Our MAKE IT! series is back. Thursdays from 5 to 8 p.m. we offer awesome activities in Fulton's Workshop.
Each will have a focus or theme, but you can also come and explore the workshop if the planned activity doesn't interest you, there are plenty of other things that might, including micro:bit hands-on, our new Lego Wall, cardboard construction, magnet wall challenge, wind tunnel and many more. Come and explore!
Come explore hands-on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) projects for all ages!
We want to:
Create a fun interactive learning environment
Emphasizes imagination and creativity
Make curious and thoughtful learners
Come at any point to participate.
Free for museum members. Regular admission rate for non-members
* Additional costs will always be noted
MAKE IT! Schedule
December 5: No Make It! Thursday activity tonight. This is a staging night for our annual Wakanda Wonderland event.
December 12: No Make It! Thursday activity tonight. Join us downtown for Menomonie's annual Winter Daze parade.
December 19: Zipline Action Explore the science and engineering of ziplines. You'll design and test how angles, weight and friction impact speed, and observe forces of gravity while solving a problem — transporting an object from one place to another in a fast, efficient manner. Try different materials and see what zooms down a zipline the fastest!
December 26: Dino-Rama Build a dinosaur (Triceratops, Pterosaur and/or Allosaurus) using cardboard, scissors and some engineering ingenuity. Add some color, then create a realistic setting to display your creation(s).
Barry Bauer’s management efforts involving U.S. fighter jets recently recognized with national engineering honor
By Jerry Poling, UW-Stout
Barry Bauer remembers the moment early in his career with aerospace giant Lockheed-Martin when his team’s four-year project was put to the test. They had been tasked with designing and developing leading edges of the Air Force F-22 fighter aircraft that would avoid radar detection.
When an F-22 vertical stabilizer was mounted on a pole for a radar range test, nothing came back. Only when a bird landed on the stabilizer during the test — something that wouldn’t happen on a plane going 1,500 mph — was a stabilizer detected.
The work was a success, one of the reasons the F-22 became a stealth jet in the U.S. arsenal.
The F-22 project is one of many successes in Bauer’s 36-year career as a project manager with Lockheed-Martin after earning degrees from University of Wisconsin-Stout in 1983 and 1992.
The Menomonie resident has contributed to national defense success in other ways. His team’s F-22 design remains in use on the state-of-the art F-35 made by Lockheed-Martin. On the F-35, he managed the integrated core processor project for the plane’s onboard computer. He led the merger of IT systems when Lockheed-Martin Space and Boeing Defense formed United Launch Alliance. He has worked on projects for the F-16, F-117 and other military aircraft.
“When a plane flies, there’s an army of people you never see working behind the scenes to make it all happen,” Bauer said. “It’s all in the interest of national security. I’m motivated: Some of the threats out there are pretty sobering.”
Sobering also at times for Bauer is the realization that he has managed projects that “have some of the smartest people on the planet” on them, he said.
He led the design team that earlier this year received the Engineers’ Council Distinguished Engineering Project Achievement Award for Lockheed-Martin’s Hypersonic Reference Vehicle Application. It was developed to support the U.S. Department of Defense-funded University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics — UCAH — involving 119 universities, 214 partners and 2,700 people, funded at $100 million over five years.
To enable UCAH, Bauer’s team developed a hypersonic reference vehicle, a software modeling tool that could help shape the next generation of hypersonic flight vehicles, or those flying faster than five times the speed of sound.
As a country, “We were behind in hypersonic technology so we began to harness the power of universities to do research and then transition results to industry,” said Bauer, who collaborated with defense leaders and the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He also has worked as an adjunct professor for 16 years at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, teaching project and business management.
Bauer isn’t a pilot, but aeronautics and going fast seem to be in his blood. After high school, he was an aircraft hydraulics and pneumatics technician on the F-4 and other planes for six years in the Marine Corps. He memorized the planes’ operating systems, one reason he was chosen to land on the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier with a pilot to fix an F-4’s landing gear.
He soon realized the big difference between himself and the military pilots and others whose careers were really going places — they had a college education.
After serving, Bauer earned an industrial technology degree at UW-Stout. He ran cross country and qualified for nationals; after graduating he competed at a high level for many years in marathons and other races. He returned to campus for a master’s in safety and risk and eventually earned two other master’s degrees and a doctorate.
Diplomas in hand, the Durand native began to pursue his true passion, aerospace, landing at Hughes Aircraft before Lockheed-Martin. “My goal has always been to master the job and get ready for the next one. It’s been an amazing journey of discovery,” he said.
UW-Stout is Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University, with a focus on applied learning, collaboration with business and industry, and career outcomes. Learn more via the FOCUS2030 strategic plan.
The Dunn County Play Group is open to all families with children from birth through preschool that would enjoy an interactive and supportive play community.
Join the private Facebook page for up-to-date information.
When asked what sparked Greg Van Grunsven to make the move from Bloomer, where he won over 100 games in seven years and a Western Cloverbelt conference title a season ago, he responded “I wanted to lead at the highest level”. The Big Rivers Conference is arguably the peak of high school basketball in northwestern Wisconsin. Van Grunsven added, “a good core has been set by Riley.”
Matt Riley, who moved into the athletic director role at Menomonie High School, stepped down after 10 years on the bench for the Menomonie Mustangs boys basketball team. Van Grunsven will take the reins from Riley with 23 years of varsity coaching experience, including a decade in the Big Rivers at Eau Claire Memorial and two BRC conference titles under his belt.
Van Grunsven inherits an experienced Mustangs squad with the top two scorers returning - Issac Ellison and Brody Thornton. Ellison, a first-team All-BRC selection a year ago, brings back an 18.4 scoring average and a vast amount of varsity experience. Ellison is no doubt the best glass cleaner in the Big Rivers as he averaged 9.6 rebounds per game last season, two more than anyone else in the challenging BRC. Ellison, who visited the free throw line 145 times, three times more than any other Mustang, a season ago can help the Mustangs win games by improving that part of his game. He shot 54.5% from the charity stripe in the 23-24 campaign.
Thornton, a long range threat, knocked down 62 3-pointers a season ago and contributed 12.9 points per game. As on the football field, Thornton is also an excellent defender and has the versatility to take on forwards or guards.
The other returning starter, Brady Johnson, led the Mustangs up the floor a season ago as the point guard. We shall see the other guards that play alongside Johnson, as Van Grunsven commented, “there is a good core of JV players” that will have the opportunity to fill some of those spots.
Van Grunsven said about the strength of the Mustangs this season, “I love our length”. Ellison and Thornton will be complemented by a sophomore Trevor Robert, who stands at 6-7, and saw sporadic varsity minutes as a freshman last season. A challenge will be, “acclimating to a new system”, commented Van Grunsven. He added, “It will take time” when talking about the system the veteran coach looks to install with the Mustangs.
To view the 2024-25 Mustangs varsity boys basketball schedule visit the Menomonie Mustangs athletic website - https://menomoniemustangs.com/.
Head Coach: Greg Van Grunsven 23rd Season: 1st Year at Menomonie(Overall Record: 310-226 | Eau Claire Regis (6 Yrs): 82-57 | Eau Claire Memorial (10 Yrs): 115-123 | Bloomer (7 Yrs): 113-46)
Matt Riley Record at MHS: (10 Yrs: 122-169)
Menomonie’s last BRC Conference title was 2006 when it was shared with Eau Claire North and Rice Lake.
Menomonie has only won two BRC titles in boys basketball and has never won a conference title outright.
Issac Ellison needs 207 points to become a member of the 1,000 point club. He enters the season with 793 career points. According to research done by Keith Moessner, only seven MHS boys basketball players have accomplished this feat. The last to enter the club was Noah Fedderson who ended his career with 1,051 points.
Collaborative project with kids helps build communication, 3D design skills
By Abby Goers, UW-Stout
Did you have an imaginary friend as a child? What if you could bring that character to life as an adult?
Animation and game design students at UW-Stout met with local children recently to bring their characters and creatures to life using 3D software.
From a purple and red butterfly to a red-eyed princess in a red ballgown, a fox holding an orange, a rainbow bunny-like creature, a kitty with a pink collar, a green monster with sweeping arms, a dragon-dog-unicorn, a brown bear, a vampire holding a flower and the warden from Minecraft.
The 4K and university students met in an animation computer lab/ UW-Stout
The Creature Collaboration was between Assistant Professor Karl Koehle’s 3D Organic Modeling class and Maggie Keenan’s 4K classroom in the university’s Child and Family Study Center.
“One of the best parts of my classroom is that we are right on campus, so the children get to have these collaborative opportunities,” Keenan said. “It’s so neat that the kids helped their college partners with this project. And the children were so excited to see their drawings come to life.”
First, Koehle’s class paired off with the 17 young artists in their 4K room. While the children colored their characters, the 3D students observed, asked questions and took notes on what to include in their digital adaptations.
The children then visited their college partners in a Micheels Hall computer lab to see their character designs brought to life.
'High five!' Our drawings and 3D creatures rock!/ UW-Stout
The 3D Organic Modeling class introduces students to the basics of digital sculpting tools, which mimic properties of physical clay that can be pinched, poked and pulled, Koehle explained.
“By introducing an in-person collaboration, it was my intent to give more practice to the early design process, encourage face-to-face communication with clients and offer an opportunity to embrace exploration of ideas,” he said. “It’s an important exercise to support a stakeholder who has ideas and goals but is not as adept in visual communication skills or doesn’t use the technical terminology. It's a unique design challenge to interpret meaning, then choose and apply a cohesive style.”
Carrying design skills over into their careers
In the moments before the 4K class arrived in the computer lab, the 3D students quickly made edits to their designs to brighten colors or make their characters more friendly (or less friendly, depending on the child’s original idea).
For some, it was an unexpected nerve-wracking experience. “Why am I so nervous to have children critique my work?” – “I think they’re going to love it.”
“Seeing their faces light up as we brought their creations to life was really heartwarming,” said animation senior Megan McDowell. “My favorite part was seeing how the 4Kers create and think of things. They have such big imaginations, and I loved watching them try to explain what they were thinking.”
McDowell’s 4K student had known immediately what she was going to draw – a character she named Dracula.
“This project allowed me to gain experience meeting with a client who knew what they wanted but couldn’t communicate it fully,” she said. “It allowed me to gain insight into their vision while also learning to have my own creative freedom to make design choices that I believe worked. Knowing how to use these programs and communicate with a client are skills I can carry over into my career.”
It was a challenge to design characters that resembled the children’s drawing, finding a balance between their vision while building something aesthetically pleasing that incorporated the elements of design.
“My favorite part was listening to their creativity flow. Kids can be so imaginative, as they don’t let the constraints of reality and color theory bring them down,” said game design student March Gutman.
Gutman’s 4K student’s character was Rainbow Butterfly. “It was really interesting to apply my own knowledge to the kid’s design. I would suggest anyone who has the opportunity to try and bring a kid’s illustration to life. It really makes you think outside of the box about the design process,” they said.
For game design student Alex Rowley, learning to use the Z Brush software, with its hundreds of tools and capabilities, was the biggest hurdle in creating his 4K student’s orange fox named Orangey.
The 3D students also used their time together to teach the children how to use some of the Z Brush tools to paint a princess crown, add green leaves to a tree or add an extra arm to their character.
“There is a lot to learn, especially when you’re working in programs that you’re unfamiliar with,” Rowley said. “Learning how to go through the process of ideating, modeling, sculpting, texturing and rendering will be a really important workflow for future assignments and work projects.
“It can also be quite stressful to have a young child be your boss,” he said. “It was a good way to learn how to handle opinions that may not make sense to you as an educated artist. It was also super motivating for me, specifically because the fear of disappointing a young client encouraged me to work harder.”
CFSC Director Allison Feller thinks the collaboration is a “unique opportunity where both our young learners and college students benefit. The children were able to see their ideas brought to life, while the design students applied their skills to make those ideas a reality. As the university’s early childhood education lab, we welcome opportunities to connect classroom theory with hands-on experience, which is at the heart of UW-Stout's polytechnic mission.”
The 3D students’ next step was to take the characters into Painter software, which digitally paints right on the 3D model. Koehle then printed a large-scale poster combining the children’s drawings and the 3D models, and his class presented the poster to the 4K classroom.
The collaboration marks the 10-year anniversary of a similar project between the CFSC and Professor Dave Beck’s game design class in 2014.
The Stout Game Expo will feature the works of about 250 students from 6 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 11, in the upper level of the Memorial Student Center. It is followed by the School of Art and Design Senior Show on Friday, Dec. 13, celebrating more than 100 seniors’ and juniors’ creative and collaborative endeavors on exhibit in Applied Arts and Micheels Hall. And the STEMM Student Expo will be from 1 to 3 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 12, in the Memorial Student Center.
The Creature Collaboration poster may be displayed at SOAD Senior Show.
UW-Stout is Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University, with a focus on applied learning, collaboration with business and industry, and career outcomes. Learn more via the FOCUS2030 strategic plan.
Jones presented with lodging industry award for exceptional education to 'nurturing next generation' of professionals
By Bill Elliot, Wisconsin Hotel & Lodging Association
The Wisconsin Hotel & Lodging Association (WHLA) has named UW-Stout hospitality professor Jay Jones as the 2024 Educator of the Year. This prestigious award, recognizing exceptional dedication to nurturing the next generation of hospitality professionals, was presented at the 2024 Wisconsin Lodging Conference & Trade Show held at Kalahari Resorts Wisconsin Dells on November 4.
Jones' selection for this honor underscores his significant contributions to hospitality education and his commitment to preparing students for successful careers in the industry. His work at UW-Stout has been instrumental in shaping the future of leaders of Wisconsin’s lodging industry, reflecting the high standards of excellence that WHLA seeks to promote within the field.
As a UW-Stout professor, Jones has demonstrated exceptional leadership and innovation in his teaching methods, significantly impacting the next generation of hospitality professionals. His commitment to excellence is reflected in his ability to engage students effectively, fostering an environment that encourages both academic and personal growth.
In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Jones serves as the advisor for the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) student chapter at UW-Stout. Under his guidance, students in leadership positions have thrived, developing essential skills for their future careers. He is also a strong supporter of the Wisconsin Hotel & Lodging Association, actively encouraging student involvement in the organization and effectively bridging the gap between academic learning and industry participation.
“Jay’s dedication to education, industry expertise, and genuine care for his students' success exemplify the qualities celebrated by this award,” said Bill Elliott, President & CEO of WHLA. He continued, “This recognition of Educator of the Year underscores the importance of passionate educators in driving progress and innovation within the hospitality field, ensuring that Wisconsin remains a leader in tourism and hospitality education.”
The 2024 Educator of the Year award was presented by Dr. Lynea LaVoy, the 2023 Educator of the Year from Madison College.
About WHLA
WHLA is a nonprofit trade association representing hotel and lodging properties in the state of Wisconsin. Established in 1896, WHLA represents all sizes and types of lodging properties throughout the state, providing valued industry services that include marketing, legislative representation, industry education and resources in addition to a legal assistance program. At the federal level, WHLA is proud to partner with the American Hotel & Lodging Association.
Sam Weaver is a guitarist and songwriter from Eau Claire Wisconsin. Combining Blues, Country, Rock n' Roll, Swing, and Soul influences, he produces a compelling brew of Americana music.
