The Mississippi Power Education Foundation has awarded 15 grants totaling more than $58,000 to schools and educational programs in southeast Mississippi. The grants are for educational projects with the potential to affect significant numbers of individual students or improve the quality of education over a wide area.

The grants range from a continuing collaboration between the University of Southern Mississippi and Petal Elementary School on a multisensory approach to reading to a GED preparation program for disadvantaged students in the Greene County School District.

“The goal of the grants by the Mississippi Power Education Foundation is to challenge educators to improve the quality of instruction throughout our schools and to improve the educational environment of our communities,” said Huntly Biggs the foundation’s executive director. “The programs that these grants support will help our schools produce students who can make real contributions to society.”

The Mississippi Power Education Foundation was set up in 1984 by Mississippi Power Company to support excellence in education. In the past 14 years, the Foundation has awarded nearly $2 million in grants in support of education in southeast Mississippi.

Mississippi Power Education Foundation Grants - June 1998

1. Collins Middle School - a grant for Geography Games which will use national football schedules and maps to learn cities, time zones and geographical concepts.

2. Collins Middle School - a grant for program called “Dear Mom and Dad” in which students write letters home as if they are soldiers at Valley Forge in 1777.

3. Forest Elementary - a grant for a program called “Attitude Attaché” which provides teachers and parents aids to teach positive attitudes to children.

4. Gardiner Junior High School - Laurel - a grant for “Integrating Geography Across the Curriculum,” which will train sixth grade teachers in Laurel to integrate geography with other subjects.

5. Greene County High School - a grant for “Special Education Curriculum Enhancement” to help special education students to prepare for and take the GED exam.

6. Greene County Alternative Learning Program - a grant in support of GED preparation for at-risk students in grades 9-12.

7. Harrison County School District - a grant to implement an elementary music program in Harrison County schools.

8. Howard II Elementary - Biloxi - a grant for an environmental summer camp during which students will participate in science activities and district teachers will receive training.

9. The Interaction Factory - Hattiesburg - a grant to fund 10 hands-on exhibits for students visiting the museum.

10. Oak Grove Attendance Center - a grant to create a professional library for gifted teachers in Lamar County.

11. Oak Grove Upper Elementary - a grant to create a resource center in the school that would be used to introduce students to research methodology.

12. Pass Christian Elementary - a grant to purchase a micro-slide system to enhance science instruction.

13. South Jones Junior/Senior High School - Jones County - a grant for teaching history through multimedia, role playing, the Internet and historic literature.

14. Thames Elementary School - Hattiesburg - a grant for “Over in the Meadow” a project that involves students in math, language arts and science while creating and tending a meadow and bird sanctuary.

15. The University of Southern Mississippi & Petal Elementary - a grant to fund “A Multisensory Approach to Reading in Lower Elementary Classes,” an extension of a pilot program currently in its second year with lower elementary students.