PELL CITY — Two Pell City teachers have received more than $2,000 in grants to expand robotics at their respective schools.
Pell City High School Librarian Jordan Fancher and Eden Elementary School third-grade teacher Amy Thornton received $2,045 and $2,356, respectively, from the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative.
The AMSTI grants are meant to be used for projects using robotics to further STEM education.
Both teachers said they plan to use the money to not just expand science, technology, engineering and math for their entire schools.
Fancher said her plans are to use the funds to create a maker’s space in the library.
“I just wanted to try to bring some new things to the library,” she said.
Fancher said the new space will feature a robotics kit that includes spheros. Fancher said teachers and students can use these small round programmable robots to introduce coding in a way that’s open for exploration.
“This will basically give our students and our teachers access to that explorative learning,” she said. “They can be used in several different ways.”
Fancher said one way she wants to use the spheros is to help students understand the mechanics of how something like the 2022 Birmingham World Games work. She said the idea is for students to code the robots to complete games similar to those in the world game. Fancher is hoping to even turn it into a competition.
Thornton said that she wants to use her grant money to help fund a stem lab for all grades at Eden. She said the project has been one that she’s been working on for some time and has previously received two other grants to go towards the project.
“I started with a stem lab in my classroom and now I want to have it for all of our classrooms,” Thornton said. “I have enough to get started now for every grade level.”
She said she’s always tried to write a lot of grants so that every student can have those kinds of STEM opportunities.
Thornton said the lab would include robots and more basic building items to help students learn more hands on. She said that’s the real goal of the lab, to help students who may not connect with their studies through just regular instruction.
“I think kids learn better when they have hands-on experience,” Thornton said. “If you can gain their attention I think it makes them want to learn more.”
She said it’s really about giving students a fun opportunity to learn.
Taylor Mitchell is a Daily Home reporter covering Pell City.
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