2017-18 Seed Grant Awards

Buckhorn Middle School (Madison County, Alabama)
Ms. Gina Henshaw
PLTW Computer Science Program
Computer Science is a Project Lead the Way course where students will learn the engineering design process through investigation, real-life problem solving, and unique hands-on experiences. It will facilitate growth in math and science as well as advance our students in the field of STEM. The Computer Science course will support Buckhorn High School's AP Computer Science program as a stepping stone to activate student's excitement for learning STEM.

Cherokee Elementary School (Marshall County, Alabama)
Mrs. Teresa Zimmer
Making Makers 3.0 - 3D Doodling and Tinkering
The Maker Movement has gained national attention as a way schools can prepare students to be the designers, innovators, and entrepreneurs of the future. This hands-on learning approach emphasizes creation and creativity with products born from tinkering, inventing, and collaborating. The purpose of this project is to add a new component of hand-held 3D design, using 3Doodler, to our makerspace, giving students additional opportunities in the area of personal fabrication, one of the main tenets of making. This will enhance the ideal educational space for students who learn best by doing.

Stevenson Middle School (Jackson County, Alabama)
Mr. Terry Williamson
K'Nex in Motion
The students will be using K'Nex kits to explore Newton's laws and use engineering practices to design and modify their vehicle designs to achieve desired outcomes related to speed, inertia, and force.

Discovery Middle School (Madison County, Alabama)
Mr. Freddie Griffin
Building for the Future
The Flight and Space program has been created, as a gateway to high school, to encourage students to take interests in flight and rocketry. With the help of STEDTRAIN, currently we have been able to conduct rocket experiments that show students how to work in teams and learn the basics of rocketry and teamwork. This class involves creating engineering teams, constructing, testing, launching, and creating simulations of rockets, airplanes, and airfoils. We would like to test air foils and rockets with wind tunnels and perform real airplane simulations with the use of new technology.

Meridianville Middle School (Madison County, Alabama)
Mrs. Shannon Moore
Student Outdoor Interactive Laboratory (SOIL)
In partnership with the Alabama Agriculture and Mechanical University (AAMU) College of Agriculture, our school proposes to establish a Student Outdoor Interactive Laboratory (SOIL) Project designed to give middle school students a hands-on and real-world view of biotechnology with genetic studies in hybridization, cross-pollinations and the global impact that of developing varieties of food crops. Our focus is to enable students to promote sound science as it relates to research and experimentation with technical assistance from AAMUs Winfred Thomas Research Station.

Greengate School (Madison County, Alabama)
Mrs. Elizabeth Knight
Mad About Multiplication Facts
A multi-sensory approach to teaching mathematics meets the needs of diverse learners. Greengate students benefit from the use of multiple approaches, including visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile. This project provides students in grades 3-5 with manipulatives that will offer concrete, hands-on activities designed to increase multiplication fact fluency. As students master these basic facts, mental resources will be freed up to focus on more challenging problems.

Sparkman Middle School (Madison County, Alabama)
Ms. Candace Stricklin
Sparkman Middle School Rocket Club
Sparkman Middle School Rocket Club allows students to design, build,and test model rockets. This process allows students to apply Newton's Laws of Motion, mathematical practices, and technolgy in solving real world problems. The students also practice working in teams,collaboration, and mentoring skills which will allow them to be successful in future endeavors. The goal of the SMS Rocket Club is the same as the school motto,"to encourage students to be an independent learner who is self-motivated and committed to achieve".

Sparkman Middle School (Madison County, Alabama)
Mrs. Jennifer Whitt
Sparkman Middle School Student Broadcasting Program
Sparkman Middle School currently has a production studio room where students create a daily news broadcast. The student news broadcast is a year-long project where students utilize a computer, video camera, teleprompter application, and video editing software. They also use the Internet to conduct research about news topics, create graphics, and collaborate with peers. Broadcasting technology is an effective and highly visible means to help students achieve technological literacy and STEM skills including problem solving, analytical thinking, and the ability to work independently.

Mt. Carmel Elementary School (Madison County, Alabama)
Mrs. Cynthia Dunning
Maker Minded 3-D Design
Our Maker Minded 3-D Design program is a STEM enrichment opportunity for the students of Mt. Carmel Elementary. Students will be mentored to use the engineering design process in a collaborative environment to solve real world problems. They will participate in thoughtful, purposeful, MakerSpace projects that emphasize 3-D design solutions. In a design oriented environment, students will learn to value their own creative solutions, develop prototypes, and utilize 3-D printing and scanning technology as a tool for empowering innovation.

Bridgeport Elementary School (Jackson County, Alabama)
Mrs. Jenny Edwards
Breaking into the World of Computer Programming with Ozobots
Our third grade is in the midst of incorporating coding, computer programming, and computer science into the curriculum. Ozobots are small kid-friendly robots that can be used with simple paper and markers, or with computers and Ipads. Ozobots are a hands-on way to draw kids into computer programming which teaches problem-solving and logical thinking skills. Once the students are successful at programming the Ozobot, they will be paired with a Kindergarten Buddy. They will provide Ozobot training to their buddy thus strengthening their learning by peer teaching.

Mill Creek Elementary School (Madison County, Alabama)
Ms. Jackie Smith
Engineering Design Process Lab 3: Using High Altitude Weather Balloons and CO2 Metric Dragsters to Explore the Engineering Design Proocess
Engineering Design Lab 3 is an ongoing effort at Mill Creek to create a STEM Lab curriculum that correlates to the Next Generation Science Standards. It will provide students with a variety of hands-on, engineering based projects that will challenge them to utilize critical and analytical thinking skills. 5th and 6th grade students will work in collaborative groups to design, construct, and test high altitude weather balloons and CO2 metric dragsters. These activities will foster the concept of teamwork and strengthen student understanding of the engineering design process

Roger B. Chaffee Elementary School (Madison County, Alabama)
Mrs. Lori Nelson
Growing Our Food on Mars: Hydroponic Gardening
"Growing Food on Mars:Hydroponic Gardening" is a project that will capture the imagination of our students by giving them an opportunity to grow their own food the same way that NASA plans to grow food on Mars when we colonization of the planet in the 2030s. The project supports several Alabama Course of Study Science objectives and provides many different hands-on STEM activities within the project.

Huntsville High School (Madison County, Alabama)
Mr. Jared Boyd
Growing Connections: An Inquiry-Based, Hands-On Approach to Cross-Curriculum Learning
Growing Connections is a two-sided, greenhouse project bringing together high level investigation in experimental design while providing inclusive opportunities for students with severe disabilities in an application of life skills.

Buckhorn Middle School (Madison County, Alabama)
Mrs. Stephenie Smith
Rainwater Harvesting Challenge for Outdoor Classroom
Rainwater Harvesting Challenge is a project in which 7th and 8th grade students will use the engineering design process through investigation, real-life problem solving, and hands-on experiences to design, refine, build, install, and utilize a rainwater harvesting system for the Buckhorn Middle School Outdoor Classroom. This project will facilitate growth in all aspects of STEM education. This project supports the learning in our core STEM courses and will activate students' excitement for the Environmental Sciences and Agri-Science courses offered at Buckhorn High School.

Albert P. Brewer High School (Morgan County, Alabama)
Mrs. Kiley Soule
Building a Better Anatomy Class
With the new Science standards integrating modelling and engineering practices, students in Anatomy classes need opportunities to experience how muscles, tissues, organs and other features of the human body actually appear and function. Modelling clay, clay tools, and inexpensive desktop skeletons provide students the chance to get hands deep into the body. Crafting supplies provide additional opportunities to model other parts of the body. This hands-on approach is more appealing to even me as a teacher than the usual power point slide, coloring sheet, or microscope slides.

Greengate School (Madison County, Alabama)
Mrs. Lisa Bruton
Einstein Lab
Students need a chance to build creative confidence, develop critical thinking and foster collaborative teamwork. Einstein Lab will create conditions in which innovation is not only possible, but encouraged. Students will be given a task to build or a problem to solve. Then they will plan for the materials needed, draw a design and construct the object with the materials in the Einstein Lab. Students will have opportunities to deal with time limits, creative thinking, presentations, mentors, failure, improvememt, and success. Students learn the excitement of challenge without fear of failure

Greengate School (Madison County, Alabama)
Mrs. Brandi Sterling
A Positive Impact-Part II
This is the second phase of the project A Positive Impact. The students will be adding learning stations to the pollinator garden that must either utilize or demonstrate renewable energy. Students learn why there is a need to explore renewable energy sources and will explore how wind and solar energy work and analyze the pros and cons of each as renewable energy sources. Students will design and create earth science learning stations to demonstrate the water cycle, find fossilized remains, as well as an interactive weather station that are at least partially powered by renewable resources.

Seed Grants for Previous Years

The following documents provide abstracts for the Seed Grant proposals that have been funded over the past several years.

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