- April 19, 2024
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Omarion Stewart and Alina Morse, both first graders at Belle Terre Elementary School, turn the screens of their tablet this way and that, tapping away at a series of controls of the screen.
But they’re not just watching the screens, immersed in a virtual-only world: As they manipulate the tablets, two grapefruit-size balls, connected to the tablets by the schools’ Wi-Fi, roll through a course set up with wooden blocks.
The kids aren’t playing a remote controlled game, said teacher Teresa Phillips, but learning basic coding through a program called Sphero, in which kids input basic commands through a tablet to manipulate a remote-controlled ball.
“They’re designed to let them see coding come to life,” Phillips said.
The Sphero program is one of 17 funded through mini-grants awarded by the Flagler County Education Foundation, and Phillips won a $750 grant to introduce it to her first-grade class this year.
Another of her projects, a before-school program called Brick Builders, which teaches engineering concepts with Legos, won a $1,000 grant, the maximum amount that could be awarded to any one project through the mini-grant program.
Brick Builders has about 140 students this year, Phillips said, and when they’re working, “There won’t be hardly a sound, and every group’s working on what they’re supposed to be working on. And they’re working collaboratively, in small groups.”
The 17 winning projects were chosen from among 30 applications for projects in all grades. A total of 339 school district employees — including Phillips — donate money to the program through payroll deduction, and their contributions are matched by state grant money.
This year, teachers were encouraged to design projects that further science, technology, engineering and math education and connect with their school’s flagship program.
“Deciding upon the 17 out of 30 teachers proved especially challenging this year,” FCEF board member and Dell Trayer Teacher Mini Grant committee chairwoman Shelley Chapman said in a news release. “We were impressed with the innovative ways in which all the teachers were able to connect their individual schools’ Flagship programs with their classroom projects,” she added.
Flagler County Education Foundation distributed a total of $16,159.50 in mini-grant money to the projects this year.
“We are thrilled each year to award grants for teachers to implement such a wide variety of impressive projects designed to improve hands-on learning in their classrooms,” Education Foundation Executive Director Deborah Williams said in the news release. “These teachers have demonstrated year after year that with a few extra dollars for resources, their projects’ impact on the students is invaluable.”
