Today, Frederick County Public Schools announced the recipients of $34,000 in teacher mini-grants for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education from the Battelle National Biodefense Institute (BNBI).

“These STEM mini-grant opportunities allow teachers to respond to specific needs in their classrooms by making a simple request for up to $750 to purchase materials for STEM related classroom instruction, experiences or extracurricular clubs,” said BNBI President, Dr. Nick Bergman.

A few examples of purchases made with mini-grants are:

• Oakdale High School – A Kastle-Meyer presumptive blood test kit for students to learn how blood is identified from other substances, and to determine if the blood is human.
• Walkersville Elementary School – The Bee-Bot Hive, a coding robot kit, designed to help students develop an understanding of computer science.
• Monocacy Middle School – Materials to create a greenhouse gardening experience with a focus on sustainable agriculture and opportunities for students to use STEM to solve real world problems.

“It is very important that we expand opportunities for our students to participate in STEAM experiences and we appreciate BNBI helping us in that regard,” said FCPS Superintendent Dr. Cheryl L. Dyson. “It’s wonderful that all 2022-23 mini-grant requests were funded!”

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, science or engineering in college. Since its inception BNBI has directly gifted $617,000 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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