The Battelle National Biodefense Institute (BNBI) and Frederick County Public Schools yesterday announced the recipients of $50,000 in teacher challenge grants for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.

Representatives from BNBI and FCPS went to six schools to surprise nine teachers with the news that their STEM proposals had been selected as winners. This year’s challenge grants ranged from $4,624-$14,012.

“We’re deeply appreciative of the support from BNBI,” FCPS Interim Superintendent Dr. Mike Markoe said. “These grants will benefit projects for students who have shown significant interest in STEM activities, many of whom will go on to focus on careers in STEM fields.

The six winning proposals came from the following schools:

• Crestwood Middle School – Science Olympiad
• Liberty Elementary School – Science Exploration for our youngest learners
• Lincoln Elementary School – Panther STEM Lab
• New Midway and Woodsboro Elementary Schools – Lion Labs Learning Tubs
• Sabillasville Environmental Charter – STEAMING into the Environment
• Urbana High School – Robotics Team Machining and Advanced Programming

“We had such a good time going out to the schools yesterday and telling the teachers in front of their students that their proposals had been selected and that they had won,” said BNBI President, Dr. George Korch. “After two-years it’s really nice to get back into the schools to meet the teachers in their classrooms where they are thoughtfully and creatively teaching STEM.”

The FCPS/BNBI STEM partnership was established in 2009 with the long-term goal of getting more students interested in and better prepared to major in math, the hard sciences or engineering in college. Since its inception BNBI has directly gifted $583,000 to FCPS, and BNBI staff has committed thousands of hours of time to assisting curricula development, classroom instruction and STEM activities outside the classroom.

The Battelle National Biodefense Institute, LLC is a nonprofit Maryland company. BNBI is a wholly owned subsidiary of Battelle. Since 2006 BNBI has operated and managed the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, located on Fort Detrick, for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate as a federally funded research and development center.

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