The recipient of our $500 EdTech grant for the month of June is Jean Daley, a librarian from the Erving Public Library in Erving, MA! Jean is committed to helping the kids in her community learn more about and with technology and will now be able to introduce them to coding and learning in new ways! Knowing how STEM education can inspire children and the entire community, Jean is planning on using the technology she receives in the local elementary school, after-school program, and even the senior citizen center to create a greater buzz around hands-on learning and community involvement!
The Erving Public Library is small and located in a low-income, rural community, but Jean wants to be able to do more for the students she works with, especially since they’re not able to participate in that many STEM activities during school. By establishing activities that will take place at the library, Jean is hoping that what she learns can be transferred to teachers in the town and they can apply some of the same approaches to their instruction with a greater focus on STEM. Ultimately, the programs provided by staff at the library help prevent a lot of the children who participate from falling behind in terms of development.
Many of the children Jean works with in the library are regulars who come every week. She noticed pretty quickly that they were progressing and asking her if they could work on new projects. Ultimately, she learned about our grant program and, by being selected as this month’s recipient, she’ll be able to offer some of those new experiences namely providing them with tools they can use to move and control robots through programming. From us, Jean is going to be receiving some MakeDo kits and an Adabox 002. With these STEAM tools, her and her students are going to make some moving robots out of cardboard and we can't wait to see how this project gets everyone in the community excited about STEM!
Both Jean and her students want to be able to make real robots, which they will be able to do with the MakeDo kits they’ll be receiving. This will allow the kids to personalize their robots and truly make them look how they want. Jean is also going to focus on problem solving during this process and continuously encourage these students to use their creative thinking to work out design issues and come up with realistic tasks their robots might be able to do. Starting with simpler technology, like LED lights and buzzers, Jean will be able to build new foundations for her students and help them progress to being able to work with more complex technologies, like servo motors.
Along with the educational themes of collaboration and tinkering, Jean also wants to instill in the kids she works with that they can accomplish just about anything they set their minds to and technology can help them reach those goals. With this new technology, she wants to help reinvigorate the community and empower these kids to accomplish things many of them never thought they would be able to. Though the Erving Public Library is small, Jean knows it’s a powerful piece of the community and we’re happy to be able to add some extra juice to her STEM program!
To keep up with any updates from Jean once she receives her new tech tools, be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram. If you are interested in applying for our EdTech grant for the month of July, the application is now open and will remain open until July 20. We encourage you to apply if you have not yet done so!