The Education Foundation of Monroe Public Schools has awarded six mini-grants totaling nearly $4,000 to various programs in Monroe Public Schools.  Two awards went to teachers at Waterloo Elementary School, two to teachers at Arborwood Elementary and one each to Custer Elementary and Monroe Middle School.  Roughly half of the money awarded went to engineering and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) programs.   

     Grants were awarded to these teachers and groups:

     Ronnie Riggs and Sharon Thomas, Waterloo Elementary -- Funding the purchase of 12 STEM kits to be used at summer STEAM camps at Waterloo.  The camps will target Waterloo students who have demonstrated a high level of interest in the STEAM curriculum.  

     Kelly Davis, Kari Tackett and Melissa Bell, Custer Elementary – Provides for the purchase of 15 reusable simple machine sets and a simple machine activity pack.  Custer students will be able to use the sets to explore engineering concepts while building teamwork and communications skills.  Teachers will be encouraged to integrate use into the curriculum and families will have access to the machine kits during Family Engineering nights.  

     Kyle Reed, Waterloo Elementary – 16 MaKey-MaKey sets will be purchased to allow students to create electronically controlled inventions using basic circuitry and software.  These would be used as an enrichment activity in robotics and as a separate class for summer learning at Waterloo.

    Scott Hoppert, Monroe Middle School – Purchase of popular books and rolling file carts to create mobile libraries that can be moved from classroom to classroom to facilitate a sustained silent reading program during Trojan Family Time at MMS.

    Katie Collins and Kelly Levicki, Arborwood North Elementary  – A two-year membership for two classrooms to a website which allows students to read books on-line, have teachers print out books if the student does not have internet access at home, and which allows parents to take a more active role in their child’s reading improvements.  The program also allows the teacher to monitor student progress, even in the summer.

Chessica Oetjens, Arborwood Campus – Funds the development of a “MakerSpace” where this creation station will include various 21st century tools which the students can use to make various items.  The items to be purchased also can be used over-and-over by students to make many different items.