Toyota USA Foundation grant decisions place a high priority on programs that value diversity, incorporate inter-disciplinary learning and are built around “real-world” classroom applications. In addition, the Foundation focuses on innovative and cost-effective programs that help students and educators develop their abilities.

The new 2012 grant recipients are:

• American Indian Science and Engineering Society, Food for Thought- Feeding Young Minds with STEM Enrichmentoffers fun, interactive workshops to motivate and excite young students about science.
• American University, Lab2Class offers an accelerated training process for midcareer scientists who want to shift into the teaching profession.
• California State University Bakersfield Foundation, Families for STEM aims to increase the number of students from diverse backgrounds who are entering and successfully graduating from STEM fields.
• Colorado Seminary, University of Denver, Kids Play Math will expand the development, implementation, and teacher training for Kids Play Math, a bilingual, research-based computer game system designed to teach mathematics skills to children.
• Fremont Education Foundation, Education, Challenge, Inspire will build on the Foundation’s efforts to provide math and algebra teaching kits for California teachers, as well as calculators and science lab equipment for fourth- through eighth-grade students.
• Mills College, Lesson Study will train elementary school teachers through an innovative Japanese teaching strategy to improve mathematics instruction.
• Mobile Area Education Foundation, Engaging Youth through Engineering will train STEM educators in southwest Alabama to expand and reform STEM curricula to additional schools.
• O’Neill Sea Odyssey, Community Oceanography Program will provide 750 youth and 25 teachers with an ocean field trip, hands-on restoration projects and in-class curriculum to improve student understanding of ocean science and environmental conservation.

“We are proud to support these organizations and educational institutions, and to help further the important work they are doing to help our country’s young people excel in mathematics, science, engineering and environmental science,” said Patricia Salas Pineda, group vice president of national Philanthropy and the Toyota USA Foundation at Toyota Motor North America. “Toyota is deeply committed to supporting the next generation of America’s leaders in these critical fields, and we look forward to seeing each of these programs – and the students and teachers they serve – make an even bigger impact in the years ahead.”

“This grant from the Toyota USA Foundation provides the opportunity to advance our mission and dedication to high quality STEM education for students in Washington, DC” says Sarah Irvine Belson, Dean of American University’s School of Education, Teaching & Health. “Toyota’s support will help us increase the number of middle school and high school science teachers in diverse communities and encourage more students to pursue science-based careers.”

Over the past 20 years, Toyota and the Toyota USA Foundation have contributed nearly $600 million to nonprofits across the United States.

Students who are ready to use their STEM skills to solve real world problems, could have the chance to win up to $8,000 in savings bonds.  The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) will coordinate the eCybermission STEM competition for the United States Army in order to promote student interest in the field through online collaborative learning.

Open to students in grades 6-9, the free eCybermission competition is designed to encourage development of solutions to real-world problems from students’ own communities while they compete for recognition and awards at the state, regional, and national levels.

“We need to cultivate and sustain interest in the STEM fields starting at an early age so that our students are better prepared for the technological and innovative knowledge-based economy of the 21st century. eCybermission helps to do that,” said Dr. Gerry Wheeler, interim executive director, NSTA. “Through the competition, students are encouraged to be resourceful and to think critically while pursuing real solutions to real-world challenges. We are thrilled to be a partner in promoting high-quality learning opportunities and experiences that foster interest in innovation and build students’ knowledge in the STEM disciplines.”

As part of the competition, teams of three to four students will be tasked with identifying a problem in their local community that is related to one of seven different mission challenges that include:

• Alternative energy;
• Environment;
• Food, health, and fitness;
• Force and motion;
• National security;
• Robotics; and
• Technology.

Once a team selects its mission, students will work under a team advisor to apply the scientific method or the engineering design process to come up with a solution to their problem. Teams will then submit a mission folder that includes the official write-up of what they have done via the competition Web site.

A panel of judges will identify state winners who will then move on to regional competition for a chance to win an all-expenses paid trip to the national judging and educational event, which is set for June 2013.

Judging will be based on:

• Use of the scientific method and inquiry or engineering design process;
• Benefit to the community; and
• Team collaboration.

Students on the four teams who win at the national level will be eligible for “up to $8,000 in U.S. EE Savings Bonds, valued at maturity,” according to information released by NSTA.

Registration is currently open to U.S. citizens in grades 6-9 who are enrolled at any public, private, or home school based in the U.S., or at Department of Defense Education Activity or Department of State schools. Teams must have advisers who can be a teacher, counselor, coach, or youth group leader who is 21 years of age or older.

“Our nation relies more and more on advances in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to solve real-world problems and ensure our national security, so the Army is investing today in the leaders of tomorrow,” said Mr. Dale Ormond, the director of the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM). “We encourage students to take an active role in their STEM education, and we hope they will continue to find that eCybermission is a fun and effective way to do that.”

In addition to managing and supporting the eCybermission competition, the Arlington, VA-based NSTA, a professional organization with membership of 60,000 science educators, administrators, scientists, and business representatives, is also joining the consortium of the Youth Science Cooperative Outreach Agreement (YSCOA), led by Virginia Tech, an effort to promote STEM literacy.

Created through the U.S. Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP), the consortium includes Virginia Tech, the Academy of Applied Science, George Washington University, the Technology Student Association, and the University of New Hampshire.

More information on the competition is available online at ecybermission.com, by telephone at 1-866-GO-CYBER (462-9237), or by sending an email to missioncontrol@ecybermission.com..

Google RISE – Roots in Science and Engineering – Awards are designed to promote and support Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) and Computer Science (CS) education initiatives. They provide awards to organizations working with K-12 (primary & secondary schools) and university students to provide enrichment programs in these fields.

Google believes that technology will continue to play an important role in shaping our future, and the youth of today will help innovate and drive these technologies for years to come. To that end, Google aspires to help students take one step closer to achieving their potential by offering organizational growth and development opportunities through the Google RISE Awards.

Award amounts range from $5,000 – $25,000 USD.

Eligibility

Organizations from around the globe who are working to promote and support Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), as well as Computer Science (CS) education initiatives at the K-12 / Pre-University and University (US only) levels with an emphasis on increasing engagement of socioeconomically disadvantaged students, girls, and under-represented minorities are eligible for consideration. See below for a full list of eligible countries.

Ideal K-12 / Pre-University & university STEM programs or projects should:

• Inspire excitement in STEM and CS
• Improve, advance and enrich students’ understanding of STEM and/or CS education
• Include hands-on learning activities in STEM and/or CS education

Program Guidelines:

• Google RISE Awards are specifically geared towards STEM and CS educational and outreach programs around the world
• Applications are encouraged from organizations and educational institutions regardless of the socio-economic status, race, or gender of the students they serve
• Please note that the RISE team is not able to provide one on one consultations during the review process (both prior to applying and after applications have been submitted) to ensure no bias is given to specific organizations

Community Engagement:

• We ask that RISE Award recipients actively participate in our constantly growing RISE community of organizations, which includes attendance at a Global Summit, monthly communication across social channels (email, G+, video chat) regarding pressing EdTech topics, and sharing of best practices
• Google is a local community-centric company and we aim to partner with RISE Award recipients to support local programs and events held throughout the year with volunteers, guest speakers, and judges where Google offices are present
• We ask for feedback and program updates from our RISE recipients to help constantly shape and develop the RISE Awards for future organizations joining the community

Frequency of Funding:

Applicants are welcome to apply annually if not selected for a RISE Award. If awarded a grant in 2013, Google will limit funding for a 1 year period after participation in our RISE community. After that one year break, applicants are welcome to re-apply in 2014 for additional funding to be granted in 2015.

For more info visit: http://www.google.com/edu/rise/index.html

Beginning this academic year in the Wallowa and Ontario school districts, students in grades three through eight will experience a new kind of curriculum that connects each of these subjects to the natural world and its resources.

Making it all possible is the Eastern Oregon STEM Learning Environments partnership – a grant co-written by Karen Patton, superintendent of the Wallowa County ESD, and Donna Rainboth, assistant professor of education at EOU.

The grant supports the goal of increasing knowledge of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) among teachers and students, and is one of just four Math/Science Partnership grants to be funded by the Oregon Department of Education this year.

Working together, the Wallowa ESD and EOU will develop and facilitate STEM professional development over the life of the two-year grant. Up to 30 teachers in the Wallowa and Ontario districts have an opportunity to be involved in a series of workshops showing them how to implement hands-on study units in their classrooms. The first workshop will be held at EOU this fall.

The belief that a better grasp of the concepts of STEM can be achieved when observing practical applications led to additional collaborations with Anderson Perry and Associates, Oregon Forest Resources Institute, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Regional Solutions Center, and the International Society for Technology in Education.

“Not only will students understand STEM, they will also learn about career paths in all of these areas,” Rainboth said.

As an example, Rainboth explained how students would see engineering in action with a unit focused on wastewater that also integrates science, math and technology.

“Teachers could invite an engineer to talk with their students about building a water treatment plant, followed by a field trip to a local facility and culminating in the class actually designing their own water filtration system,” Rainboth said.

Other sections may include weather, irrigation and soil, pollination and farming, timber and fisheries or other economic drivers.

“We want teachers and kids to understand the natural resources that are available to them in their own communities,” Rainboth said. “We’ll help develop interdisciplinary units that are relevant to local needs and ultimately have more meaning for students.”

Assisting with developing different areas of the curriculum are EOU faculty Miriam Munck, professor of education, Anna Cavinato, professor of chemistry, Amy Yielding, assistant professor of mathematics, and Michael Jaeger, professor of education and coordinator of the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission certification.

“STEM education is one of the our state’s highest priorities in terms of shaping university graduates to meet the current and emerging needs of Oregon’s employers across the state,” said Stephen Adkison, EOU provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs. “This grant underscores the leadership role that our College of Education occupies in educating teachers and providing students rich opportunities for STEM education in K-20 across the rural regions of Oregon. The work that Donna and Karen are doing is a model of collaboration between school districts and universities.”

This isn’t the first time EOU has partnered with the Wallowa ESD on a successful Math/Science Partnership Grant. Two previous projects, GO Math and Science Discoveries, provided similar professional development opportunities for teachers in several rural Oregon school districts.

Another award Rainboth helped secure this year is a University/School Partnership grant that will fund Embedding Engineering Design in Standards and involve teachers from La Grande, Hermiston, Milton-Freewater and Umatilla. It is also one of four such grants funded in 2012.

Teachers participating in both the Eastern Oregon STEM Learning Environments partnership and Embedding Engineering Design in Standards are invited to attend Inquiry Outside the Cube, a mini-conference at the La Grande Middle School this fall. For more information contact Patton at 541-426-4997 or Rainboth at 541-962-3720

The National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity’s (NAPE) Education Foundation has received a $100,000 grant from the Motorola Solutions Foundation, the charitable arm of Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: MSI), as part of the Innovation Generation grants program.

Through the Motorola grant, NAPE’s STEM Equity Pipeline will provide intensive professional development to 150
administrators, counselors, and faculty to implement research-based practices designed to increase access, success, and post-secondary transition of girls and other underrepresented groups in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).

NAPE launched the STEM Equity Pipeline Project in 2007 with funding from the National Science Foundation. The Project works with high school and community college teams of educators throughout the country to increase the participation of underrepresented populations in STEM education.

Last year, NAPE received a Motorola Solutions Foundation local grant to work with five high schools in the Illinois Unified School District 46 in Elgin, IL. Based on the successful outcomes of that grant program, the 2012 grant will provide resources for continuing the work in Elgin, Illinois; Sacramento, California; and San Jose, California “The need for a larger, stronger, and more diverse workforce in STEM is a critical and highly visible national issue,” says
Mimi Lufkin, Chief Executive Officer of NAPE.
Noting that women in STEM jobs earn 33 percent more than those in non-STEM occupations, while the wage gap between men and women in STEM jobs is significantly smaller than in other fields, Lufkin asserts, “If we are going to out-innovate and out-educate the rest of the world, we have no choice but to jump-start girls’ interest in STEM and boost the percentage of women employed in STEM-related fields.”

Since 2007, Motorola’s Innovation Generation grants program has provided $30 million in support of STEM education programs, supporting more than 300 school, museum, and nonprofit programs across the United States. The program funds organizations that ignite passion and interest in STEM subjects and careers for teachers and U.S. preschool through university students – especially girls and underrepresented minorities.

“Each year, I am truly amazed by the ground-breaking work our grant recipients like NAPE accomplish through their Innovation Generation grants,” says Matt Blakely, director, Motorola Solutions Foundation. “These grantees are playing an active role in developing the future of STEM education for our country. As a company dedicated to helping people be their best in the moments that matter, Motorola Solutions could not be more honored to support programs such as NAPE.”

Innovation Generation is a part of Motorola Solutions’ larger commitment to engaging youth in STEM education. Beyond funding, NAPE will receive ongoing support from Motorola Solutions employee volunteers, who will act as mentors, tutors and experts in STEM careers.

For additional information on the Motorola Solutions Foundation grants programs, visit: http://responsibility.motorolasolutions.com/index.php/solutions-forcommunity/.

For more information about NAPE and the STEM Equity Pipeline Project, visit www.napequity.org and www.stemequitypipeline.org.

Visit: https://winocular.beaufort.k12.sc.us/winocular/JobPost/JobPost.exe?Action=page1&ini=jobs&Type=Postings  and search by the keyword “STEM”

A program of the Kids In Need Foundation, Kids In Need Teacher Grants provide K-12 educators with funding to provide innovative learning opportunities for their students.

Teacher Grant awards range from $100 to $500 and are intended to be used to finance creative classroom projects. The number of grants awarded varies from year to year, depending on the total amount of funds requested. Typically, three hundred to six hundred grants are awarded annually.

Applications are judged according to a rubric that emphasizes innovativeness and merit, clarity of objectives, replication feasibility, suitability of evaluation methods, and cost effectiveness.

All certified K-12 teachers in the United States are eligible.

Visit the Kids In Need Foundation Web site for complete program guidelines, application procedures, and examples of winning projects.

http://www.kinf.org/grants/