The Eudora School district was awarded a 5,000 grant to grow robotics, engineering and coding programs at its schools. Staff and students from the school district, farmers who nominated the district and representatives from the Monsanto Fund, which sponsors the grant program, attended a check presentation to celebrate the grant prior to the Eudora versus Louisburg high school football game on Sept. 11.

Eudora students will soon be able to do some high-tech tinkering. The Eudora school district has been awarded a $25,000 grant to grow robotics, engineering and coding programs at its schools.

The America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education program awarded the grant, which will be used to purchase new lab materials for the Eudora elementary, middle and high school, and to offer professional development for teachers. The program, sponsored by the Monsanto Fund, offers grants to implement Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics initiatives.

“We are excited to create learning environments that place a premium on the exploration, tinkering, designing and building inherent in the world of robotics, coding and programming,” said Superintendent of Eudora Schools, Steve Splichal, in a release. “We are proud to be a district that will use such environments to engage every learner, regardless of age, interest or ability.”

At Eudora Elementary, the third-grade science club will grow to include fourth and fifth grades, exposing students to STEM principles and encouraging creative exploration. Eudora Middle will expand its physical science course to include a robotics emphasis and create a new robotics club to teach STEM. Eudora High School will convert a large lab area into a makerspace, where students can use technology and engineering concepts to design and build projects.

The check for the grant was presented last week, an event attended by farmers who nominated the school district and representatives from the district and the Monsanto Fund.

In more news from Eudora schools:

The school district also received an educational starter kit from the Monsanto Company this year to help establish a pollinator garden. The garden will offer students firsthand knowledge of the critical role habitat plays in providing bees and butterflies with food, shelter and places to lay eggs.

A Eudora teacher was also named a semifinalist for the Teacher of the Year award. Kyle Stadalman, a fifth-grade teacher at Eudora Elementary School, was among six semi-finalists from Region 2, which covers the Second U.S. Congressional District. Another area semi-finalist was Kathy Harrell, an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Tonganoxie Middle School. From the Lawrence district, West Middle School teacher Lucinda M. Crenshaw was selected as a finalist.

The teachers were part of 104 educators across the state who were nominated for the Kansas Teacher of the Year distinction. Each of the semi-finalists received a red marble apple, compliments of The Master Teacher in Manhattan.