Area schools receive STEM grants

The Idaho STEM Action Center just awarded more than a quarter-million dollars in grants to pre-K to 12th-grade education professionals and organizations throughout the state.

Kootenai County schools receiving grants include: Athol Elementary, Canfield Middle, Fernan STEM, Greensferry Elementary, Lakeland School District, Lakes Magnet Middle, Mountainview Alternative and North Idaho STEM.

The grants provide recipients — such as kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers, libraries, and out-of-school organizations ­— with up to $2,500 each to fund innovative science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computer-science projects.

Gov. Butch Otter said the effort is fueling an array of creative and exciting STEM-learning opportunities.

“The hands-on, project-based activities the STEM Action Center’s grants enable will engage and inspire the scientists, engineers and technicians of tomorrow,” Gov. Otter said. “Experiential learning efforts like these are critical to building Idaho’s future workforce.”

Approved projects range from electronics and robotics, drones and solar cars, and anatomy and physiology equipment like microscopes and plastic models to water-quality testing kits for analyzing fish habitats, camera trap systems for studying birds and mammals, and augmented reality systems to explore earth sciences concepts.

Conceived in the Office of the Governor, the Idaho STEM Action Center was approved during the 2015 legislative session to help produce a competitive workforce by implementing K-through-career science, technology, engineering and math education programs aligned with industry needs. During the 2016 session, the Idaho Legislature set the STEM Action Center’s annual budget at $2.4 million, appropriated $2 million into a STEM Education Fund to help start up local STEM programs, and approved the addition of a computer science program manager to oversee the Computer Science Initiative.

Information: stem.idaho.gov