May 11, 2018
By JAMES EVANS
Rutherford County Schools
Eight years ago, Kenneth McGinness was in the business world when he felt called to become an educator.
Now, a special education teacher at Smyrna High School, McGinness is one of 50 who has received a classroom mini-grant for next school year, thanks to Nissan North America and the Rutherford County Business Education Partnership.
The mini-grant awards were announced at the Stones River Country Club last Friday, and the grants will be for classroom projects implemented next year.
As part of the grant program, BEP accepts applications each semester and then selects awardees for up to $500 each. The grants are meant to fund innovative lesson plans or projects and are strictly intended for classroom teachers to use directly with students.
“You make a huge impact on the kids in this community,” BEP Foundation Chairman Emil Hassan told the grant winners. “I always believe there are two main ingredients in having a good quality of life — health care, education.”
For McGinness’ project — titled Snap-Click-Contact — special education students at Smyrna High School can use pre-made boards that hook together to create simple circuits. By using those types of circuit boards, the students can learn about electrical systems without using solder or other safety-sensitive tools, which might be too difficult for some of them.
“The project will give special education students the opportunity to develop cognitive skills necessary to enhance academic learning and acquire higher-level thinking skills by building simple electrical systems,” McGinness said.
He got the idea for the project from his own adult-aged son, who saw similar circuit boards in a magazine and ordered them for his own children.
This year’s BEP mini-grant awards mark the 30th anniversary of the program, BEP Executive Director Amelia Bozeman said.
“Over the years, BEP has played a major role in the education success story that is Rutherford County, and we are so thrilled to be celebrating this anniversary this year,” Bozeman said.
The full list of mini-grants recipients follows:
|
Name of Project |
School Name |
Name |
|
BeeBot On Down The Road |
Barfield Elementary |
Christi Brownlee |
|
Mrs. Stump's class is going full STEAM ahead |
Barfield Elementary |
Julie Stump |
|
Playground Sensory Exploration |
Black Fox Elementary |
Ashley Crosslin (x2) |
|
Around Town on Our Playground |
|
|
|
Discovering the Truth |
Blackman High School |
Diane Webb |
|
unVEXing Robotics |
Blackman Middle |
Zach Martin |
|
Math and Movement: Add and Subtract |
Bradley Academy |
Gail Boyd (x2) |
|
Math and Movement: Multiplication Hop |
|
|
|
Maker Faire Extroidinaire |
Cason Lane Academy |
Debbie Hickerson (x2) |
|
Girl POWER: Preparing Outstanding Women for Engineering Roles |
|
|
|
STEM on the Go! |
Cason Lane Academy |
Kathy Latondress |
|
Holding Thunder |
Cedar Grove Elementary |
Tyson Hoppe (x2) |
|
Can't Beat that Harmony |
|
|
|
InfluWHATza? |
Central Magnet School |
Eve Harrison |
|
H2Okra |
Central Magnet School |
Marc Guthrie |
|
You Had Me At Robot! |
Christiana Elementary |
Kelly Patterson, Amanda Amirault |
|
Busy Hands, Busy Brains! |
Christiana Elementary School |
Twila Forster |
|
Code You Know? It's Full STEM Ahead! |
Christiana Elementary School |
Kara Merriman |
|
Engineering in Motion |
Christiana Elementary School |
Terri Jones, Sara Bennett, Jamie Hines |
|
OZOBOT |
Christiana Elementary School |
Shannon Ingram, Kathilu Mote |
|
Forget Jukebox Hero, We’ve got Coding |
Christiana Middle School |
Valorie Bonds, Dawn Powell |
|
SPHERO: Coding the Road to Career Success |
|
|
|
Give a littleBit; Give a littleBit of |
Christiana Middle School |
Dawn Powell, David Duez |
|
your Love for STEM |
|
|
|
Let Them Build It!!! |
David Youree Elementary School |
Bippy Tidwell (x2) |
|
STEM Fridays!!!! |
|
|
|
Electrifying Science |
David Youree Elementary School |
Shannon LeCates |
|
Luke's Lego Robotics Lab |
Erma Siegel Elementary |
Angela Pope |
|
Fairy Tales- A STEAM Dream |
Kittrell Elementary School |
Kelly Strauss |
|
Balanced Minds for Life |
Mitchell Nielson Primary |
Casey Sims, Emily Brown |
|
Rev Up Your Engine! |
Rockvale Middle School |
David Landry |
|
3D Doodlers and Designers in STEM |
Siegel Middle School |
Katie Harris |
|
On Your Mark, Get Set, Glow! |
Siegel Middle School |
Miriam Lee (x2) |
|
Diving Deep and Hanging Ten |
|
|
|
Science Stamping into STEAM |
Siegel Middle School |
Hannah Hardiman |
|
Once Upon an Engineer 2 |
Smyrna Elementary School |
Heidi Redmon |
|
Snap - Click - Contact |
Smyrna High School |
Kenneth McGinness |
|
It's Electrifying! An Introduction to |
Smyrna Middle School |
Gina Wray |
|
Electromagnetic Fields |
|
|
|
Fairy Tale Fabricators |
Stewarts Creek Elementary School |
Melanie Strickland, Amanda Sneed |
|
"Holey" Moly - Building with STEM |
Stewarts Creek Elementary School |
Melody Todd (x2) |
|
Throw Down the Gauntlet - Catapult Style |
|
|
|
Learning outside the box through STEM |
Stewarts Creek Elementary School |
Brittany Jill Richardson |
|
I want my baby back, baby back, |
Stewarts Creek High School |
Pam Stewart |
|
baby back ribs…to decompose. |
|
|
|
How does your garden grow? (Part 1) |
Stewartsboro Elementary School |
Emily Romine |
|
Roving and Coding in 4th |
Walter Hill School |
Gina McClanahan (x2) |
|
Hometown Homesteaders |
|
|
|
Predicting the Zombie Apocalypse |
Whitworth Buchanan Middle School |
Diane Ranney |
PHOTO / JAMES EVANS
Greg Jones (Nissan North America), Amelia Bozeman (director, Business Education Partnership), Emil Hassan (Chairman BEP Board of Directors) and Director of Schools Don Odom pose with a resolution the Tennessee Generally Assembly recently passed to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the Rutherford County Business Education Partnership.