Purpose
The EPSD Education Foundation teacher Innovator Grant program offers teachers the opportunity to bring STEAM-Powered innovation to their East Penn classrooms. Through this program, the Foundation has the ability to enrich, extend, and deepen the educational experiences of East Penn School District students with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM), the five pillars of critical thinking, creativity, innovation, and problem-solving.
Application Process
The East Penn Education Foundation will provide seventeen Innovator Grants for the 2023-2024 school year. The grants will be distributed to the school of each recipient to be spent by the successful applicant on the designated project.
For the 2023-2024 grant program, the following criteria will be used:
The applicant must be a teacher or group of teachers employed by the East Penn School District.
Projects must be innovative and have a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, or Math) focus. Projects that focus on project-based learning, creativity, and hands-on learning are encouraged.
The successful applicant will provide a project completion summary report of the success of the project by May 31, 2024.
The deadline for applications is October 2, 2023.
procedures and considerations
All applications must be submitted by the lead teacher with permission of his/her school principal.
Project funds must be spent by May 26, 2023. Unspent funds must be returned to the Foundation..
A final expense report and summary report about how the project helped your students must be submitted to the Foundation via the Foundation website on or before May 30, 2024.
Periodic site visits may be conducted for the purpose of video and photography only.
The East Penn Education Foundation reserves the right to publicize all grant programs.
Funds cannot be used toward personal honorariums.
Each teacher may submit only one proposal as lead educator; however, a teacher is not prohibited from being a co-applicant for a proposal submitted by a larger group of teachers.
A blind review of your proposal will be conducted by a committee appointed by the Foundation.
Items purchased with grant funds become the property of East Penn School District. As the foundation seeks to invest in The East Penn School District community, applicants are encouraged to purchase from and use as many local resources as possible.
Please complete the application and submit the application by attaching a PDF document by email to the program committee: epsdedfoundation@gmail.com.
BEFORE SUBMITTING, PLEASE BE SURE TO CHANGE THE FILE NAME TO THE PROJECT TITLE OF YOUR GRANT AND ENTER GRANT IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR EMAIL.
The Grant Application purposely does not include the identification of the applicant so that Grant Readers can assess all grants objectively. Please do not put your name or the name of your school on this page or in the text of the grant request. That information is on the Title Page. Expand the spaces indicated below as necessary. Please read all directions.
$500 Winner Kathleen Farrell from Macungie Elementary School will use the grant to lead students in the “Exploration of Fish in the Kindergarten Classroom.”