As we continue to award school technology grants every month, we're happy to introduce our latest recipient. For March, we've awarded our grant to Xaviera Kight, an elementary STEAM teacher in Temple, GA! Knowing the importance of fostering student curiosity and inquiry, Xaviera is currently revamping her school's STEM curriculum and enrichment offerings. As she strives to ensure her Title I students receive equitable access to 21st century learning opportunities, we're happy to support Xaviera with some new STEM supplies for the classroom!
Every teacher at Temple Elementary receives $100 to put towards classroom supplies every school year. As we know, however, this isn't always quite enough to create innovative learning opportunities for everyone. While she's certainly thankful for that money, Xaviera has also explored applying for STEM grants to further her classroom resources. Particularly as she works to improve her STEAM lab, having new materials to use with students is super important. Plus, in some of her classes, there are over 30 students, so she also needed to plan accordingly when deciding on what to request if she were selected as our technology grant recipient.
New Strawbees kits from our technology grant.
Ultimately, we'll be providing Xaviera and her students with a Strawbees STEAM School Kit for this month's award. With over 4,000 pieces, Xaviera has many creative ideas for integrating MakerEd projects in hands-on learning with K-5 students. Besides the opportunity to introduce design thinking, engineering, collaboration, and collective problem solving, using Strawbees in the classroom will also help Xaviera create some new motivation for her students as they're introduced to new materials. She knows how creative students can get with the Strawbees inventions and we're excited to see what they build!
The versatility in Strawbees projects also appealed to Xaviera since she teaches students across the K-5 grades. Plus, in keeping with the Strawbees sustainability theme, she's planning to explore options for continuing to use these materials for years. As she works to incorporate new STEM experiences for her students with this technology grant, Xaviera also believes the variety in straw lengths and colors will help students recognize they can design the projects they want. In other words, they won't be bound by material, size, portability, or availability restrictions. In terms of promoting STEM inclusion simultaneously, this is a fantastic mindset for her to have.
Educating kids on a potential future in STEM.
Overall, Xaviera is aiming to facilitate learning experiences that students find enjoyable and memorable. Using the Strawbees STEAM Kit, that shouldn't be too difficult for her to accomplish! At the same time, she knows how important STEAM education is for children and how the opportunities they have access to in the classroom can shape their preparedness and their mindsets about potential future careers in STEM. Knowing that job responsibilities continue to mature in complexity and how STEM and computing skills tie in to so much of the modern economy, her commitment to doing what she can for these sometimes underserved students is certainly admirable.
In order to fully prepare them, Xaviera plans to focus a lot on creativity. Even if students don't pursue a career directly in STEM, possessing creative and soft skills will help them moving forward. In applying for this grant to fund new school technology, she also wanted students to try tech they've never used. Going along with creating greater equity in STEM learning, this is a fantastic place to start! As unfortunate as it is, Xaviera knows that a lot of her students—both current and former—have missed out on STEM learning opportunities because of their location or socioeconomic status. For these reasons, we're happy to extend some assistance and help her bring more STEM activities to Temple Elementary.
How to receive our next technology grant.
Xaviera is actually an alumna of Temple Elementary and takes great pride in giving back to these students and families. Reflecting back on what she experienced as a student, she remains committed to improving student access to relevant learning opportunities! We congratulate Xaviera on her selection as this month's educational technology grant recipient and thank her for applying and working towards bettering her students' lives. If you'd benefit from new classroom STEM tools or know an educator who would, we encourage you to apply. Feel free to forward the application link to anyone else in your school community as well. And, follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more.