2019 STEM Grant Awards
AzCASE and Cox Communications are proud to announce the recipients of the 2019 STEM Grants for out-of-school time programs. Now in their ninth grant cycle, the STEM Grants are designed to encourage and promote the inclusion of informal STEM learning opportunities in out-of-school programs of all kinds. Grants ranged from $500 to $1500.
Thank you to all of the grant applicants for your commitment to positive youth development and informal STEM education! Grants are annual so be sure to stay tuned for details about our 2020 STEM grant cycle.
2019 STEM Grant Recipients
The following 2019 AzCASE STEM Grant Recipients exemplify “best practices” for incorporating STEM into quality out-of-school time programs. (Click the program for additional information):
“Aguilar Kid Zone will use funding to purchase the Ozobot Evo Classroom kit so they can introduce coding to the kids they serve in an interactive, hands on way. The kit includes 12 Ozobot robots, student handouts, accessories, and over 150+ STEM Lessons for all grades and ages. Aguilar Kid Zone staff will take part in the Educator Bot Camp to help support kids as they learn color codes, create maps, have Ozobot competitions, and ultimately develop their own programs for the Ozobot.”
“Kids Club El Mirage will use funding to purchase four Kiwi Robotic STEM kits for students to build either a Drawbot; a moving robot that explores physics through art in teams of two students (each set serves 40 students), or a Robot Crawler: a robot that can walk, lurch and carry heavy loads. With 150 Students, they will begin with the older students and then have them be team leaders for each of the younger classes. Student interns from ASU and Estrella Mountain will be assisting with these projects.”
The Valley of the Sun YMCA will use funding to support the purchase of two Makerspace stations for use in their Yuma YMCA afterschool and summer programs. Makerspace stations are equipped with machines that can be programmed through computer-based design. Funding will also expand their access to Mobile Tech Learning Center learning labs. These “labs” focus on five different areas of STEM: Technology, Environmental Sciences, Engineering and Architecture, Biology and Life Sciences, and Chemistry.
B.O.L.T.S. (Building Our Leaders Through Science), Arizona Kids THINK Too | Phoenix
Building Rockets
Building Rockets
“Funding for the B.O.L.T.S. Program will allow each student at the Dysart Community Center to build Estes Rockets this summer. Estes Rockets is a world leader in model rocketry for first time fliers and experienced rocketeers. Students will engineer, construct and launch their own rockets in this three-day program. They attach parachutes to each rocket and students watch as parachutes are deployed while the rocket is over 100 feet above their heads!”
“FACTS Camp Iwannago will use their grant funding to support their 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing celebration. The celebration will include activities relating to space flight, rocketry, aerodynamics, engineering, geology, history, and astronaut physical training. The funding will allow FACTS to bring in Gary Alpert, the Fly Guy, who will lead rocketry experiments with all campers. They will learn the basics of rocketry and get to build and launch a small rocket.”
“Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona will use their funding to purchase ten programmable Edison robots and two accompanying Apple iPad tablets to operate the robots. These materials will be used to bring hands-on, robotics-focused STEM activities to girls in their Social Impact afterschool program throughout the school year, and in their monthly STEM programs offered on their central leadership campus. As Girl Scouts of the USA prepares to release several new tech-focused STEM badges for girls to earn in the coming months, these robots will enable Southern Arizona staff to bring innovative, hands-on activities to a larger number of girls and ensure that every Girl Scout has an opportunity to learn new tech-literacy concepts and skills in a safe, all-girl, out-of-school-time setting.”
“The TES STEAM Summer Camp will use funding to support a project in which youth will learn about weather through cooperative, hands-on experiments and activities. Each day will be themed – for example, Wacky Weather Day, where campers will explore rainbows with an experiment that produces a piece of art, make tornados in a bottle, and code weather themed games on SCRATCH. The camp will also allow time for students to explore an area of personal interest and create their own projects.”
“Funding for the Sonoran Science Academy Maker Space for Middle School Students will expose middle school students to career options in STEM+CS with Hummingbird Robotics kits. These staff-guided activities will focus on building solutions to real-world problems (engineering) through collaboration and developing problem-solving strategies (Computational Thinking) with a team. In addition to collaborating with peers to design and create real-world products, students will have access to their school’s 3D printers to design parts of their finished product. They will learn block-based coding to program the moving parts of their structure. Finally, they will craft with art supplies to add to the appearance of their robotic structures.”
