Category: Uncategorized

We are very excited to let everyone know that we have been granted charitable registration status this summer from the Canada Revenue Agency. This has opened the door for us to branch out and accept donations from individuals and business partners that will help us expand our grant program for elementary teachers.

Donors to STEM Camp Foundation will be able to be issued charitable donation receipts for income tax purposes. Our main thrust this coming school year will be to promote our charity status and hence increase STEM Grants that we will be able to give to teachers.

Please note that, due to limited funding, only one application is allowed from an elementary school either in the FALL or in the SPRING.

Welcome back for the 2023-2024 school year!

STEM Camp Foundation is now open and receiving grant applications from elementary teachers for STEM programs for the first half of your new school year.

Teachers from Kindergarten to Grade 8 are eligible to receive STEM grants for their school ranging from $100 to a maximum of $500 per school application. Our preference this coming school year will be to help elementary teachers who have not yet received grants for our organization.

We have worked hard to streamline our application process to make it easy for teachers to apply for grants. Once you begin the online process, you will notice that we do have a set of Project Guidelines for you to follow to let us know how our grant worked at your school.

SCF is delighted to be starting our fifth year of our STEM Grant program; and we look forward to receiving your application.

Bluewater DSB
Grant: Fall 2021

Teachers Mary Jack and Natalie Patrick applied for a $500 grant purchase shovels and block makers for their Grade 2 and Kindergarten classes at Georgian Bay K-12 school in Meaford, ON. The photo below is SCF Executive Director Ron Cougler, posing outside the new school with Vice-Principal Julie Phillips in May 2022, on a school visit.

The STEM project supported at GBCS was to provide tools to create towers and igloos out of snow. This sounded like a great technology and engineering project for seven year olds, and one that STEM Camp Foundation was very pleased  to support.  In Mary’s words, “students will need to plan ahead, monitor weather conditions, learn about the states of matter and how temperature affects precipitation.  They will need to study structures, materials and use math skills to make their igloo stable . The Grade 2 students will ‘pay it forward’ when they make an oral presentation to the Kindergarten class about “building igloos that last”.

Waterloo Region DSB
Grant: Fall 2021

Lexington PS was granted $500 to participate in a STEM challenge in the Spring of 2022 using Makerspace technology. Grade 6 teacher, Leah Carter, indicated in her application that “Students will work collaboratively in teams to learn STEM concepts and participate in weekly build and design challenges. Engineering tasks involve a hands-on problem-solving project that students will work on as a team, with a given amount of time and materials.” This grant involves students with open-ended creativity, development of critical thinking skills, and intellectual flexibility. It will instill confidence and a sense of accomplishment in the students.

Thames Valley DSB
Grant: Fall 2021

Grade 7 Teacher, Richard Dew at White Oaks PS in London, Ontario applied for a $500 grant to teach coding of robots with Microbits to his class. His goal was to “bring higher thinking challenges to students in their Math and Science classes.” The Microbits purchased will help him teach engineering of small-scale wind turbines. Students working below grade level will also be helped with their studies through the use of Snap Circuits. Their STEM grant will allow for cross-curricular, differentiated instruction, that will allow students to grapple with real world, hands-on, applications in STEM concepts such as coding, circuitry and renewable energy.

Here are some great photos sent to STEM Camp Foundation by Richard.

The STEM Camp Foundation would like to congratulate the following grant recipients:

St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary School; Collingwood; ON Grade 8; Learning Commons STEAM Innovation Lab; $500.00

Sir Isaac Brock Public School; London, ON; Grade 1; Brio Builder Creative Sets; $500.00

Oliver Stephens Public School; Woodstock; ON; Botley the Coding Robot; Kindergarten; $500.00

White Oaks Public School; London, ON; Grade 7; Micro:Bits & Snap Circuits; Grade 7; $500.00

Mary Wright Public School; Strathroy, ON; Sillbird Kits (Robotics); Grade 7; $500.00

South Perth Centennial Public School; St. Mary’s, ON; Osmo Class Learning System; Grade 2; $500.00

Tecumseh Public School; Chatham, ON; Micro:Bit Club Pack; Grade 7; $408.00

Echo Place Elementary School; Brantford, ON; Snap Electrical Circuits; Grade 6; $460.16

London Road Public School; London, ON; Doll Medical Kits & supplies; Kindergarten; $500.00

Sir Arthur Currie Public School; London, ON; Blue Bot Coding Supplies; Kindergarten; $500.00

Greenbrier School; Brantford, ON; Ozobot Technology; Grade 3; $500.00

Lexington Public School; Waterloo, ON; Makerspace Supplies; Grade 6; $500.00

Victoria Public School; London, ON; Carobot Class/Club Pack; Grade 7; $452.00

Cobblestone Public School; Paris, ON; Micro:Bit City Kits; Grade 5; $500.00

Georgian Bay Catholic School; Meaford, ON; Shovels/Block Makers; Grade 2; $500.00

Romeo Public School; Stratford; ON; Cody Rocky Kits; Grade 4; $500.00

Algonquin Public School; Woodstock, ON; Construction Materials; Grade 8; $500.00

Sir William Osler Public School; Dundas, ON; Micro:Bits/Climate Action Kit; Grade 7; $476.00

Algonquin Public School; Woodstock, ON; Medieval War Machines; Grade 8; $500

The STEM Camp Foundation is again accepting grant applications after a one-year hiatus due to the pandemic. We will be awarding grants to elementary school teachers from K-8 that have amazing STEM project ideas. The application deadline is November 19, 2021. Grants will be awarded in the range of $100 to $500 in December. 

Sample project ideas may include: 

STEM Clubs: Robotics Club, First Robotics team funding, Coding Club, Girls in STEM Club etc. 

STEM Awards: monetary award to students who excel, or show promise for a STEM career, or a special interest in STEM subjects. 

STEM Grants: for students who want to work on their own STEM Project and make a presentation to their class. 

STEM Contest: a cash prize(s) to student(s) for winning a school-wide STEM Contest. 

STEM Projects: funding for a student who has a creative STEM research project idea and needs financial support to buy materials. 

STEM Supplies: Purchase of STEM supplies such as robots that can be used by students in the classroom to enhance interest in the study of STEM topics.

Follow this link to apply for a grant.

Good luck!

The STEM Camp Foundation was pleased to receive the following report from STEM Camp Foundation Grant recipient and grade 6 teacher, Susan Miller.

White Oaks Public School was pleased to receive a Stem Camp Foundation grant that allowed us to purchase Microbits for our grade 6 classes to pursue STEM ideas for their Science Fair projects.  Microbits have lots of different functionality and an easy to code interface for novice programmers.  Our students started by learning how to code simple games like Rock, Paper, Scissors.  They quickly realised that they could explore all kinds of different functions such as creating a light meter to help ensure consistency in a science fair project investigating the effect of different coloured text on readability, using aluminum foil and alligator clips to create a timing gate to measure distance/time travelled by a toy car, and to create their own step counters using the accelerometer function.  The best part was exploring the radio function which allowed students to transmit information such as temperature from a nearby place without having to actually get cold!

Thank you so much to the Stem Camp Foundation for giving our students the chance to integrate and pursue their curiosity while learning about independent and dependent variables and how to create a fair test to compare their results.  With many of our students moving on to the Thames Valley and Regional Science Fair in March, this experience will certainly shape their curiosity and desire to extend their learning!

Presenting the award was Mr. Ron Cougler, Executive Director, STEM Camp Foundation.

The STEM Camp Foundation is pleased to be able to provide financial support to deserving students and to partner with Fanshawe College in encouraging excellence in education.