Bayer Fund, a philanthropic arm of Bayer, recently awarded a one-time $1,000-grant to Scott County Central High Schools robotics team, Steampunks, Team 11965, to support their participation in the FIRST Robotics program. Pictured are from left: Asher Britt, 10th grade; Kierstin Banks, 11th grade; Robert Cook, Bayer representative; Bailey Harper, seventh grade; and Elliana Britt, eighth grade.
Leonna Heuring/Standard Democrat
SIKESTON Students who participate on Scott County Central High Schools robotics team received grant funding for their robotics team as they work to enhance their skills in science and engineering.
Bayer Fund, Bayer Fund, a philanthropic arm of Bayer, recently awarded a one-time $1,000-grant to Scott County Central High Schools robotics team, Steampunks, Team 11965, to support their participation in the FIRST Robotics program.
Scott County Centrals Steampunks are grateful for this award, said Cristy Crites, who serves as SCC High Schools Robotics, FIRST Robotics Coach/Sponsor, Youth Coding League Sponsor and Steam Lab Facilitator. Running a robotics program is expensive. These funds will offset expenses for items such as team T-shirts, robot parts, computers and equipment, competition fees, etc.
As the coach, Crites applies for this grant each year and the SCC team hosts various fundraisers such as a car show, craft show, pork butt sales, and they work the concession stand at basketball games throughout the year.
The Steampunks will use the grant to participate in FIRST Robotics educational programs and competitions. FIRST enables teams of students to compete with others in building, designing and programming their own robots to perform pre-assigned tasks, giving students a chance to get invovledw ithe real-world engineering.
The FIRST Robotics program helps provide the necessary skills for young students to become STEM (science, tehcnology, engineering and math) leaders, said A Mitchell, president of Bayer Fund. This program not only inspires innovation but provides life capabilities such as communication and self-confidence. Bayer Fund is proud to provide grants to student teams to encourage their development into future scientists, engineers and computer programmers.
Bayer Funds sponsorship of FIRST Robotics teams continues the nonprofits intentional support of programs that improve STEM education. Over the past five yeasrs, Bayer Fund has contributed to over $37 million to STEM outreach efforts.
This is the sixth year weve had a robotics program at Scott County Central, Crites said. Last year we added a second team. We also added a robotics class to our daily curriculum. Our teams and class are made up of students in grades 7-12. Students work on robot engineering and design, engineering binder and team portfolio as well as practice their game strategies on a playing field.
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