As we get ready for a new school year, we couldn't conclude the summer without awarding our next STEM grant. For August, we're awarding our EdTech grant to Liz Buchanan from the Fields Elementary School in San Antonio, TX! Part of the Northside ISD, Fields Elementary is home to some very inspiring students and a very diverse student body. On top of that, Liz is finalizing the launch of a new STEM lab that should open this fall. So, with all of these factors (and more) in alignment, we're happy to help her create some new and effective STEM learning experiences for her students with our latest grant award.
Liz has a bunch of programming planned for the upcoming school year, including one project in particular. For up to nine weeks, she will be working with hundreds of different elementary students to introduce new STEM opportunities, projects, and interactive engagements with the end goal of inspiring them all to utilize these new insights as inspiration for potentially pursuing STEM in their futures. Before receiving this grant, Liz had already contacted both local STEM professionals and others from around the world. During various times throughout the school year, her students will get to meet with them face to face or virtually and learn more about coding and engineering, specifically.
Receiving Bee-Bot Robots as part of the grant award.
Before they ever meet with any of these STEM professionals, however, her students will get to experience new STEM tools. As part of this month's award, we're providing Liz with four brand-new Bee-Bot Robots to use with her K-5 students. Since they can even use it for screen-free coding, the Bee-Bot is perfect for early elementary kids. There are also plenty of computer science opportunities for the older children as well and, like we said, Liz has plans to tie engineering in to these STEM lesson plans, too. Her students will be designing and creating interactive Bee-Bot maps using the robots and various supplies. Not only will they learn how to program the robot to travel to different parts of their maps, these areas will also represent the locations where the professionals they speak with are located!
Adding one extra element to beginner coding, students will program their Bee-Bot's to travel to up to 10 different countries. And, of course, they will learn a bit about these areas and cultures along the way. This also ties in to the multicultural atmosphere at the Fields Elementary School. Just like the diversity found in their student body, students will begin to understand how anybody from anywhere in the whole world with any background can have a legitimate future in a STEM profession and the importance of diversity in the STEAM workforce. Many of Liz's students are ESL children and, as you might know, this group is among those traditionally underrepresented in STEAM. This grant award will help with reaching them earlier with engaging activities as she hopes to help reverse this trend.
Creating equitable STEM opportunities and a promising future.
In their Bee-Bot coding lessons, students will explore many of the skills they will need for STEM careers. These include programming, computational thinking, planning, debugging, and more that they can perfect throughout the course of the project. By the conclusion, another one of Liz's goals is positioning computer science as a more realistic prospect in the eyes of these international students and their families. Bilingual and ESL programs are a big part of life at Fields Elementary and this multicultural component will resonate in their STEM lab as well. With these experiences, Liz hopes to generate a real interest in STEM among her students. And, the computer science skills they learn from an early age should help with just that.
As Liz and her colleagues prepare to welcome students to the STEAM lab, we hope receiving this month's grant helps. She plans to incorporate the Bee-Bot's for years to come as it's a fantastic tool for introducing affordable coding experiences. Once again, we thank Liz for applying for our educational technology grant and congratulate her on her selection. We award the $500 grant every month and encourage any educator to apply. If you've never applied for a grant, it's great for learning how to define your needs and crafting an application! The application for September is open and we encourage you to share it around your school or district, too. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more!