VB Elementary wins national STEM sweepstakes

VAN BUREN — Van Buren Elementary School is one of five schools nationwide to win the 2022 Possibility Grant Sweepstakes, created by the Siemens Foundation in partnership with Discovery Education.The sweepstakes carries with it a $5,000 cash prize. Now in its seventh and final year, the competition is meant to help put science, technology, engineering and mathematics (S.T.E.M.) supplies and technology in the schools. There were more than 10,000 submissions to the sweepstakes this year.Last year was the first year of S.T.E.A.M. (science, technology, engineering, agriculture and math) education at Van Buren Elementary."I problem-solve with all 480-ish kids every week. With it being the first year of S.T.E.A.M., my head was spinning with options and opportunities for our students. Then, I realized the cost of these cool opportunities, so I started looking for grant opportunities," said teacher Brian Beining.Beining said counting the sweepstake award, the program has received $15,000 in grant money this year. Van Buren Elementary S.T.E.A.M. has also received grant money from the Ohio STEM Learning Network STEM Classroom Grant and the Casey's Retail Company, Ankeny, Iowa. Beining credited Jessica Nichols, the school's PTO president, for "all the work" for the grant from Casey's.The money will be spent on supplies and to help outfit multiple labs for the class, including labs based on space, LEGO robotics, programmable robots, soil analysis/organisms, next-generation farm to table, "and anything else we can get our hands on to engage students in the engineering design process and higher-order thinking/problem solving," said Beining.Other sweepstakes winners include: Hamilton Elementary School, Colquitt County School District, in Hartsfield, Georgia; Verndale Public School, Verndale Public School District in Verndale, Minnesota; Gauger-Cobbs Middle School, Christina School District in Newark, Delaware; Springs Valley Elementary School, Springs Valley Community Schools in French Lick, Indiana.The Siemens Foundation has invested more than $138 million to advance workforce development, education and health equity initiatives in the United States.Discovery Education serves approximately 4.5 million educators and 45 million students worldwide.