O&R to Award $1,000 Each To 50 Outstanding Classroom Stem Projects
Calling all teachers who strive for that “Oh, Wow!” moment in their classrooms. You know who you are.
You are the enthusiastic, hard-working, talented creators of thoughtful, ambitious, interesting, ingenious, sparkling lessons that dazzle. You are the teachers who challenge their students to think, plan, act and achieve --- and have fun doing it.
Here’s the chance you’ve been waiting for to actually implement that outside-the-box classroom STEM project you’ve long dreamed of --- that project that engages, entertains and inspires as well as educates, guides and trains.
Orange and Rockland Utilities (O&R) is awarding grants totaling $50,000 to support nothing but the best classroom projects and teacher professional-development initiatives. Those outstanding proposals should ride the cutting edge, focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Past winning proposal topics have ranged from drone crop monitoring and robotic competitions, to hydroponics and 3-D printed solar vehicle construction.
Get your proposals ready because the competitive application process is now open. Click the link to view a video about the program.
O&R will make 50 STEM Classroom Grants of up to $1,000 each to educators at schools (pre-kindergarten through grade 12) and youth group leaders for the 2020-2021 school year in communities located within O&R’s service area. That encompasses: Rockland and parts of Orange and Sullivan counties in New York, and parts of Bergen, Passaic and Sussex counties in New Jersey.
What’s eligible?
We want the best. Creative classroom projects designed to improve, advance and enrich student learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics will be considered. Grants will be awarded based on a review by the O&R STEM Education Advisory Council, a panel of educators and engineers assembled by O&R expressly for this process.
Resources requested should be integral components of a well-planned classroom project/lesson plan and important to its success. O&R seeks educational proposals that range from formative ideas that explore learning concepts to fully tested models that are ready to be adopted and disseminated. Ideally, the successful proposal would focus on the study of electricity and electricity production, natural gas exploration, renewables, and clean energy.
The STEM Classroom Grants Program application can be found online at https://www.oru.com/en/community-affairs/teachers-students.
The application must be received by O&R no later than 5 p.m. on March 31, 2020. The grants will be awarded in May.
Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (O&R), a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc., one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies, is a regulated utility. O&R provides electric service to approximately 300,000 customers in southeastern New York State (where its franchise name is Orange & Rockland) and northern New Jersey (where it’s Rockland Electric Company) and natural gas service to approximately 130,000 customers in New York.