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Shaler Area receives $20,000 grant to provide STEAM experiences to primary students

Shaler Area School District will expand its STEAM initiatives into the primary level next school year with the help of a $20,000 grant awarded through the Allegheny Intermediate Unit’s Center for Creativity and provided by the Chevron Corporation, the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and the Grable Foundation.

Kara Eckert, assistant to the superintendent, and Eloise Groegler, principal of Reserve Primary School, co-wrote and applied for the grant to help fund the expansion of the STEAM opportunities for all Shaler Area students in Kindergarten through third grade. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics.

The grant will fund Project ENGIN, which will allow students to Engage, Network, Grow, Inspire and Navigate. The multidisciplinary project will provide students K-3 with STEAM units to increase their content knowledge in coding, robotics, technological literacy and environmental sustainability. The program focuses on students collaborating with peers, teachers and outside partners to develop projects that will improve their retention of STEAM concepts.

Each primary building will house its own ENGIN room, and the students will interact with each other and learn via resources such as Makey Makey, Bee-Bots, Hummingbird Robotics kits, Hopscotch programming and Tynker. The District will collaborate with the Children Museum of Pittsburgh, Community of Learners for Arts Education (CLAE), the Carnegie Science Center, the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State to bring the units of study alive for the students.

The District will have a STEAM integrator oversee the ENGIN program, which will be introduced to second- and third-graders in the 2015-2016 school year. Kindergarten and first grade will join the program in the 2016-2017 school year.

Shaler Area is one of 28 school districts in Allegheny, Beaver, Greene, Lawrence, Mercer, Washington and Westmoreland counties to receive one of the grants, totaling $530,000. More than 90 grant applications were submitted. Proposals were rated by several categories including sustainability, implementation, relevance and STEAM integration.


Grant to help Shaler Area initiative garner steam
TribLIVE | Neighborhoods article June 8, 2015
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1800 Mt. Royal Boulevard     Glenshaw, PA. 15116     P 412-492-1200     F 412-492-1236
1800 Mt. Royal Boulevard Glenshaw, PA. 15116 P 412-492-1200 F 412-492-1236
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