It’s getting harder and harder to surprise the winners of Canyons Education Foundation Innovation Grants.
As soon as an army of people in blue Foundation shirts crowds into a classroom with an enormous check, the jig is up but nothing can take away from the thrill teachers feel when they find out their dreams for innovative projects can become a reality.
Canyons Education Foundation members distributed almost $100,000 in Innovation Grants to more than 20 teachers on Nov. 2-3. The grants will fund FIRST Robotics projects, bring Chrome books and iPads to classrooms and even let kindergarten students get their wiggles out while they study.
“It’s going to be amazing, they’re going to be able to do so many things,” Spanish teacher Matty Barth said when she received her grant. Barth plans to use Chromebooks to allow her students to contact students in other countries so they can communicate in Spanish with their pen pals from across the world.
For Leslie Moulton, a science teacher at Mount Jordan Middle, the $9,320.37 grant she received with six fellow teachers symbolized the hopes she had for her students’ success. “Honestly, I feel like I’m going to cry,” Moulton said, as her eyes began to water. “I’m so excited to have money to give our kids stuff they need, that they want. We’re going to teach them science and be a real solid STEM school.”
Canyons Education Foundation hosts annual fundraisers to generate funds to provide grants to Canyons teachers. For six years, the foundation awards grants from $1,000 to $10,000 to recognize and support excellence in teaching. All educators in Canyons School District are eligible to apply for funding.
For many teachers, receiving the Innovation Grant is an opportunity to expand the horizons of their students by providing access to resources that wouldn’t otherwise be available. At Jordan High School, the funds teacher Cameo Lutz received will pay for the cost of creating a FIRST Robotics team and necessary materials to build a competitive robot.
“We’ve tried for a long time to start FIRST Robotics but we haven’t had the funding,” Lutz said. “This gives students an opportunity to experience technology that they wouldn’t ever get to experience without this. So thank you.” This year’s winners are:
- Royce S. Shelley, Corner Canyon High, “3D Printing in AP Calculus”
- Todd Butler, CTEC, “Medical Assisting Chromebook Lab”
- Shannon Jones, Kim Cope, Nancy Bauman and Nelly Ludlum, Butler Elementary, “Classroom Chromebooks”
- Debbie Roberts, Midvale Elementary, “Engaging Innovative Minds in a Flexible Classroom.”
- Joey Newman, Eastmont Middle, “Engineering: Problems to Products”
- Katie Madsen and Madison Ellingson, “If you give our team an iPad cart…”
- Amelia Davis, Corner Canyon High, “Graphics Tablets for College- and Career-Ready Design Students”
- Spencer Alston, Kristina Kimble, Kevin Kramer, Leslie Moulton, Abigail Vanier, Melissa Wilkes, Mount Jordan Middle, “Putting the ‘E’ in STEAM”
- Matty Barth, Butler Middle, “My World Language E-Portfolio”
- Cameo Lutz, Jordan High, “The Ultimate STEM Project: FIRST Robotics”
- Andrea Wood, Midvale Middle, “Enhancing Formative Assessment in Music”
- Tamara Taysom, Midvale Middle, “Creating Capital in Kids”
