Gorge STEM Hub announces grant recipients

As the STEM Hub’s efforts have evolved, the microgrant opportunity has continued to be an integral part of the STEM Hub’s mission, due in part to the popularity and broad impact these grants have throughout our community. For five years, educators across the region have had the opportunity to apply for microgrants to support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) education in their local communities and schools. These microgrants help ensure all students have equitable access to quality STEM education throughout the region.

Every year, teachers work with a very limited classroom budget to provide students with the supplies and tools necessary to learn. Many of the projects awarded this year, even ones requesting as little as a few hundred dollars, would not happen without these microgrants. The majority of the granted funds come from the STEM Hub’s funding from the Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Community Foundation.

Projects awarded this year had a strong focus on expanding STEM opportunities, rebirthing projects that were delayed due to the pandemic, expanding equitable access to STEM resources, and encouraging collaboration between partners. Grants were also funded to help support teachers in their challenges due to the ongoing pandemic.

Kerri Convery from Hood River Options Academy will use her awarded grant funds to support her colleagues, students, and families through creating a STEAM Lending Library. Convery writes, “This project will deeply affect our alternative students who are 100% virtual and online by bringing us together to dive into Scientific, Technological, Engineering, Art and Mathematical Inquiry and foster deep engagement and curiosity. Our students are schooled through our program in their homes and this will bring community and materials together in an equitable way.”

In many proposals, educators collaborated together to bring STEM education to every classroom in their school. Tess Welk and Leona Egeland, from Dufur Elementary, will use grant funds to create mobile STEM carts that can be shared throughout the Elementary school building. When describing the proposal for K-5 Makerspace, Welk wrote, “The goal for this project would be the eventual implementation of a permanent Makerspace in each elementary education classroom.”

Congratulations to all of this year’s STEM Educator Microgrant recipients:

Hands-on Ecology Lessons for Fifth Graders at Dry Hollow — Wesley Mitchell, Dry Hollow Elementary

STEM Bins Home Connection — Tess Welk, Dufur Elementary

Fossil Junior High Snow School — Brian Anglin, Wheeler High School

Robotics Across the District: Ozobot Fun — Sally Anderson, Hood River County School District

Middle School Robotics at Dufur — Jody Weaver, Dufur School District

Pneumatics for Engineering — John Trimble, Hood River Valley High School

Chromosome Student Modeling Packs — Kathryn Davis, Hood River Valley High School

Let’s Build: Makerspace Center — Jessica Dye, Chenowith Elementary

STEM Maker Station — Ashley Macnab,Liz Cranston and Amy Huffman, Sherman County School District

Take Home STEM Night — Kim Yasui, Mid Valley Elementary

Inclusive Scientific Library — Sara Crompton, Parkdale Elementary

Creation Station — Annika Dobo, Dry Hollow Elementary

K-5 Makerspace — Tess Welk and Leona Egeland, Dufur Elementary

K-3 STEAM Classroom Kits — Kerri Convery, Hood River Options Academy

Fourth-sixth HROA STEAM Lending Library — Lisa Albrecht, Hood River Options Academy

STEAM Through Reading — Hailey Elliott, Dry Hollow Elementary

Robotics Rebirth — Alan Cunningham, HonkerTech at Arlington High School

Ozobots for All Kids — Tia Wells, Mid Valley Elementary School

Hands-on Learning with a Van De Graaff Generator — Jamie Carr, Wy’east Middle School

K-1 Math Response Paddle Boards — Ami Felt, Chenowith Elementary

VEX Robotics State Championship — Lu Seapy, Wasco County 4-H

COVID Diagnostics via Genetic Testing — David Clarkson, Hood River Valley High School

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Housed within the Columbia Gorge Education Service District, the Columbia Gorge STEM Hub is a collective impact organization that partners with local schools, businesses, and non-profits to expand STEM opportunities for all students in the Columbia River Gorge.

Learn more about the STEM Hub, join the coalition, or donate to support similar grants by visiting www.gorgeSTEM.org.