Battelle funding STEM grants for local schools
LIMA — The Ohio STEM Learning Network will reach 51,000 Ohio students through grants funded by Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus. Locally, Shawnee Elmwood Elementary received two grants. Also receiving grants in the area were Spencerville Middle School and Ottawa-Glandorf High School.
Sara Bonifas, Elmwood kindergarten teacher, explained that right now our technology for our students is a Chrome book. The students are required to use the mouse pad to drag and click items. In kindergarten they don’t really have the hand-eye coordination nor the fine motor skills to be able to do that well, Bonifas said. Students are used to using Mom or Dad’s phone, tablets and things like that, which are all touchscreen.
Bonifas said, “So what I wanted for the grant is touchscreen technology. Just to take away the obstacle of the mouse pad. I will continue using the same websites, a lot of STEM websites where they build things. But it will just be easier for them to be able to move items across the screen on a touchscreen tablet.”
Jamie Meredith, a second-grade teacher, shared that her proposal was actually student-generated. “I actually had a student come to me concerned with the amount of waste that was being thrown away in the cafeteria at the end of lunchtime.” Her proposal was a grant for composting. The second-graders are going to start a composting club. They will be using tablets to analyze data. Students reach out to engineers with the data who will help build a compost bin for the school. Elmwood has three gardens currently at the school, and students are going to use the compost to fertilize the gardens around the school.
“You will be surprised what these kids can do on technology. They can actually set up a Google meet, so they can virtually talk to people in the community. So they will reach out to engineers that way. They know how to set up a slide presentation so they can go into other classrooms in the building and present the project to them up on the screen. Iit’s pretty wild what they’re capable of if you give them the opportunity,” said Meredith.
The teachers said the grant process was easy for them. The past superintendent, Jim Knable was able to take their ideas and then gather all the other pertinent information from the district as far as the demographics. He submitted the proposals.
Spencerville Middle school has a STEM Club. The club invites seventh- and eighth-graders with an interest in science. STEM club offers its members a great place to take initiative and discover engineering through the engagement of hands-on projects. The grant will be used for materials, maybe a 3-D printer to enhance student projects.
“Our focus is hands-on projects which go above and beyond the curriculum. Our goal is to introduce our students to a variety of STEM fields and inspire them to look into different careers,” said Rachel Munshower, science teacher.
Ottawa-Glandorf High School will use the grant to enhance the E-Technology class taught by Justin Closson and Cody Vennekotter. The grant will pay for drone parts, laser cutters and flight controller boards. Students will build and fly drones as part of a class assignment.
