Educators, especially those ones teaching any STEAM and technology classes, rely greatly on grant opportunities to acquire new instructional tools. For that reason, we provide two monthly tech grants in the amount of $500 each. Every month, we open up these opportunities to teachers from all around the United States. Any educator is eligible to apply, including classroom teachers, administrators, librarians, afterschool leaders, makerspace facilitators, and everybody in between. To help educators advance their STEM programs and initiatives, recipients can choose to use the award money on any items from our store. Fortunately, many EdTech and STEAM solutions from top manufacturers fit into the $500 window. And, if any awardees have their hearts set on something more costly, they can pay the difference. After all, the goal of this program is to get innovative tech tools in the hands of more students.
Educators can apply for these grant awards starting on the first day of the calendar month. The application will remain open for 20 days and it closes on the 20th of each month. We will notify the recipient of each grant award by the final business day of each month and send out an email announcement to our subscriber base as well. Recipients will then receive their grant materials in accordance with lead times on the products they request. These products can include anything from any category of our store. We encourage applicants to put thought and care into their application and to have an idea of which products they'll request upon selection. These may include robotics or coding kits, educational drones, makerspace supplies, or anything else on our store. Please contact our team with questions about the grant and also forward the application to anyone else in your school.
This month, we’ve presented our EdTech grant to Christa Rozas from Boston Public Schools! Christa is a teacher at the Perry K-6 School in the South Boston neighborhood and a big advocate of introducing computer science early. Her school is also very diverse and she’s done a lot to ensure that all her students have access to STEM opportunities.
David is largely responsible for creating valuable afterschool STEM opportunities for students. Through the Maker Mentor Program, in particular, he’s helped connect students with makers in their community. Read on to learn more about him, including his plans for teaching with drones and 3D printers as well as what he’ll receive from us.
We’ve awarded our $500 EdTech grant for the month of May to Marylin Prysi! Marylin is a teacher at the Villas Elementary School in Fort Meyers, FL and currently designing a STEM lab. She works with a large amount of minority students and helps create beneficial STEAM experiences for them to learn and grow together!
We have awarded our educational technology grant for the month of April to Creighton Helms of the Gervais School District. Creighton serves as the principal of the Gervais Elementary School in Gervais, OR and has really worked to create relevant STEAM learning opportunities for the students he supports.
We’ve awarded our EdTech grant for March to Andrew Nikola from the Wappingers Central School District in New York! Andrew works with students throughout K-12 and serves as one of the district’s innovation leaders. Learn more about how we’ll be helping them advance their district-wide approach to providing equitable hands-on experiences.
For his award, we will be providing Justin and his students with some micro:bit V2 kits to use in their STEAM program. Since the micro:bit’s allow students to complete standalone activities as well as take part in new experiences that are tied to their existing PBL units, they’ll make a great fit as Justin expands CS opportunities for all.
Jil is committed to providing students with the resources and opportunities they would have access to in a traditional educational setting. She’s chosen to go about facilitating opportunities through the implementation of robotics tools. Jil sees this opportunity as a game changer for her students as she helps them discover hidden talents.
We’re happy to announce that we have awarded our final EdTech grant of 2020 to Mary Bonnetty, an elementary teacher from Honolulu, Hawaii! Mary teaches at the Queen Ka’ahumanu Elementary School and has made a huge impact on the STEM offerings her students get to experience whether learning in-person or remotely.
We have presented our November EdTech grant to Charnley DeMeritt, who is a STEM lab teacher at the Oakview Elementary School, which is located in Simpsonville, SC! Part of the Greenville School System, their STEAM lab has evolved into a place where all students can experiment, think critically, and develop both hard and soft skills from their initial failures.
As a science teacher, Carla has made use of the STEM framework when it comes to instruction in the classroom. Instead of having her students write a written report on a bridge found somewhere in the world, for example, she found it more engaging to have students use a blueprint and build the bridge that they are researching themselves.
