This year, the most teachers that have won in Baldwin County since 2014 were awarded Bright Ideas grants from the Tri-County Electric Membership Corporation, which will allow for those teachers to implement innovative classroom projects that they otherwise would not have been able to. Three of those teachers are at Lakeview Primary alone, which has dedicated its entire school to STEM projects throughout the 2022-2023 school year, and two of them were winners of the 2023 Don Cargill Stem Award.
Tri-County EMC Marketing Coordinator Anna Jones personally delivered the news to each winner in their classrooms so that their students could see these remarkable achievements as they were presented. None of the teachers knew they'd won at the time of delivery, only their school principals. Scroll below for a full list of our District's Bright Ideas grant winners and the projects they proposed.
The Bright Ideas grant is available across several school districts serviced by Tri-County EMC, including Jones, Putnam, Jasper, Twiggs, and Wilkinson. Project proposals were submitted last October and judged based on innovation, goals, learning objectives, student involvement, and budget. Congratulations to the wonderful teachers below and to the students who will benefit from these new learning experiences!
SCROLL DOWN FOR THE VIDEO AND FULL LIST OF WINNERS
Linda Colwell, Lakeview Primary School
Retelling Stories
$441.80
Grant money will be used to purchase felt manipulatives to retell stories from books the class has previously read. This will help boost reading comprehension by creating a multi-sen sory approach.
Tonya Arnold, Lakeview Primary School
Weather Reporters
$1,495
Students will each get a chance to use a weather station as a meteorologist. They will learn about weather, temperature, and numbers, along with reading, writing, and speaking standards. Each day a student will record the information gathered and report back to the class.
Crystal Kennedy, Lakeview Primary School
Class Pets – Companionship and Learning Opportunities
$1,500
Ms. Kennedy’s class will adopt a pet chameleon for the classroom to promote a sense of unity, compassion, and responsibility.
Stephanie Coxwell, Midway Hills Academy
The Chick Inn
$1,000
Funds will be used to purchase chickens and furnish the materials and labor to build a chicken coop in the school garden area.
Crystal Beard, Baldwin County Early Learning Center
Breaking Barriers
$922.44
This project will break down any communication barrier between English Language Learners and teachers through the purchase of the Vasco V4, a universal translator device that can instantly translate voices and images.
Shelby Hedgepeth, Baldwin County Early Learning Center
Therapy for the Soul
$1,143.10
Grant money will be used to foster a gardening program, allowing students to understand where foo d comes from and how to grow it.
Sharon Reeves, Oak Hill Middle School
Aquaponics in the Classroom
$1,500
The goal of aquaponics in the classroom is to provide students the opportunity to utilize science, engineering, and math practices in authentic problem-solving activities. Students will design and construct an operational aquaponics system that produces food and optimizes nutrient cycling.
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