Help My Mokan School
Eligibility | Nominate | Nominated Schools | Past Winners | Contact Us
Lawson High School/Lawson School District RXIV
As the Lawson High School FRC Robotics coach, I have seen the Lawson School District’s commitment to further STEM education in our schools and STEM awareness within our community continually grow over the years. Soon after I started coaching the FRC Team in 2016, the school implemented a curriculum for a Robotics Class. Now an opportunity has arisen for us to take that commitment a step further. Our school district is starting a new program to foster engineering, technology, metalworking, and robotics skills in our students as a way to prepare them for an ever-changing future in which having these skills will be key to succeeding in the workplace.
While the commitment from our school district for this new and innovative program is strong, like many other districts we are limited due to budgetary challenges. The new program will be held in the space previously used by our woodworking classes. Most of the equipment has become out of date or non-functional over the past few years.
As our new program will revolve more around working with metal (designing and building robotics and other metalworking projects), we will need several pieces of new equipment, such as a metal lathe, mill, break, etc. We also plan on incorporating 3D printing to enhance this program. These improvements would not only help the Engineering Technology Program and the Robotics Team, but the school as a whole. This equipment will be available for use by other classes, teams, and clubs to further our student’s overall education or help with fundraising activities.
If we are awarded this grant, it will be used to update our current facilities as we focus on the needs of the new Engineering and Technology Curriculum. The classroom area will become a destination for our students and garner excitement from our community. It will be fitted with equipment that will not only benefit the Robotics Program but our entire school. With the area updated, we will expand the Robotics Program to include middle school course offerings to fit our student’s needs. The goal for this program is to provide much needed STEM and hands-on skills for our students now and long into the future, as well as to grow the program into a model for other area schools to follow. Thank you for considering our school for this life changing opportunity for our students and community.