Columbus Commercial Dispatch
Fairview Elementary receives 5K grant for technology
By Mary Pollitz
Fairview Elementary students will begin next year building their understanding of computer technology from the inside-out. Literally.
The Columbus Municipal School District students will be tasked with building their own tablets from scratch after Fairview Principal Ben Alexander and lab teacher Devin Hill received a $5,000 grant from the Tennessee Valley Authority this month to help purchase equipment for 10 tablets.
Alexander said the school is continuing to push early science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at the elementary levels. He added students have started working with local businesses to focus on a science-based education.
"Anything we can do now that is hands-on that will entice the kids, we try to grab onto it as fast as possible," Alexander said. "We have always been the science magnet school. I don't know that we've ever really fully embraced it. We are trying to do some things with community partners, like TVA and Aurora, that enhance that for us. That's been our latest goal, is do anything to get the kids involved and get their interest levels up."
The grants were given to schools that focused on TVA's areas of focus: environment, energy, economic and career development and community problem solving, according to a TVA press release.
Hill, who teaches the after-school science club as well as the STEM lab, applied for the grant. She said once the students build their tablets, they can learn to program and code on different applications.
"I'm more excited about creating the tablet than the coding, because we do some coding, " Hill said. "I'm just anxious to see how this creation is going to go. It's a new adventure for me so I'll be learning along with them."
Students from each grade level, pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, visit Hill's lab once a week. Hill said students usually take charge by building their own projects.
When fourth grader Lani Carter, 8, found out about next year's project Tuesday afternoon, she said she couldn't contain her excitement.
"I was happy because now we get to do more science-related stuff," Carter said. "What I am doing now is building stuff out of pieces and I like doing that. I like that we get to do kits to make different things. We do it ourselves, but (Hill) sometimes helps us."
TVA representatives presented the grant Tuesday afternoon with U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. This grant was given to 161 schools across seven states, with only 10 awarded to Mississippi schools.
Hyde-Smith then toured the STEM lab and visited with students while they worked on classroom projects.
"(The classroom) appears to be engineering-based, but to have this extra money to put into the classroom it's just absolutely phenomenal," Hyde-Smith said. "Any teacher could certainly use an extra $5,000. I love kids, you can tell that they're so interested in learning. Anything we can do to further that is the goal we need to set."
Amy Tate, government relations manager with TVA, said this is not the first grant CMSD has received from TVA. In November, CMSD received a combined $4,000 in donations from Columbus Light and Water and TVA to purchase 24 robots for a coding week initiative. Second graders learned early coding computer language skills after working with the robots partially funded by TVA.
"The earlier we can get children involved in those STEM subjects, to get them interested in engineering and science, that bodes well for our entire industry," Tate said. "The fact that we are continuing to support this curriculum ... seeing that success and being able to do this, an additional level of support, is important to TVA."
For Alexander, pushing a coding initiative and getting students interested in STEM fields is all a part of a broader push to prepare students for lifelong careers.
"It's part of a larger district initiative," Alexander said. "You have potential jobs available out there for some of our students. If we can build these programs up at the elementary level in coding and science, there's good careers out there for our students."