Barberton High's New Polymer Science Class Draws Students and Industry Praise

On a class visit to ARDL, the Barberton-based polymer testing company, junior Ethan Curry stood at a machine and ran it himself. That is the kind of work Barberton High School's new polymer science class is built around: by Rick Cardinal's count, about 80 percent of it is hands-on lab time.

Cardinal has taught chemistry at Barberton since the 2002-03 school year. When the chance came to lead the new class, he volunteered. Four teachers at the high school are licensed to teach chemistry, and he was the one who raised his hand. He spent much of last year researching and building the curriculum. The labs now run from vacuum and injection molding machine operation to compound mixing and tensile testing.

The class has roots several years back. In 2023, the Greater Akron Chamber and the Polymer Industry Cluster received a $250,000 State of Ohio Industry Sector Partnership Grant. The grant required a $125,000 local match, which the Barberton Community Foundation provided. According to Jean Barbato, director of ConxusNEO, the chamber's workforce initiative, that money led to an Explorer Scouts program. It brought representatives of the local polymer industry, along with polymer equipment, into classrooms. Students from kindergarten through 12th grade got close exposure to the science and to career options, including through the Society of Plastic Engineers' PlastiVan program.

Barbato said many schools would like a polymer career pathway, and that Barberton was unusually well placed to launch one. "A lot of things came together," she said, pointing to a district that pays attention to what is available to its students, especially careers offering a family-sustaining wage, and to the backing of the community foundation.

ARDL, an international third-party testing facility with locations in Akron and Barberton, took part in the Explorer program. Cardinal said the company then approached the district about going further and creating a full class. When he asked what the company wanted from a partnership, he said, the answer was that many job applicants know nothing about polymers. On company visits, he said, the students' questions show they understand the material, and he can see it in the faces of the company representatives. He called that a proud-dad moment.

The inaugural class has 13 students. It is a science elective with a chemistry prerequisite, and Cardinal expects enrollment to reach at least 15 next year, with more chemistry students showing interest. "The response has been phenomenal," he said. He credits the hands-on labs for part of the draw, and also the subject's reach: polymers touch daily life, he said, from cellphones to tires, and Akron is the epicenter of the field worldwide.

The class has also widened what students see as possible. In September, from the 8th to the 11th, the group went to the Global Polymer Summit in Cleveland. Cardinal said almost nobody there had said they wanted to go into polymers, but the field is growing. He described the range of jobs as endless: a four-year chemical engineering degree on one end, a materials tester earning good money at 18 on the other, and sales and marketing roles where a person might never touch rubber.

Cardinal said he is grateful to district administrators, fellow science teachers and companies like ARDL. His hope is to see the class become a Four Cities Compact program, with classroom work in the first semester and the second semester spent at a company, for example running a rheology machine at ARDL or NovationSi. For now, that remains a goal rather than a plan.