GLASGOW — Glasgow Independent Schools was awarded a grant from the Tennessee Valley Robotics Fund for $4,468 to help further robotics programs across the district from the elementary to high school level. The grant was awarded on Monday.
The Tennessee Valley Robotics Fund is a nonprofit organization founded in 2017 by Dr. Richard Manning, a retired electrical engineer who now works as an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, and Charley Spencer, a retired engineer for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) who now works to help implement robotics to schools all across the Tennessee Valley region.
This grant was made available to Glasgow Independent Schools through a new initiative from TVA in partnership with Tennessee Valley Robotics to offer funding opportunities for robotics programs in schools served by TVA-powered Local Power Companies like the Glasgow Electric Plant Board, according to a news release from the Glasgow EPB.
J.R. Dakin, an engineering teacher at Glasgow High, shared with representatives of the Glasgow EPB and TVA how this new funding has helped offer GHS students the opportunity to build a robotic machine and compete in an upcoming state-wide competition.
“The students are working with a program called VEX robotics where they have a theme and challenge for the competition and they have to build and program a robot that can accomplish that challenge,” he said.
Moving down from the high school level, Regina Murphy, Supervisor of Federal Programs & Student Support initiatives for Glasgow Independent Schools, mentioned how this funding will also be supporting robotics initiatives at the middle school and elementary levels.
“We have a robotics curriculum that is actually made with legos. So we start that at the elementary level and build as students make their way through school,” said Murphy.
Dave Puskala, superintendent of the Glasgow EPB, was excited to see the innovative ways Glasgow Independent Schools are working with robotics and thankful to have funding opportunities like this available through TVA.
“It is always interesting to see what our local schools are doing to prepare kids for the world when it comes to advancements in technology. We were very excited when Jana Sublett with TVA contacted us regarding the robotics grant opportunity and glad that students at Glasgow Independent Schools get to benefit from the grant partnership between TVA and Tennessee Valley Robotics.”
