The STEM Foundation is offering a new Grant program to provide funding for educational opportunities within the STEM Academy.
These grants may be requested by the administration, teachers or student
organizations. Priority will be given to requests which impact larger groups of students. All requests will
be considered on a first come, first serve basis until funding is exhausted. The Foundation has already
awarded $5,000 in grants this school year and is currently accepting additional requests.
Grant # 1 Awarded to Pope Science Olympiad
Award 1 - The Pope Science Olympiad team was rewarded funds to help cover costs of registration (estimated costs for each competition is $250-$300) materials, and other expenses.
Grant #2 Awarded to Upgrade Lab Equipment
Award 2 - Students in the STEM Academy gain unique experience with biotechnology research equipment that most high school students don’t receive. New technology has been developed which has revolutionized the use of biotechnology in high school classrooms by offering user-friendly equipment to complete robust biotechnology labs within a 50-minute class period. Students can actually see the development of DNA clusters as they form and develop. We have been using older equipment that involves many steps that must be completed over a series of 3-4 days and requires significant teacher prep outside of class time.
A grant was awarded to upgrade our equipment, allowing our students to complete entire lab activities over the course of one class period, as well as making student research more efficient and feasible.
Importantly, this technology can also be shared with the non-STEM Academy students on an as-available basis.
Grant #3 to Support Update of Chemistry Lab
Award 3 - Pope STEM Foundation funds grant submitted by Mr. Smith (Pope STEM teacher) to support purchase of state of the art pH probes and colorimeters for the Chemistry lab!
Mr. Smith submitted a grant proposal to Pope STEM Foundation for the purchase of new Bluetooth capable pH probes and calorimeters that will allow students to collect real-time data during their chemistry and science experiments. The new equipment will enable rapid data collection and electronic graphing via a free data collection/analysis app. These probes are part of four most commonly assessed lab techniques on the AP Chemistry Exam, and this technology is widely used and most major universities.