The Tennessee Valley Authority, in partnership with Bicentennial Volunteers Inc., a TVA retiree organization, is awarding, for the third year in a row, $1.5 million in awards to educators to develop science, technology, engineering, and math education projects across the Tennessee Valley region.
Three of those $5,000 grants are going to elementary schools in the Land of Logan—Auburn and Chandler’s in the Logan County School System and Stevenson Elementary School in the Russellville School District,
“Inspiring young people to pursue careers in STEM fields is so important,” said TVA President and CEO Don Moul. “A workforce with specialized skills means more economic opportunities for people across our seven-state region and more opportunities for our students to achieve high-paying jobs that will support their families and make their communities a better place to live when they grow up.”
The competitive STEM classroom award program is operated in partnership with the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network, managed by the Battelle organization. The program received 528 applications, and 339 were selected for funding. Since 2018, TVA/BVI has provided over $9 million in STEM grants supporting over 845,000 students.
These are the local projects earning the $5,000 TVA grants and a description of their goals:
Auburn Elementary School, Teacher Hannah Cron
This project provides 4th grade students a way to understand the principles of force and motion. By studying a soccer ball's motion, students connect abstract scientific ideas to the real world, as they consider why a soccer ball changes motion and direction and how knowledge of these forces can be used to be a better soccer player.
Chandler's School, Teacher Valerie Beard
This project is titled Renewable Tiny Homes and Wind Turbines for a BIG Tomorrow and will offer a hands-on learning experience for students in grades four through eight. The TVA focus areas will align with community problem solving, energy, and the environment. This project will focus on constructing model tiny homes equipped with solar panels to demonstrate renewable energy as a reliable power source. Each tiny home will be able to generate electricity for interior lighting and run a fan.
Additionally, students will assemble wind turbines from kits to demonstrate another form of renewable energy and to explore its role in promoting long-term sustainability. The wind turbines will be tested for energy output on a multimeter alongside the solar energy systems, allowing students to generate power from both wind and solar sources and compare their findings. These features will help students understand how sunlight and wind can serve as clean, renewable energy sources that can reduce environmental impact while providing sustainable power.
This project will allow them to measure how changes affect the transfer of wind into kinetic energy for the turbined blades and the conversion of sunlight into electricity. This process will guide students to identify objectives, analyze results, make modifications, test solutions and share results.
Students will participate in a Solar Village Exhibition Night where they will showcase their tiny home and wind turbine models explaining the building process and share information on how renewable energy reduces pollution and promotes environmental sustainability.
As an extension, the solar kits will be used in other projects including solar powered cars, solar ovens, and solar cell charging units. Students will compete in a Solar Grand Prix race with solar cars to explore energy transfer and measuring distance.
R.E. Stevenson Elementary Schoolm Teacher Cameron Kisselbaugh
This project will bring LEGO BricQ Prime into classrooms at R.E. Stevenson Elementary, a school where many students are English Learners and a large portion come from low-income households. For our students, access to engaging, hands-on STEM learning is critical for equity and for opening doors to future opportunities.
LEGO BricQ Prime allows students to explore physical science concepts such as force, motion, balance, and energy through collaborative building and testing activities that make abstract ideas concrete and accessible to all learners, regardless of language background.
Students will engage in structured projects such as designing and testing vehicles, building models that demonstrate Newton’s Laws, and creating mechanisms that solve real-world problems. These projects mirror the type of thinking and collaboration that drive high-demand career fields such as engineering, robotics, information technology, renewable energy, and advanced manufacturing.
By connecting STEM learning with problem-solving and innovation, students begin to see themselves as future scientists, engineers, and creators.