Mississippi Power Education Foundation recently approved grants of more than $66,000 to sixteen schools and school districts in southeast Mississippi. The Pass Christian School District received a grant of $16,500 to establish a professional development pilot program – Project Think Tank. Project Think Tank will provide intensive training for teachers of writing in grades 4 and 7. The school district has previously been involved in the curriculum development stage of Project Think Tank. Bay Catholic Elementary School was awarded $2,370 to invest in an Ultra Vision Student Publishing Package of software. The software will increase the options and efficiency of students working on the school’s yearbook. Gulfport High School has received $1,437 for Control Freaks, a program to teach ninth grade students how sensors are used to detect and manage changes in the environment. The students will construct working models of real life control systems.

A grant of $17,500 will help fund the first year of Courage to Teach Program for Teachers and Administrators in Public Education at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville. The program, which will benefit teachers in six county school districts, takes an approach to teacher formation that is based on the belief that good teaching flows from the identity and integrity of the teacher.

Two grants went to schools in the Forrest County School District. A grant of $1,662 went to Dixie Attendance Center for Let’s Shape Up with Math. The project will help students in the 4th grade learn geometry through hand-on math manipulatives.

South Forrest Attendance Center’s kindergarten was awarded $474 for From Caterpillar to Butterfly. The funds will be used for a set of books, a butterfly nursery and materials for a butterfly garden. Oak Grove Middle School in Lamar County was awarded $1,085 to help fund Research with a Point, Power Point that Is. The program is geared to teach students in grades 6, 7, and 8 the basics of research and give them the tools to create multimedia slide presentations for proficient oral presentations.

The library at Hattiesburg High School will benefit from a grant of $3,000 that will help fund Information Power – Spanning the Globe. The project will provide software, hardware and conversion services to link the library catalog and selected resources to the Internet for easy access at school and at home.

F. B. Woodley Elementary School in Hattiesburg was awarded a grant of $1,100 for a second grade project, Discovering Our State, Our Country, and Our World! Using desk-maps, students will explore their capitol, rivers, state borders, hometown and surrounding cities.

A grant of $1,545 will be used at N.R. Burger Middle School in Hattiesburg for materials that comprise a multi-cultural sampler for exploring the contexts of foreign languages. Students will be encouraged to gain an understanding of the elements of foreign cultures that exist in their own hometown.

Collins Elementary will use a grant of $296 to create A Fun and Exciting Math Center for first graders. The grant will enable the classroom teacher to expand the math books and manipulatives available for the students’ use.

South Jones High School received a grant of $1,250 to help fund An Irish Pot of Gold. An Irish Pot of Gold uses research, storytelling, mythology and the art of Claymation to aid high school students in the study of Irish history and culture.

W.L. Smith Elementary in Petal will use a grant of $1,858 for a project that relates math measurements to the real world. Get Real with Math will involve students in grades 3, 4 and 5 in hands on measurement related to real world situations. They will work with the concepts of length, weight, capacity, time and temperature.

A Phoenix Literacy Project will be funded at George County Middle School with a grant of $2,000. The project will work to instill a love of reading in students who might otherwise drop out of school. This intervention is designed to encourage such students to stay in school by expanding their academic abilities.

Two Meridian Schools were awarded grants by the Foundation. St. Patrick School received a grant of $4,435 for partial funding of an Internet computer lab for the school. The grant, along with other funding sources, will be used for hardware and software purchases to upgrade the school’s present computer facilities and make it Internet ready.

Poplar Springs Elementary was granted $10,550 for a professional development program, Building Exemplary Writers, Readers & Thinkers. Teachers in grades K-5 will participate in professional development in the areas of writing, reading and thinking processes. They will then extend their development to other teachers in the district. Since 1984, through its foundations,

Mississippi Power Company has supported excellence in education in southeast Mississippi. During the past 17 years, the foundations have awarded approximately $2.5 million in grants to teachers, schools, school systems and other education projects.