Coastal Electric members donate over $40,000 to local schools

This week, the Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive Foun­da­tion award­ed over $40,000 in Bright Ideas Edu­ca­tion Grants to local teach­ers. Co-op staff sur­prised teach­ers with the good news in their class­rooms at schools across Bryan, Lib­er­ty and McIn­tosh coun­ties.

Pri­mar­i­ly fund­ed by Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive mem­bers who allow their elec­tric bills to be round­ed up to the next dol­lar through Oper­a­tion Round Up, Bright Ideas Grants bring teach­ers’ inno­v­a­tive class­room project ideas to real­i­ty.

Since the Bright Ideas program’s incep­tion in 2002, around half a mil­lion dol­lars has been award­ed to give local teach­ers the pow­er to put their cre­ative teach­ing ideas into action.

Sum­ma­ry of Bright Ideas grants award­ed in Bryan Coun­ty:

Rich­mond Hill Mid­dle School

“Ozobot Expe­di­tions: Unveil­ing Mars” By Mary Bow­den
$2,000
Stu­dents will cre­ate a plan to explore the sur­face of Mars through pro­gram­ma­ble Ozobots.

“Show­ing the Motion of Coastal Ero­sion” By Audra Esquiv­el
$1,754.39
Stu­dents will research coastal ero­sion pre­ven­tion by build­ing and exper­i­ment­ing with dif­fer­ent mod­els.

“Weath­er from the Hill” By Amy Beasley, Haley Keller, Amy Peters, Malie Shumway, Audra Esquiv­el
$1,798.93
Stu­dents will ana­lyze data and pre­dict future weath­er fore­casts and con­di­tions using slid­ing mod­els.

“The Impact of Tem­per­a­ture on the Heart Rate of Daph­nia Magna: A Com­par­a­tive Analy­sis Using Dig­i­tal Microscopy” By Nicole Har­ring­ton
$1,726.34
Stu­dents will use dig­i­tal micro­scopes to learn about the effect of tem­per­a­tures on micro­scop­ic life.

“What’s in a Wave?” By Kel­li Wal­drop
$2,000
Stu­dents will learn about spe­cif­ic wave prop­er­ties using a wave gen­er­a­tor. Stu­dents will then com­pare and con­trast elec­tro­mag­net­ic and mechan­i­cal waves before build­ing a mod­el of a con­cert venue to be judged.

“The Chem­istry of Gar­den Fer­til­iz­er” By Robert Hodg­don
$1,238
Stu­dents will research how dif­fer­ent ele­ments and com­pounds are essen­tial to plant growth, then mix and brand their own fer­til­iz­er.

“Build a Gen­er­a­tor” By Abbey Robert­son, Bre­an­na Appugliese
$1,896.66
Stu­dents will learn con­cepts of mag­net­ism and elec­tric­i­ty through guid­ed exper­i­ments build­ing small elec­tric gen­er­a­tors.

“Rob­o­Rap­tors: Engi­neer­ing Dinosaurs” By Philip Lyons
$1,959.93
Stu­dents will pro­gram robot­ic arms to sim­u­late feed­ing a dinosaur.

Frances Meeks Ele­men­tary School

“Mean­ing­ful Mur­al Project” By Bren­na Baluh
$1,926
Stu­dents will research the cul­ture, his­to­ry and val­ues of the com­mu­ni­ty to design a mur­al for their school, then vote on a win­ning design to paint.

Rich­mond Hill High School

“Take Flight” By Stephen Peter­son, Corey Fick­iesen, Joshua Romain
$1,998
Stu­dents will design, mod­el, con­struct and launch a rock­et using the engi­neer­ing design process.

“Rain Gar­den for Flood Mit­i­ga­tion: A STEM Ini­tia­tive to Cap­ture Runoff” By Cas­san­dra Breck­en­ridge
$2,000
Stu­dents will research, design and con­struct a rain gar­den to pre­vent flood­ing on cam­pus and cap­ture runoff water.

Carv­er Ele­men­tary School

“Learn­ing with Legos” By Katie Lin­der
$1,599.75
Stu­dents will be briefed with a prob­lem sce­nario relat­ed to a stu­dent learn­ing objec­tive and will use Lego bricks to build and explore solu­tions to the pre­sent­ed chal­lenges.

Rich­mond Hill Ele­men­tary School

“Life Cycle of a Chick­en” By Jessie Rat­ton
$1,425.25
Stu­dents will learn the life cycle of a chick­en and how to prop­er­ly care for a flock. Stu­dents will start with read­ing about chick­ens as they incu­bate care for the chicks after hatch­ing, and trans­fer the young chick­ens to an out­door coop when ready.

Sum­ma­ry of Bright Ideas grants award­ed in Lib­er­ty Coun­ty:

Lib­er­ty Ele­men­tary School

“Broad­cast­ing Bril­liance: Stu­dents on Air” By Jes­si­ca Cook
$1,000
Stu­dents will learn the basics of broad­cast­ing to present infor­ma­tion to oth­er stu­dents, teach­ers and par­ents. They will also cre­ate back­grounds using green screen tech­nol­o­gy, record and edit their broad­casts.

“Space Patch­es” By Natal­ie Mod­e­sir
$1,088.98
Stu­dents will learn to sew patch­es using con­duc­tive thread and LED lights. Stu­dents will design a patch that rep­re­sents a mile­stone or favorite activ­i­ty and present their cre­ation to the class.

Snel­son-Gold­en Mid­dle School

“Gar­den to Plate Green­house” By Rebekah Holton and the Tran­si­tion Acad­e­my Team
$2,000
Spe­cial needs stu­dents will gain valu­able life skills as they pre­pare to tran­si­tion to adult life. Stu­dents will learn the prin­ci­ples behind plant growth, con­ser­va­tion and sus­tain­abil­i­ty through build­ing and main­tain­ing a green­house. They will also learn how to use the nec­es­sary tools to plant and main­tain a gar­den.

“Build­ing Com­mu­ni­ty One Square at a Time” By Sascha Moody
$1,650.95
Stu­dents will work togeth­er to build a 9‑Square game, fos­ter­ing the devel­op­ment of social skills, team­work, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, empa­thy and respect for oth­ers.

But­ton Gwin­nett Ele­men­tary School

“Learn­ing Through Explorato­ry Tables” By Amy Bloom, Paulette Lea­sure, Shana Odom, Ash­ley Schrad­er, Mer­cedes Colon-Renta, Dana Paul
$1,969.35
Stu­dents will engage with explorato­ry tables that allow sen­so­ry, social and fine motor skill devel­op­ment. Stu­dents will explore week­ly lessons in a phys­i­cal, hands-on learn­ing envi­ron­ment.

“The Hybrid Har­vest Gar­den” By Wendy Under­wood
$1,879.74
Stu­dents will jour­nal their obser­va­tions as they design and build hydro­pon­ic gar­dens and soil planter box­es for dif­fer­ent plants and veg­eta­bles. Stu­dents will then present their find­ings at the end of the project, reflect­ing on the dif­fer­ences and sim­i­lar­i­ties between both meth­ods of gar­den­ing.

“Incred­i­ble Machines” By Jeni Lee
$1,830.55
Stu­dents will begin with step-by-step STEM kits that intro­duce sim­ple machines like levers, pul­leys and inclined planes. Stu­dents will then advance to make cre­ations and solu­tions of their own.

Brad­well Insti­tute

“Project Future­Forge: Empow­er­ing Men and Women Engi­neers” By Jere­my Mead­ows
$1,688
Stu­dents will be intro­duced to advanced 3D print­ing tech­nol­o­gy that mim­ics pro­fes­sion­al man­u­fac­tur­ing envi­ron­ments. Stu­dents will be able to design a pro­to­type and cre­ate it with a nor­mal 3D print­er, engi­neer their design fur­ther, and then have access to car­bon-infused print­ing used in mod­ern man­u­fac­tur­ing, col­lab­o­rat­ing with peers along the way.

Lib­er­ty Col­lege Career Acad­e­my

“Vir­tu­Care: Sim­u­lat­ing Suc­cess for Tomorrow’s Essen­tial Work­ers” By Denisia Pope
$1,750
Stu­dents will be trained for the health­care field with VR and AI sim­u­la­tions that mim­ic real-life sce­nar­ios. Stu­dents will prac­tice med­i­cine, ther­a­peu­tic ser­vices and patient care in a risk-free envi­ron­ment that offers real-time feed­back on how they respond to every sce­nario.

Sum­ma­ry of Bright Ideas grants award­ed in McIn­tosh Coun­ty:

McIn­tosh Coun­ty Acad­e­my

“Engi­neer­ing Essen­tials” By Chris­tine Stut­ler
$1,960.25
Stu­dents will col­lab­o­rate to design, build, code and then test solu­tions to prob­lems using an engi­neer­ing kit.