District gets grant on tablets for pupils
Mineral Springs to focus on STEM
Most pupils in kindergarten through fifth grade in the Mineral Springs School District will be receiving Apple iPads.
Southwestern Electric Power Co. presented a $30,000 check Thursday on behalf of the AEP Foundation to Mineral Springs Superintendent Thelma Forte to fund the purchase of the iPads in the southwest Arkansas school district.
“Through this award, a significant portion of the district’s 415 students will have access to an iPad for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education and soft skills development,” Forte said.
She said that the district has embraced STEM education.
“This approach will prepare our students to be critical thinkers and fierce competitors in the job market,” she said, adding that “iPads are essential to the success of this initiative. Teachers and students will utilize applications on the iPads to conduct research, work in cooperative learning groups and present projects.”
A partnership with Southern Arkansas University’s STEM Center will allow pupils to use the iPads to communicate directly with professors and student teachers through cloud-based software.
“Students will create projects, share their work with professors and student teachers, and they will use the feedback to improve their project,” Forte said.
Jennifer Harland, the company’s external affairs manager, said that “one of the foundation’s focus areas is improving early childhood education with an emphasis in the areas of STEM. These funds will be used to do exactly that.”
When students return in August, they will get an iPad. Teachers will be given MacBook laptops, iPads, and Apple TVs.
Forte said her district is implementing instructional tools that are identified in the new state High Reliability Schools initiative.
She said the Apple products will enhance educational experiences “to prepare our students for post-secondary education and workplace readiness.”
The district is working with all of its teachers to provide them with training that will lead to Apple teacher certification to reach the goal of becoming a national Apple certified school.
The AEP Foundation is funded by American Electric Power and its utility operating units, including Southwestern Electric.
The foundation focuses on improving lives through education from early childhood through higher education in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It is also interested in helping meet basic needs for emergency shelter, affordable housing and the elimination of hunger. Other foundation funds aim to protect the environment; support health care and safety; and enrich life through art, music and cultural heritage.