COLUMBUS, Ohio - In Kandace Best's STEM classroom at East Palestine Middle School, students are learning 3-D printing.

East Palestine, along with six other school districts and the career and technical center in Columbiana County have the 3-D printers, thanks to the Project Inspire Grant from Governor John Kasich's Straight A Fund.

"It's given our students an opportunity to step into the future and really look at where design is going. If anybody has an interest in an engineering degree, it's going to be a huge advantage for them as they go into high school and on into college to have this experience already and know how to use these computer systems," Best said.

From paper clips to cups to key chains, students have found that the sky's the limit to what they can do with the technology.

Sixth grader Emily Berger says, "We went on the software, it's called 123-D, and you start off designing whatever you want and then you make it 3-D."

Fifth grader Paige Snyder says, "It's really fun to design on the computer and then print it out and its 3-D when it comes out. So it's really cool."

On Thursday, 5th grader Paige Snyder and 6th graders Emily Berger and Payton Sherry represented the county in Columbus at the Straight A Fund Innovation Conference. Out of 55 grant recipients from across Ohio, they earned some special attention from Governor Kasich.

Sherry said, "He was amazed by the whole thing. He talked about how we have such young people doing 3-D printing; 5th and 6th graders and all ages already learning about this and he's just fascinated by the whole thing."

In his latest budget, the governor plans to earmark more money for his straight a fund. In the meantime, students here will benefit from this grant for three fiscal years.