The STEM Alliance of Larchmont-Mamaroneck received a $5,000 grant from The Black & Veatch Foundation to fund robotics programs and to expand girls in STEM program development, according to a press release.
The grant will allow the STEM Alliance’s middle school team to extend to elementary school and receive more equipment. Children who are interested in robotics will now have the ability to follow the program all the way up to high school.
“Black & Veatch’s support of the STEM Alliance’s Robotics initiatives provides for direct technology education while simultaneously demanding that students learn how to creatively apply interdisciplinary STEM knowledge to solve problems,” said Margaret Käufer, president of the STEM Alliance of Larchmont-Mamaroneck in a press release.
The grant will also allow the Alliance to lead more teams, workshops, and clubs, including vacation workshops such as the all-girls robotics intensive, Snap n’ Chat Robot Make-Overs. Workshops like these are crucial to growing and diversifying the robotics program in the Mamaroneck School District.
The STEM Alliance is a grass roots, non-profit organization in Westchester, dedicated to enhancing K-12 STEM education. It maintains a strong focus on robotics since its FIRST league created by Segway inventor, Dean Kamen. When studying robotics, children learn coding and engineering, while practicing teamwork, public speaking, and carrying out community service.
“Robotics and coding are just the vehicle through which FIRST teaches students their core values: teamwork, student-centered problem-solving, mutual respect in the form of ‘gracious professionalism,’ and having fun,” said Käufer in a press release.
Main image: Members of the Hommocks Roaring Robots, a FIRST Lego League robotics team run by the STEM Alliance, collaborate on their robot design as they prepare for their first competition of the 2016-17 season.
Jill Bock
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