Congratulations to Xaviera Kight of Temple Elementary School and Meredith Stone of Bowdon Elementary School for being chosen as 2024 Don Cargill STEM Scholars by Georgia Youth Science and Technology Centers. Only 27 teachers from across Georgia received the honor this year. The Don Cargill STEM Scholar Award recognizes teachers who are working hard to integrate effective STEM education in their classrooms.
Mrs. Kight was chosen for her work in the classroom bringing excitement to physical science through a STEM boat racing challenge. Mrs. Kight plans to introduce students to the fundamentals of computational thinking, science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM), and computer science principles through her project. Students will get hands-on coding experiences by using Sphero indi robots to come up with solutions to open-ended, real-life scenarios. By promoting student choice within her lessons, Mrs. Kight’s students can be more creative, use their imagination, and become more motivated and engaged in their learning.
Mrs. Stone was chosen for her work in the classroom sparking an interest in STEM through a hands-on lesson on circuitry. Mrs. Stone plans to make coding concepts a reality for her students with her project. Students will use the Learning Resources Botley 2.0 Coding Robots to bridge the gap between concepts and physical actions. Students will code the robots to complete complex tasks and navigate mazes and obstacles. Coding is all about imagination and "out-of-the-box" thinking, which will allow the students to be creative and write code as they see fit to accomplish the given task.
STEM Scholar teachers demonstrate a passion and determination to provide students with innovative and challenging STEM experiences. STEM Scholars create an atmosphere of exploration that excites, energizes, and equips their students to pursue enhanced educational opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Cramer and Earnest will receive $500 each to help outfit their STEM classrooms. #24STRONG #FutureFocused #STEM