Roane County’s Midway Middle School awarded UCOR grant

TEN MILE, Tenn. (WVLT) - Roane County’s Midway Middle School will soon have some new technology after earning a $1,000 STEM mini-grant from UCOR.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math.

The grant will be used to purchase cubelet robots, cube-shaped robots that will be the third type the students will have access to. The middle school already has two other types of robots for students to use in its growing STEM program, but this will help these teens learn more coding and programming.

“I’m very excited because I can expand my knowledge on coding and just learn more about how different machinery works,” said RJ Creswell, a seventh grade student.

On Wednesday, students in one science class had to use cube robots with straws and tape move three different cups into one central area.

Programming and coding can be tough for some students. “It definitely challenges my mind a little bit because I don’t know what I’m doing half the time. So I’m just going with the flow and just trying to figure out what’s going to work best,” explained Annie Moser, an eighth grader.

But teacher Katie McKee knows these challenges go far in the long run. “We’re a really small school, but they work really hard and I just want to give them every opportunity that maybe larger schools have,” said McKee.

UCOR donated $30,000 worth of mini-grants to East Tennessee Schools for STEM. See below for a list of all the schools who earned some money.

Anderson County (2)

• Ligia Boundy, Clinton Middle School, Math Learning with IXL
• Sue Byrd, with Sally Suttle, Grand Oaks Elementary School, No Child Left Inside

Blount County (6)

• Mark Anderson, Porter Elementary School, Panther STEM Lab
• Jeff Coggin, with MSgt. Rob Davis, Heritage High School, AFJROTC Model Rocketry
• Joel Jackson, with Misti Heath, Montvale Elementary School, Building Our Understanding of Forces and Motion
• Renee Powell, Lanier Elementary School, Elementary Coding and Robotics, Break the Cycle
• Shane Rewis, Heritage High School, Vernier Products
• Cassie Williams, Porter Elementary School, STEM: Launching Student Leaders

Campbell County (2)

• Angie Baird, White Oak Elementary School, Full “STEAM” AHEAD
• Tiffany Logsdon, Wynn Habersham Elementary, Classroom Environment – Fostering Creativity and Collaboration

Knox County (6)

• Jami Aylor, Bearden High School, The Functions of Management with Legos
• Timothy Cathcart, Bearden High School, Smart Home System
• Timothy Cathcart, with student Kevin Bridges, Bearden High School, Battery Backups
• Fran Julien, Stanford Eisenberg Knoxville Jewish Day School, The Science Behind a Coffee Shop
• Katie Lusk, Stanford Eisenberg Knoxville Jewish Day School, Kindergarten Kreates – Makerspace
• Miriam Esther Wilhelm, Stanford Eisenberg Knoxville Jewish Day School, STEAM Out Hunger

Loudon County (1)

• Stefanie Crawford, North Middle School, The Physics of Archery

Maryville City Schools (1)

• Andrew Hebert, Maryville Junior High School, VEX V5

Morgan County (8)

• Margie Branstetter, Petros Joyner School, Float It, Sink It!
• Molly Carroll, with Kim Neskaug and Dr. Rachael Rudnitzki Peery, Central Elementary School, Adventures in Coding
• Kelli Harvey, with Melissa Poland, Petros Joyner Elementary School, Gardening 101
• Lisa Hooks, Central Middle School, Closing the Gap
• Amy Jones, Sunbright Middle School, Engineering with STEM
• Erin Miller, Oakdale School, BioBlitz
• Susanne Pemberton, Coalfield School, Ozobots to Develop Computational Thinking
• Melissa Poland, Petros Joyner School, Let’s Put Our Learning in Motion!

Oak Ridge City Schools (1)

• Lisa Buckner, Linden Elementary School, Forging Ahead with Making and a Glowforge

Oneida Special School District (2)

• Donna Tompkins, Oneida Elementary School, May the Force Be with You
• Gretchen Stephens, Oneida Middle School, Green & Clean

Roane County (6)

• Pete Goepfert, Midtown Education Center, RCS Solar Racers
• Taylor Griffith, Bowers Elementary School, Building Success
• Katie McKee, with Kevin Clinton, Midway Middle School, Problem Solving and Persistence – Coding with Cubelets
• Amy Haney, Oliver Springs High School, Micro: Bit Robotics
• April Plemons, Calvary Baptist School, Biology Science Fair
• Sarah Rose, Kingston Elementary School, Collaborative Technology Center

Scott County (2)

• Michelle Massengale, with Anita Harness, Fairview Elementary School, Growing Young Einsteins
• Joy Perry, Huntsville Middle School, 5 For 5

Union County (3)

• Aileen Beeler, with Hayley Sexton, Kaitlin Suffridge, and Matthew Edwards, Union County High School, Time and the Elements
• Paula Deaver, Horace Maynard Middle School, All Things Small
• Sarah Maness, Horace Maynard Middle School, STEM for ALL

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