Ten local schools are sharing grants totaling more than $4,600 from the Snohomish County Public Utility District to pursue projects in energy conservation, solar energy and water quality. The grants also are aimed at encouraging students to consider future career in science, technology, math and engineering.
The grants range from $256 to $500 and will be used for elementary- and middle-school classroom projects and activities. They include additions to a butterfly garden at Snohomish’s Emerson Elementary School and a project to build small cars powered by solar energy at Discovery Elementary School in the Mukilteo School District.
The money for the grants, which total $4,654, comes from the PUD’s education program.
The PUD has been awarding grants to local schools for such projects for more than a decade, as schools are being asked to put more emphasis on science, technology, math and engineering topics, said Jenni Lamarca, the PUD’s public education programs coordinator.
“It’s exciting for us to get kids thinking about the possibility of energy careers,” she said.
A fifth-grade class at Highland Elementary School in Lake Stevens will be studying energy systems and energy transfers, Lamarca said. The students will create a video to explain it to other students.
Teacher Rebecca Fuentes said in an outline of the project that it will be a great way for students to learn about what energy is, what it does and how it can be used more efficiently.
Arlington’s Kent Prairie Elementary School and Marysville’s Sunnyside Elementary School will both be pursuing projects involving electrical circuits and how energy is transformed into light or sound, Lamarca said.
Everett’s Cedar Wood Elementary School will be creating an electronic library of books on the topic of energy and learn how to research energy-related topics.
More than 80 students from Voyager Middle School will use the grant to travel to the PUD’s Jackson Hydroelectric facility on the Sultan River. The trip includes talks with PUD biologists.
Northshore’s Shelton View Elementary School students will be able to learn more about energy concepts, including circuits, machines and renewable energy.
That project also hopes to inspire more students to participate in the school’s annual spring science fair.
The project at Emerson Elementary School in Snohomish involves learning about solar energy by adding 32 solar lights to the butterfly lab, Lamarca said. They’ll also experiment to see if plants close to the solar light grow at different rates than those that are not as close, she said.
Students at Snohomish’s Seattle Hill Elementary School will be learning about the salmon’s life cycle, raising salmon from the egg stage until release in a local stream. The salmon fry twill be raised in a classroom aquarium.
And as many as 135 students from Hillcrest Elementary School in Lake Stevens will be making a field trip to the Adopt a Stream Foundation in Everett.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
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