We have another EdTech grant awardee! We're pleased to announce the recipient of September's $500 EdTech grant is Scott Donnelly from Carnegie Elementary School in Carnegie, PA! Scott is committed to creating a true 21st century classroom for his students and will soon be able to add some Ozobot kits into the mix thanks to his award! With our help, Scott believes this new technology will help his students become more engaged, creatively problem solve, collaborate, communicate results, and F.A.I.L. Congratulations to Scott! 

After committing to STEM over the last few years, Scott has created an outstanding, student-centered classroom at his elementary school. One thing the room has always been lacking, unfortunately, is robotics and we wanted to help him change that. Especially since, as he puts it, their school is so close to Carnegie Mellon University, he found the lack of robotics materials in his classroom to be simply unacceptable!

“I want to expose my 60 students per year to the potential of robotics and create an ‘Introduction to Robotics’ center right in the classroom,” Scott said.

Scott has already used his own money to purchase Calculator Robots for this space and wanted to add some more kid-friendly tools to complement these materials. Using the Ozobot Robots he’s been awarded, Scott is determined to show his students different aspects of coding—some of which he just learned this past summer himself as he visited one of the US Navy’s Set Sail STEM Educators sessions. After attending other various STEM PD sessions in the last few years, Scott knew his classroom needed something new.

This is definitely not the first time Scott’s students will be exposed to something cool and STEM-related, however. During this year’s Winter Olympics, Scott created a 5-week STEM unit that revolved around the games and even found a local company that was involved in creating the devices that were sewn into the winter parkas of some of the athletes! Since that company is located in Pennsylvania, he arranged for them to come to his class and conduct hands-on demonstrations so students could see how the temperature-controlled devices worked!

“It was truly a great connection to our learning,” Scott said of the experience—one we’re certainly confident not many other students have gotten to enjoy.

Scott will be adding at least eight Ozobot kits to his classroom with the money he has received as part of our grant and he plans to use them as the centerpiece of his Intro to Robotics program. As aligns with his personal educational beliefs, Scott wants to give his students plenty of time to explore with their new Ozobots and he plans on adding in different challenges for them once they become proficient using the bots.

“One thing that I love about all of my robotics ideas is that they reach all of my students—whether they’re gifted, on-level, need learning support, and those in the Life Skills/Autistic population,” Scott said. 

By allowing students to participate in his robotics program—especially now with its new toys—Scott is going to work to ensure that they all develop the foundational 21st century skills they need. He also wants his students to be exposed to robotics during their elementary years so that they are ready to explore more complex robotics concepts further as they enter middle school and high school.

Even after all discretionary monies from his district have been cut, Scott has not wavered from providing his students with the STEM experiences he knows they deserve. And, now, they have a few new robotics tools with which to work. We wish Scott and all of his students at Carnegie Elementary School the best of luck with their robotics program.

If you are interested in applying for our next EdTech grant, visit our grant page to learn more. The opportunity is open to all educators in all grade levels and the application for October is open and ongoing. It will run until Oct. 20th and the winner will receive $500 to use towards purchasing EdTech from our store. Good luck!