can easily accomodate the wide variety of STEM equipment and setups that Griffus uses on any given day.

One day it might be water rockets and super coasters, another visit may entail his impressive lights and lasers show or perhaps balloon hovercrafts, which “hover” using air provided by the balloon.

He also demonstrates the power of a wind vortex, which the kids call “Hurricane Jeremy” – Griffus toting a leaf blower.

Both Baldwin and Griffus said that since the ALC acquired the van, Griffus “now spends very little time here at 4 Lake St., because he is on the road.”

Taking the show on the road is also more economical for the school districts, Baldwin said. “In this day and age, it is much less expensive to bring ‘Mr. Jeremy’ to your school” than it is to bus the children to places such as the Museum of Science in Boston.

Whether he’s doing his STEM class in the ALC’s afterschool program, visiting a Nashua elementary school 5 minutes down the road or taking the show to kids out in Londonderry or Derry, there’s one constant: Kids are doing “fun science” and learning, Griffus said.

And once he captures kids’ attention – which typically doesn’t take very long, once they see a “leaf-blower hurricane” strike, flashes of bright colors from a laser show or witness water rockets blasting off – Griffus has accomplished what he set out to do.

“The kids are learning … they just don’t know they are learning,” he said.

For more information on the Xploration STEM program, including inquries on scheduling availability and other details, go to www. nashuaalc.org/for-children/xploration or contact Griffus at jgriffus@nashuaalc.org or 882-9080, ext. 2205.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.