Greg Smith, West High School teacher
DAVENPORT, IOWA (February 24, 2021) — During the COVID-19 pandemic, creative, intelligent people are being asked to find new ways to meet unexpected challenges. That was the case when West High School teachers Greg Smith and Jason Franzenburg received a request from TJ Schneckloth, Superintendent of Davenport Community School District, back in June 2020.
At that time, Schneckloth needed a reliable source of face-shields for District employees. Smith and Franzenburg, industrial technology instructors, teach Project Lead the Way Engineering and Career and Technical Education.
“TJ was looking for an efficient, creative way to take care of a need in-house,” Smith said. “We started out with a hundred face-shields, and eventually we made two-thousand. I made the majority of the face-shields, along with my fellow teacher and coach, Jason Franzenburg.” With the assistance of several community members and paraeducators, the face shields were assembled.
“The shields are made from thin but durable clear plastic,” Smith said. “We found a design we liked, 3D-printed them, and laser-cut them. The frames on the shields kept them off of one’s face.” They made the frames from either plastic or plywood, to keep them lightweight.
The face-shields were expressly created for in-house use. Currently, use of the face shields is limited because in September 2020, the mandate became to wear a face mask, as opposed to a face shield, though a person can wear both a face-mask and a shield.
Franzenburg and Smith have been involved in several other projects together, including helping students create a clean-water filtration system for a village in Kenya. In January 2020, Smith traveled to the African country to collect data that could be used in the design of the filtration system, and came back to America just before the pandemic.
Franzenburg and Smith also coach FIRST robotics. They led West High School’s Combustible Lemons to a World Robotics Championship in 2017 in St Louis, Missouri.
Cory Williams, Principal of West High School, said, “This was such a cool project and Greg jumped in without hesitation. He is a perfectionist and those shields are awesome quality and can be used over time. Greg is selfless and goes above and beyond, for not just West High but the community. We are lucky to have him.”
West High School is located at 3505 West Locust Street, Davenport, IA. To find out more about the school, visit http://www.davenportschools.org/west/.
To learn more about the Davenport Community School District, please visit http://www.davenportschools.org/.
About the Davenport Community School District: Serving more than 14,000 students and their families, the Davenport Community School District prepares young minds for success. Through academics, the arts, and athletics, we are growing excellence for every child. We work with the communities of Blue Grass, Buffalo, Davenport, and Walcott. With more than 3,000 employees, we are one of the top ten employers in the Iowa/Illinois Quad Cities. We employ more than 1,400 teachers, and more than half hold a master’s degree or higher. All teachers receive ongoing coaching and professional development by a staff of Curriculum and Instruction Specialists and other experts from around the nation. To learn more, please visit http://www.davenportschools.org/.
