Launch the media gallery 1 playerAlgebra II Trip to Grain Millers
February 05, 2014
Grain Millers, Inc. located in St. Ansgar is a leading ingredient supplier to customers like Subway, General Mills, Post Cereal, Gerber, Trader Joe’s. Grains include oats, wheat, barley, and rye which is milled into flours, flakes, brans, and fibers. They partner with farmers in the USA, Canada and around the world purchasing raw grains in sizes from a single truckload to multi-railcar.
Melissa Edgington, Human Resource Manager for Grain Millers greeted the Northwood-Kensett Algebra II students. Following a welcome and power point presentation about the plant's history and how current products are produced, groups rotated to various "mathematical stations".
One station included suiting up in proper gear for a guided plant tour. The new “canning” part of the plant was most interesting. Learning stations set up to give students a “taste” of the daily math that is required at Grain Millers included, lifting calculations, gear and sprocket rotation speeds, bulk density, volume of bins, and recipe calculations for customers.
Stations:
1.) Terry Hemann showed some gears, sprockets and drive shafts, and then presented a "typical lifting problem in the maintenance department" dealing with speed and ratio calculations.
2.) Austin Rogers had students figure the volume of a hopper/silo, the capacity it would hold in bushels of oats, wheat, and barley, and how many tons of groats (the hulled oat) a full silo would produce.
3.) Laurie Lundmark showed how to calculate the bulk density of different grains. This is important to ensure the product will fit into packages.
4.) Connie Groth explained different "recipe requests" that customers of Grain Millers might have, and how to work with percents and units in preparing that final mix.
5.) Kevin Koster, Tony Mayer, Kim Hofler and Jerry Broderick led group tours of the packaging plant.
Students were treated to cookies made with Grain Millers products, bottled water, and given an 18 oz. container of "Trader Joe’s Old Fashioned Organic Oats.” What an impressive place! We appreciated the efforts of the Grain Millers employees making it a memorable educational experience.
