Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education Innovation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Greene County awards innovation grants for STEM cart, cooking club and playground communication boards
Summary
Teachers and staff described three innovation-grant projects the board approved: a 'STEM on Wheels' cart for hands-on lessons, a fourth-grade cooking club integrating literacy and math, and communication boards installed on playgrounds to support early-childhood learners with limited verbal communication.
Several teachers described innovation-grant projects funded this year and the board recognized winners.
Brantley Ussery, a first‑year STEM teacher at Rutgersville Elementary, described 'STEM on Wheels,' a five-tier cart with stations for motion, engineering, electricity/coding and robotics that will roll out in the 2026–27 school year to increase access and individualized STEM instruction. "I want to make STEM more accessible and equitable," Ussery said.
Christy Shiflett described a fourth-grade cooking club that paired recipes with literacy and math lessons; students participated twice monthly and staff reported improved comprehension and engagement. Early‑childhood special educator Megan Wallace described installing communication boards on three playgrounds to help nonverbal or dysregulated students request activities, snacks or bathroom breaks; she said preschool and kindergarten students are already using the boards.
Administrators also summarized other grant-supported projects (Artful Minds gallery displays, a middle‑school microbiology incubator, compost bins, rain barrels and pollinator gardens) and said a second round of grants will let winners be ready to implement projects in August.
Board members praised the innovations as hands‑on ways to reach diverse learners and asked staff to continue program evaluation.
