Stith earns STEM grant

Avery Chick 
NLJ Intern
 
When James Stith was asked what grants he and his science department at Newcastle High School apply for, he said, “All of them.” For most of the grants that Stith has gotten credit for over his many years of teaching at NHS (there are a lot of them), he gives considerable credit to his coworkers Zachary Beam and Doug Scribner. The grant-writing process is rigorous and takes a lot of time, and Stith gives his coworkers a lot of credit for their help. 
In particular, the grant that Stith and his coworkers just received is one they have previously received. The Wyoming Department of Education states that recipients can only get the award seven years after the year they have been picked as winners. Stith and his team have now received the Education Department grant twice (the first one being in 2013). 
“That grant went toward expanding the science fair and providing the big printer upstairs,” Stith said of the first grant. 
The big printer is used often because it aids in making signs for everything from science fair boards to student section signs. The newest grant that the NHS science department has applied for  and received is the Wyoming Innovative Teaching Grant. This grant awarded Stith and his colleagues just shy of $50,000, which was spent on “an entire Makerspace, and a wee bit of training,” Beam said. Because they had a little bit of money left over, the science department also aided the NHS library with some equipment, which included Cricut machines. The Makerspace includes long tables, printers, shelving, electronics kits, lockers, a laser cutter, tools and what Stith described as “the stuff.” 
The science teachers soon plan on implementing what is known as a Makers Fair, similar to a science fair but more geared toward tools that are found in the Makerspace and focusing more on engineering and design. 
The grant itself was filled out in January of 2019 and included more than 20 pages of paperwork. It is very competitive, with schools from all across the state applying. The difference this year was that NHS showed that it would actually be able to follow through with the parameters given in the grant. The WDE wanted applicants that focused on computer science and skills in that realm, and NHS’ computer science class fit those requirements perfectly. Stith and his colleagues do an amazing job of providing for their school and community with their grant applications. Be on the lookout for more funding to the science department because of the hard work of James Stith, Zachary Beam and Doug Scribner.