(Radio Iowa) – Thousands of Iowa students in grades K-through-12 are getting a taste of what it’s like to rocket into orbit as well as more down-to-earth pursuits in a mobile classroom venture from Iowa State University. I-S-U industrial design professor Pete Evans coordinates the Forward Learning Experience, or FLEx, which combines creative thinking, STEM programs and emerging technologies in a commercial cargo van. “We’ll roll up to a school and we can either do these programs in the parking lot or we can go into classrooms,” Evans says. “We’ll have virtual reality headsets to provide the students — teachers, too — with these experiences.”

FLEx is partnering with I-S-U’s Women in Science and Engineering program, or WiSE, and recently landed a grant from the Iowa Space Grant Consortium. With that money, Evans’ team merged virtual reality with a motion base to offer students thrill rides in a flight simulator. “The students can fly the newest training plane that Boeing and Saab have put together. It’s a brand new contract called the Redhawk,” Evans says. “This is what all of the future astronauts will learn to fly on.”

Launched in 2014, Evans says FLEx has reached 80-thousand students in all corners of the state with plans to further broaden its scope in the year ahead. The flight simulator is versatile and can also offer realistic rides on everything from rollercoasters — to farm tractors. “There’s a farming simulator application that’s pretty red-hot,” Evans says. “We’ve already got that hooked up. Students can hop into a Case or a Deere and start to be in virtual reality and test out some of these more local ideas — and futures — that are also very relevant.”

New programs in the coming months will include a celebration of NASA’s new Artemis program, offering glimpses of upcoming ventures to the Moon and to Mars.

One person was taken into custody Sunday morning in Shenandoah, following a report to police about a disturbance in the 500 block of Harrison Street. Authorities say 29-year-old Jocelyn Coleman was arrested for disorderly conduct and interference with official acts.Coleman was being held in the Page County Jail on $600 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Business Council’s second-quarter Economic Outlook Survey shows great optimism among some of the state’s largest businesses. I-B-C executive director, Joe Murphy, says the survey continues a trend. He says it is the fourth straight survey where they have a positive trend. The report measures member expectations for sales, capital spending, and employment for the next six months. The answers are scored on a 100-point scale and the latest overall outlook index is 67.  “When you look at all of our indications, all of our sub-reports, everything is looking very, very strong,” according to Murphy. “Iowans continue to get vaccinated, people are coming back to work, businesses across the entire state are booming –whether that’s the large businesses we represent at the Iowa business council represent — or even small and mid-sized businesses as well. Things are going really well.”

Murphy says one key is that Iowa didn’t take the drastic measures during the pandemic that some other states took. “I think the fact that our state did not issue a mandatory shutdown was extremely positive. We’re seeing the results of that good decision-making being played out right now in the economy,” Murphy says. “The fact again that we projecting such a high-level of optimism in Iowa’s economic output represents that good timing. And I think other states, whether it be our neighbors, or other states across the country — those that did issue those shutdown orders are certainly not bouncing back as quickly as Iowa has.”

The optimism comes with continued concern about finding enough employees. “The workforce situation in Iowa has never been more acute. I think the fact that businesses are opening up and have been open for some time is good news. The fact that people in their personal lives are more engaging in the economy right now is exasperating this situation,” Murphy says. He says they will continue pushing to get more workers. “We need every single body that we possibly can to be employed. Iowa has had a consistent issue with that,” Murphy says. “We have a very low unemployment rate and a very high labor participation rate — which are very good things — but the fact is, we just need more people in this state. And so we need to encourage folks to come into the workplace, and then encourage people to come to Iowa to live and make a career.”

To see more of the Economic Outlook Survey — go to www.iowabusinesscouncil.org.