Centennial School Receives STEM Grant to Help Prepare Students for Careers

The Centennial School was awarded a $6,500 STEM grant from the Toshiba America Foundation, which allowed for the purchase of robotics kits.

Over the next 10 years, 70 percent of new jobs in Pennsylvania are expected to require that workers use computers and new technologies. It’s why Gov. Tom Wolf has been rolling out PAsmart, an initiative which focuses on education expansion in STEM and preparing students for the state’s future job market.

Following Wolf’s lead, Jessica Barberry, lead teacher, and Sara Heintzelman, technology integration specialist at Centennial School of Lehigh University, obtained a grant to pay for robotics kits to help the school adjust its curriculum and better prepare its students for the future.

Barberry, as the high school program’s 2018 Keystone Technology Innovator nominee, attended a technology summit last summer, where she met a teacher who used Lego EV3 Mindstorm robotics kits in the classroom. The educator gave a presentation on the implementation of the kits in schools, showing how something quite complex could be turned into something his students could use effectively, Barberry says. She wanted to bring that concept to Centennial School.