Chief Joseph Students Benefit From STEM Like ME! Classroom Grants

Two Chief Joseph Middle School teachers are using food-focused activities to inspire students when it comes to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.

Elizabeth Crider and Callie Graff each received $1,000 from the Dream Builder’s Education Foundation as part of its STEM Like ME! classroom grant program. The program supports pioneering educators wanting to enact their best ideas for providing students with rich and robust learning experiences. 

Thank you to Mid-Columbia STEM Network and Dream Builder’s Education Foundation for making these grants possible.

• Mrs. Graff, a science teacher, received funding to bring “Sub Zero Nitrogen Ice Cream” into her classroom. This unique lesson offers several science principles and reinforces them with experiments using liquid nitrogen, with students receiving ice cream as part of the activity.
   
• Mrs. Crider, the school’s Foods & Nutrition teacher received a grant that allowed the school to purchase blenders as part of a nutrition unit on how vitamins and minerals in food help the body. Student groups developed a recipe, investigated the vitamins present in their recipe, analyzed the cost of the ingredients and how much it would be to make a 16 oz. smoothie, and used persuasive techniques to write an advertisement.