We continue to be blown away by the amazing creativity in the applications for our monthly EdTech grant. After another tough time deciding on one recipient, we are excited to announce the winner of August's award! Congratulations to Amanda Callahan-Mims from Spring Hill Elementary School in Knoxville, TN! Amanda and her students are in the process of transforming their school's Technology Lab into a fully integrated STEM Lab and she's using her background as an archaeologist to inspire her students to use technology in new ways!
Part of a Title I school, Amanda has been given the challenge of revamping her existing space into something more innovative for her students to enjoy. She admits that since her students come from so many different backgrounds, a lot of them are commonly underrepresented in STEM and her plan is to change that—especially now that she has an extra $500 worth of EdTech tools at her disposal.
“I have made it my personal goal to single-handedly increase the number of racial and ethnic minority members, women, and children from low-income families who later pursue a career in STEM,” she said in her grant application.
Amanda also said that she chose to request the EdTech products she did because of the fact that they can be seamlessly integrated into just about any lesson. As part of her award, Amanda will be receiving micro:bit boards, MonkMakes kits, an Arduino Starter Kit, and a Cue Robot from us.
Among the ideas Amanda has for incorporating her new technology into her teaching is one particular project we found very interesting. A modern twist on the staple solar system project, she hopes to have her students build models and then incorporate some actual light from other sources—the MonkMakes kit and micro:bit. We love this idea and think it’s a genius way of combining technology and hands-on creativity!
Overall, Amanda wants to make the new STEM Lab a place where students will love to learn. “I want to make [it] a place where students can inspire, create, learn, educate, and fall in love with STEM,” she said.
Her district is just starting to really promote the importance of STEM and Amanda is one of the few teachers in a full-time STEM role. She is truly embracing the opportunity to incorporate key areas of STEM education, like circuitry, coding, robotics, and programming into the curriculum and hopes to make the new STEM Lab a success this school year.
“In a world that is moving more towards a digital landscape, it is imperative that my students in this Title I school have the opportunity to become tech savvy and invent new ways to use technology,” she said. Using her new tech tools, Amanda is determined to prove that this kind of innovative teaching has amazing academic value both in the present and in the future for her students.
Amanda is going to be working with just under 230 students in third, fourth, and fifth grade this school year. Her hope is to be able to get each of them involved in the STEM Lab as much as possible, but she knows it will take a lot of planning and help to meet this goal. We are very excited to be able to play a small part in helping Amanda and Spring Hill Elementary achieve their STEM goals and continue to have a positive impact on the lives of their students.
“I want every child who comes through my room to succeed in STEM,” Amanda said, a perfect mindset (we think) for starting on the road to achieving something special with technology.
For your opportunity to add amazing new EdTech to your classroom, check out all the information on our monthly EdTech Grant program. To check out some of the tech tools Amanda and her students are going to be using this year, be sure to visit our store as well! And—one final bit of advice—make sure you check out our social media channels for updates on Amanda’s journey with technology as well as what past recipients of our grant are accomplishing!