IMS Museum’s director of education shares excitement for new role
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As renovations continue at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, a new employee is helping to drive the pace car of education.
Jake Apollos started his new role as the Museum’s first Director of Education last month. He’s working on the museum’s new STEAM classroom, designing educational programming and providing feedback on new exhibits.
Before coming to IMS, Apollos worked at MSD Decatur Township in Indianapolis, where he was principal at the Decatur High Ability Academy and the district’s high ability coordinator. Prior to that he served for 10 years as Plainfield Community Schools’ IDEALab/STEM facilitator and a science teacher. He earned his undergraduate degree from Indiana State University and his master’s degree from Ball State University.
Inside INdiana Business spoke to Apollos about how his background in the classroom will be applied in this new role, his excitement and what he hopes guests will experience when the museum reopens in the spring of 2025.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What attracted you to this role?
I was just super curious about it. At first, I hadn’t intended on venturing outside the world of education. I’m still very much a passionate teacher and I was a principal, so I loved everything that I got to do. We ended up having some changes in programming at my former district, and when the museum approached me, what started out as curiosity quickly became something I was really interested in.
What does it feel like to be the museum’s first director of education?
With my background, I’ve started a lot of programs similar to this but on the educational side. The fact I’m able to take what I’ve learned and apply it to programs for little kids all the way up to elderly visitors is something I’m really excited about. It pushes me a little bit and that’s what I love. I feel like when you start to stagnate, things start to get old, and you get a little bit less passionate. I look for those opportunities to really be pushed outside my comfort zone.
How do you think your background and experience will help you in designing the STEAM classroom?
I have an educational degree in chemistry and biology. I taught middle school science for 10-12 years and loved it and then I stepped into an administrative role in a district-wide K-12 position. When my background plays into [this role], I think it’s just the experience that I’ve had working with a wide range of ages and levels and experiences of students.
We are really trying to give people an experience that they can connect to, so it allows them to apply the things that they learned. And not just application, but increased memory and all kinds of benefits that we don’t get to always see in the classroom that every teacher I think strives for. Now we get to apply it in a real way.
What’s your personal experience with IMS and the Indianapolis 500?
I grew up on the east side of Indianapolis and in Plainfield. My family was always avid NASCAR fans, but you can’t live in Indianapolis and not have some connection to the motor speedway.
I distinctly remember being a kid and going to see family friends that lived around the Speedway.
We would always go there and listen to the race, not just over the radio, but also listen because we were like three blocks from the track. It was one of those things that I have very fond memories of.
I love cars; I’ve always collected them and models. There’s a wide range of experiences and feelings that it brings back and it’s just that nostalgia. Now, I get the opportunity to bring in my passion for science and get people to learn and apply that in a unique way.
What’s it like being in the construction phase right now as you prepare for the museum’s opening in 2025?
It really is enlightening to see how the museum world thinks about items and things. It’s not as different from education as I thought it would be. I’m also able to bring in my unique talents and say, “Hey, this is how a teacher might do this. This is how students are going to view this, and this is what a homeschool cohort might need.”
I cannot wait to see the final product, especially when students and visitors and guests of all ages get to walk and actually start interacting with these things. I’m hoping to see the space and just the renovations in general rekindle a passion for racing in the automotive industry in our younger generation. There’s so many careers that go into this and so many things that they can be exposed to that they may not have gotten in a traditional setting or even by visiting another community organization.