Local Teacher Wins WGU Grant for Robotics Program

 On, Tuesday, May 9, Mrs. Lemmon received a Western Governors University (WGU) grant during Black Hawk’s monthly awards assembly. 

Mrs. Lemmon is a fourth-grade science and social studies teacher at Black Hawk Elementary. She plans on starting a fourth-grade robotics program next year for her students. She is hoping that this program will expand her students’ knowledge on robotics and give them more experience in the future. 

“As of right now, we don’t have one, so I have been trying to write different grants,” Mrs. Lemmon explained. 

Principal Betsy Parrish was the one who found the WGU grant online and she encouraged Mrs. Lemmon and Mrs. LaCount to check out the grant. Mrs. LaCount leads the fifth-grade robotics program, so the two teachers nominated each other for the WGU “Teacher’s Appreciation Grant.” 

Mrs. Lemmon was surprised that she won the grant, which will provide $5,000 worth of iPads to be used in the new fourth grade robotics program at the school. She is excited to start the new program for fourth graders and she thinks the program will open up more doors for the students in the future. 

“I think it will help with teamwork and all of the STEM and to pull all of those together,” Mrs. Lemmon said. 

When the program starts up, Mrs. Lemmon plans on teaching robotics in her classroom. Currently the school has some outdated robotics, so Mrs. Lemmon is hoping to upgrade to some new ones with other grants and donations she is receiving. 

“What I plan on getting is Dash bots so the iPads will control those,” Mrs. Lemmon explained.