Five area school districts to receive STEM grants
Students at Margaret Bell Miller Middle School in Waynesburg engage in a Project Lead the Way program. The district recently received a $45,000 grant from Chevron to expand the STEM program in its middle and high schools.
Students at Margaret Bell Miller Middle School in Waynesburg engage in a Project Lead the Way program. The district recently received a $45,000 grant from Chevron to expand the STEM program in its middle and high schools.
Five area school districts are receiving grant money from Chevron to implement “Project Lead the Way” programs that focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
Central Greene, Jefferson-Morgan, Trinity Area, Brownsville and Belle Vernon are five of 12 districts in southwestern Pennsylvania to benefit from the corporation’s Appalachia Partnership Initiative, a $20 million investment in STEM education in the region. Project Lead the Way offers STEM courses, programs and materials for districts to use at all levels of education.
Central Greene will receive $45,000 over the next three years to implement the program at the high school since they already started Project Lead the Way at the district’s elementary and middle schools in 2013.
“It’s truly made an impact on our students,” said Annette Vietmeier, director of curriculum, instruction and technology at Central Greene. “The investment that Chevron has made here has impacted kids in the way that they’re learning.”
Vietmeier said the district started “Launch,” the elementary level of the project, and “Gateway,” the middle school level, years ago, and have been waiting on this grant to implement the high school part.
Vietmeier said she hopes more districts will apply for grants and implement the program. She said Central Greene wanted to start Project Lead the Way 12 years ago, but didn’t have the funding.
“This grant allows us to expand the middle school program by one course and begin implementing the courses at the high school in the fall,” she said. “Each year of the grant we will be implementing one of the three high school courses, environmental sustainability, introduction to engineering design, and principals of engineering.”
She said the programs are sustainable after the grant money runs out because most of the costs are attributed to teacher training and supplies. She called the program “rigorous” with hands-on learning opportunities for students.
“It fosters students’ critical thinking skills,” she said. “The other benefit is that we were able to implement it for all students. We do have stem components in each of our classes; however, these courses are mapped out with objectives that reach rigorous levels for all students.”
It’s the same grant that Jefferson-Morgan announced last week. That will be receiving $90,000, which will be used to start Project Lead the Way in all of their schools, kindergarten through 12th grade, for the first time.
Trinity will receive the most funding out of the five schools with $110,000 over two years to implement the program at elementary and middle school levels.
Trinity Superintendent Michael Lucas said the money will provide iPads for elementary students to use, expanding on robotics and interactive science modules. At the middle school level, the money will provide two new STEAM courses, app creators and computer science for innovators and makers. It will also cover the cost for teacher training and Android tablets.
“We’re trying to get our students to think like engineers and problem solve like engineers,” Lucas said. “I believe this program will provide our kids with that opportunity.”
Brownsville Area School District will receive $90,000 and Belle Vernon will receive $10,000 from Chevron for Project Lead the Way programming. The company also gave grants to districts in Ohio and West Virginia.