Foundation Awards $18,000 in Robotics Grants
October 17, 2018: At the Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday, October 16, 2018, the Lexington One Educational Foundation recognized the award winners of two major grants programs, one of which was the Foundation’s Robotics Grants. The Foundation awarded Robotics Grants to nine schools this year that totaled $18,000.
Educational Foundation chair, Simeon Bryant, presented the awards and stated, “Recently our Foundation board members learned about the amazing things happening in our district through some of the school Robotics teams. In an effort to provide some seed money to all of our schools, the board allocated $18,000 to robotics teams for the 2018-2019 school year.”
Soon after grant approval, the Foundation’s Executive Director, Julie Anderson Washburn, sent out a request for proposals to all Lexington School District One schools. A Foundation Committee of robotics team experts selected the winning schools. Fortunately, all schools that applied for Robotics Grant funds did receive full or partial funding.
Congratulations to the 2018-2019 Robotics Grant award winners:
- Forts Pond Elementary – Teacher Sponsor Helen “Lizzy” Siceloff & Principal Michelle Smith
- Gilbert Middle – Teacher Sponsor David Chestnut & Principal Benji Ricard
- Pelion Middle – Teacher Sponsor John Leneschmidt “Mr. L” & Principal Ms. Kailanya Brailey
- Pleasant Hill Middle Teacher Sponsor Lori Lambert & Principal Dr. Thomas Rivers Jr.
- Lexington Middle – Teacher Sponsors Ben Godfrey, Lois Byars and Ivey Homer & Principal Gloria Nester
- White Knoll Middle – Teacher Sponsor Alan Lominick & Principal Guy Smith
- River Bluff High – Teacher Sponsors Shirley Waldy and Westley Crocker & Principal, Dr. Luke Clamp
- White Knoll High – Teacher Sponsor Cory Summerall & Principal Edward “Ted” Daughtrey
- Lexington Technology Center/Lexington High – Teacher Sponsor, Dr. Brian Little & Director, Bryce Myers & Principal Melissa Rawl
Our elementary and all but one middle school will compete in First LEGO League competitions. White Knoll Middle and our three high school teams – LTC/Lexington, River Bluff and White Knoll – will compete in VEX Competitions.
Students participating in the robotics teams learn about collaboration, teamwork, public speaking, engineering design process, computational thinking, range of motion, simple machines and much more – all of which are valuable skills to future employers.
Hopefully the Educational Foundation’s investment will result in some great robotics competitions and terrific real-world experiences for the students participating on these schools’ robotics teams.
