GREAT Grants Awarded

Each year, the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce gives teachers the opportunity to apply for GREAT Grants to help fund innovative classroom projects.

These grants are made possible through the generous support of the Stuttgart Education Foundation, Entergy, Decoy Solar Energy Center, and our local business community. GREAT stands for Grants for Educators and Teachers, and applications are accepted year-round through the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce. All applications are evaluated through a blind review process by the Chamber's Education Committee.

The Education Committee members are: Elizabeth Skinner, Emily Belcher, Ginger Holladay, Kathy Hopson, Katrina Brown, Kim Kirby, Rebecca Seyller, Logan Molock, Bethany Hildebrand, and Jennifer Bohanan.

GREAT Grants provide up to $1,000 for hands-on, innovative classroom projects that enhance learning and encourage cross-curricular instruction. This year, teachers submitted more than $5,000 in grant requests, and many of those outstanding projects are being funded.

Luke Williams from Decoy Solar Energy Center assisted in presenting the grants. The first STEM grant is awarded to Emily Karr at Holy Rosary in the amount of $1000 for her project, Little Explorers, Big Discoveries. This project will create an outdoor STEAM learning environment where students explore science, technology, engineering, art, and math through hands-on experiences in nature. The space will include a mud kitchen, sand table, music wall, pollinator garden, and living habitats that attract butterflies, ladybugs, ants, frogs, birds, and other native wildlife. Students will investigate life cycles, habitats, weather, plants, and ecosystems while building, creating, measuring, making music, observing, and solving problems through play.!

The next STEM Grant was awarded to Cecily Anderson-Maronay, with Park Avenue, in the amount of $1000 for her Transportation and Motion Learning Path. The Transportation and Motion Learning Path will transform an existing outdoor space into a dedicated STEM learning environment where students explore science, technology, engineering and mathematics through active, hands-on experiences. The objective of this project is to provide students with a safe instructional space where teachers can integrate STEM lessons with movement-based learning. Students will investigate concepts such as force, motion, balance, speed, friction, and problem solving while developing gross motor skills and transportation safety awareness.

The first GREAT Grant was awarded to Kristin Wilson at Meekins Middle School in the amount of $500 for her Winter Wagon Parade and Community Showcase project. This is a project that combines engineering design, creativity, social-emotional learning, and community engagement. Thirteen homeroom classes will work collaboratively to design, build, and present winter-themed wagon floats that demonstrate engineering principles while fostering teamwork and school pride. Students will engage in the engineering design process by brainstorming ideas, creating blueprints, selecting materials, constructing floats, testing for mobility and durability, and making improvements based on observations. Each float will be built on a wagon platform and designed around a winter or holiday theme. The project culminates in two community-centered events.

The next GREAT Grant was awarded to Meg McCarley at Holy Rosary in the amount of $500 for a Family Literacy Night. This exciting event is designed to encourage a love of reading beyond the classroom by bringing students and their families together for an evening focused on literacy. Families will leave with books of their own, along with practical tools and strategies to

help support reading at home. Open to the entire school community, this project will create a fun, engaging, and rewarding experience while strengthening the partnership between home and school and fostering a lifelong love of reading.

The next GREAT Grant was awarded to Staci Wheeler at Holy Rosary in the amount of $500 for her project, Reading Around the World. “Reading Around the World” is a literacy initiative designed to increase student motivation and achievement through a themed Accelerated Reader (AR) reward system. Students track progress using passports and earn stamps and rewards as they meet individualized reading goals. Materials include passports, stickers and stamps, small incentives, and celebration supplies. Progress is monitored using AR data, and students are recognized throughout the year, culminating in a school-wide celebration. This structured, engaging approach supports consistent reading habits and literacy growth.

The next GREAT Grant is for a Mini Museum awarded to Elizabeth Queathem at Meekins Middle School in the amount of $325! MiniMuseum is a hands-on project that combines history and literacy as students explore the rich history of Stuttgart through historical artifacts. After visiting a local museum to learn how exhibits tell the stories of people and places, students will research vintage items from our community, write informational exhibit labels, and create their own classroom MiniMuseum. The project will conclude with a museum showcase where families and community members are invited to explore the student-created exhibits.

The last GREAT Grant was awarded to Tamara Owens and Sara Woodell at Park Avenue in the amount of $510 for their Operating Room project. Students will transform their classroom into a fully interactive operating room as the culminating activity for their human body unit. Dressed as

doctors in lab coats, scrub caps, gloves, and stethoscopes, they'll rotate through hands-on learning stations exploring body systems, healthy nutrition, germs and vaccines, and even perform “surgery” using the game Operation. The experience will conclude with students writing about what they've learned, creating a memorable lesson that promotes teamwork, curiosity, and healthy living.

“We're excited to see these projects come to life, and we'd like to once again thank the Stuttgart Education Foundation, the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce, Invenergy's Decoy Solar Energy Center, and Entergy for their generous support of the GREAT Grant program. Their partnership makes these innovative classroom projects possible.” said Bethany Hildebrand, of the Stuttgart Chamber.

Remember, GREAT Grant applications are accepted year-round, with the next deadline on October 1.