STEDTRAIN
We put a man on the moon.
Help our children reach the stars.

STEDTRAIN 2019-20 Grant Year Report

Mission and History

STEDTRAIN is a Committee of the The Huntsville Association of Technical Societies (HATS) that administers a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Seed Grant program that provides Type I and Type II Grant funding of $250 to $1000 and $1500 to $2500 respectively to an educator for innovative hands-on classroom projects that will stimulate children's interest in science and technology.

Since the Program began in 1988, it has distributed over $598,580 for 584 individual grants and other worthy educational projects. The grants currently benefit approximately 10,000 students directly and about 20,000 indirectly a year.

The STEDTRAIN program covers Limestone, Madison, Jackson, Morgan and Marshall Counties in Alabama and Lincoln County in Tennessee.

HATS is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization supporting Huntsville area technical and professional societies dedicated to the advancement of science and engineering. Founded on June 17, 1969, HATS has grown from seven charter societies to the current organizations representing more than 18,000 individuals. The STEDTRAIN Committee encourages the next generation of scientists, engineers, and technical professionals within our community. We put a man on the moon. Help our children reach the stars.

HATS is grateful to many of its Member societies, corporate, and individual donors for their support. The economic situation of the past few years has substantially increased the number of grant applications received. The increase has required funding substantially beyond what was previously possible.

Charity Navigator, the nation's largest and most-used charity evaluator, has assigned HATS an Encompass Rating of 100 out of 100.

View HATS Rating on Charity Navigator

Federal EIN: 23-7070415
Alabama Solicitation License: AL21-068

Key Personnel

Calendar

The STEDTRAIN Seed Grant cycle is 15 months long beginning on February 1st and ending on April 30th of the following year. It is built around the school year and allows for collecting and evaluating proposals and then awarding and executing grants. This causes a three month overlap with the calendar year. To eliminate confusion from these overlapping cycles, this report will focus on one complete Seed Grant cycle.

In the year the Seed Grant is awarded:
Request for Proposals begins	February 1st
Deadline for proposals submission	April 1st before midnight
Deadline for principals to accept proposals	April 3rd before midnight
Deadline to notify STEDTRAIN of problems	April 15th before midnight
Awards published and notices sent	On or about August 5th
Deadline to accept awards	15 days after notification
Deadline to verify award ceremony attendance	4 days before the ceremony
Award Ceremony	Usually the last Saturday in August except Labor Day Weekend,
In the year following the Seed Grant award:
Midterm reports due	January 20th before midnight
Final reports due	Thursday at noon before presentations
Final presentations	Usually the last Saturday in April

Proposals Statistics

HATS rules prohibit STEDTRAIN taking money from other HATS programs, so STEDTRAIN funds as many acceptable proposals as possible each year without running a deficit. Some proposals do not qualify for funding and are not funded for cause. There can be proposals that were deemed to be acceptable that are not funded because of a lack of funds.

Submitted	21
Funded	14
Not funded for lack of funds	2
Not funded for cause	5
Funding Shortfall	$2,735

Selected Proposal Abstracts

Mt. Carmel Elementary School (Madison County, Alabama)
Ms. Diane Marsh
Crack the Code Squads- Bring Coding to Third Graders
In Crack the Code Squads, students take part in a hands-on workshop teaching coding and the Computer Science Standards. They rotate through these stations: instruction on computers, Crack the Code devices, and Unplugged activities. In a weekly coding challenge teams apply what they are learning, solve problems, and work collaboratively. Crack the Code devices such as Ozmo Family Coding, Lego WeDo, mini Spheros, and Dash and Dot bridge the gap between the tangible and the abstract as students master the fundamentals of coding. Students then teach and mentor other third graders in coding.

SPARK Academy at Cowart Elementary (Limestone County, Alabama)
Mrs. Jennifer Kennedy
Expanding the "T" in STEM: Robotics and 3D Printing
SPARK Academy at Cowart Elementary, a STEM-focused elementary school, is continuing to expand on the tools available for student use in exploring science, technology, engineering, and math for our youngest learners. The project Expanding the "T" in STEM: Robotics and 3D Printing will allow direct instruction of technology beyond apps and websites and provide opportunities for hands-on investigations of current and emerging technologies and tools.

Lincoln County High School (Lincoln County, Tennessee)
Ms. Mary E LeBlanc (Marty)
Falcon Engineering and Robotics - Lincoln County Schools Robotics Program
Students need the ability to create, design, innovate, and think critically in order to solve complex challenges. Every student should possess deep knowledge and strong skills in math, science, technology, and engineering"and should be excited and ready to use that knowledge in the real world. To meet this challenge, we need to provide students with new tools and techniques that enable them to learn and then practice the knowledge they have acquired. A number of robotics kit platforms are available to schools and have introduced students to math, science, and engineering at all grade levels.

A complete list of funded proposals and abstracts can be found on our website at /showpage.php?pageId=84&gy=1920

Selected Final Reports

At the end of each Seed Grant cycle, the teachers participate in a conference that is intended to facilitate networking and the sharing of ideas for future STEM education projects. The teachers prepare a tri-fold display and are encouraged to bring in hardware and other examples of their project. They also prepare a final report in Microsoft PowerPoint format and a single overview slide. The overview slides are compiled into a single presentation that runs on a timed loop that is display during the networking period. The following are selected examples of the overview slides.

Impact on the Community

As part of the final report process, teachers report on the participation in their projects. This includes teachers and students who directly participate in the project and teachers and students who are exposed to the project through demonstrations and presentations. Teachers are encouraged to collaborate with other schools, and to bring in external advisors from the area's techical community. The following table summarizes the teachers input for this Seed Grant cycle.

Involvement	Teacher's School	Other Schools	Total Involvement
Number of students involved	2751	256	3007
Number of teachers involved	117	15	132
Number of classes involved	136	10	146
Number of external advisors involved	48	3	51

Donors

Thanks to the following companies, corporations, institutions, and individuals who contributed generously to the HATS STEDTRAIN program.

• Space and Missile Defense Working Group of the
  National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA),
  Tennessee Valley Chapter
• IEEE, Huntsville Section
• deciBel Research
• nLogic
• David Bryant
• Andy Setlow (In Honor of Jim Frank)
  Boeing Company Gift Match Program
• DMS Technology, Inc.
• Georgia Tech Research Institute
• Hackett Science & Technology Applications Company
• MJLM Federal Services
• Woody Williams

Financial Report

As a small organization with less than $50k in annual revenue, HATS files an annual IRS form 990N. The financial information included in the 990N report may not be sufficiently detailed for some potential donors considering making donations to the HATS STEDTRAIN Seed Grant program, so we provide the following financial report.

Other sources of income include interest on the savings account, PayPal donations, Amazon Smile, and Facebook fundraisers.

Income
Rollover from previous Grant Year	764.59
HATS	0.00
Donations from HATS members	17,000.00
Outside donations	3,100.00
Grants	0.00
Other sources	2.40
Total Income	20,866.99

Expenses
Grants to Educators	19,784.14
Prizes and special awards	300.00
Event costs	0.00
Website and Communications	15.99
Admin	0.00
Rollover to next Grant Year	766.86
Total Expenses	20,866.99

 

The Program Expense Ratio is a number that tells how much of an organization's funding went toward the stated mission of the organization. It is defined as the ratio of Program Expenses (how much was spent on the mission) to Total Expenses.

The STEDTRAIN Program Expense Ratio for this cycle is 99.9204%.

Contact Information

Email us at admin@stedtrain.org

Telephone Contacts:
Woody Williams	256.837.5172
Ron Hackett	931.438.3298