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Reyes Studies Environmental Design
STEM Grant Aims to Grow Environmentally-Conscious Students at Reyes Elementary
Posted on 12/08/2016
This is the image for the news article titled STEM Grant Aims to Grow Environmentally-Conscious Students at Reyes ElementaryFrom reducing resources to design of wildlife corridors, Congressman Silvestre & Carolina Reyes Elementary School will integrate environmental science and engineering (ESE) into 24 classrooms through a TSTEM initiative with support from a $27,000 grant from The Boeing Company. The project aims to build capacity of students in becoming conservators of the environment to improve their and others' lives.

The emphasis for the 2016-17 project will be on implementation of environmental science and engineering curriculum and will provide professional development for teachers at Reyes Elementary. ETA Hand2Mind was developed through a collaboration of faculty from Purdue University and Texas A&M. The grant is a result of the partnership between the staff and faculty of the UTEP College of Education and Canutillo ISD.

Dr. Debra Kerney, Principal of Reyes Elementary, believes Reyes is the ideal site for implementing high quality, ESE curriculum in each classroom.

“We continue to build on our vision and mission to become a STEM focused school,” Kerney said. “Reyes is LEED [Leadership, Energy, Environmental, Design]-certified and was built to be resource efficient, high performing, healthy, and cost-effective.”

The overarching goal of the ongoing and proposed project is to broaden student and teacher participation in STEM by increasing awareness, interest, and competency in environmental science and engineering, or simply environmental education [EE]. The objectives to meet this goal are to 1) implement environmental education curriculum in each of the 24 classrooms at Reyes Elementary; 2) increase the number of Reyes students who demonstrate evidence of becoming environmental conservators; and 3) evaluate the project to determine gains in teacher knowledge and student interest.

This is the second STEM collaborative between UTEP, Boeing and Canutillo ISD. Last year, Reyes Elementary received $50,000 from The Boeing Company for the Engineering is Elementary (EiE) curriculum developed by the Boston Museum of Science.