amercasfarmersmonsantoTHUMBSteele (CSi) Kidder County School District has received a $25,000 grant from America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education, sponsored by the Monsanto Fund. The district will use the money to enhance STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education through new digital measurement tools and robotics kits.

Students in grades five through 12 will use digital probes and sensors that connect to handheld devices for real-time data collection and analysis. For example, students will take soil samples from local farms to determine pH levels and discover its effect on crop growth. Additionally, robotics kits will allow students to hypothesize, design, construct and evaluate machines.

Science instructor, Ben Juelfs says, “With this grant, our students will have access to the newest technologies in STEM. This is a big deal for our rural community because agriculture is at the center of our economy and the latest advancements in the industry make STEM more important than ever. The lessons will tie directly into agriculture and other STEM careers to prepare our students for life after graduation. Thanks to the support of our local farmers and the Monsanto Fund, this grant allows our students to conduct hands-on experiments in the classroom, which increases their understanding and really brings the curriculum to life compared to reading it in a book.”

Farmers who nominated the school district and representatives from the school and the Monsanto Fund attended a check presentation to celebrate the grant between volleyball matches on Oct. 26.

This year the school district also received an educational starter kit from Monsanto Company to help establish a pollinator garden, which will give students first-hand knowledge of the critical role habitat plays in providing bees and butterflies with food, shelter and places to lay eggs.

Since 2011, Grow Rural Education has awarded more than $9 million to help keep rural public school districts growing. The program works with farmers to nominate public school districts to compete for math and science grants of $10,000 or $25,000. Grant applications are reviewed and finalists selected by a panel of teachers. Winning applications are chosen by an advisory council comprised of farmers from across the U.S.

Visit

www.GrowRuralEducation.com to see the full list of winners for this year. A sister program, America’s Farmers Grow Communities, is currently enrolling farmers for 2016. To sign up, visit www.GrowCommunities.com before Nov. 30.

These programs are part of the America’s Farmers initiative. The America’s Farmers campaign and programs have advocated on behalf of farmers and their efforts to meet society’s needs through agriculture. Today, consumers are more interested than ever in agriculture and how food is grown. Farmers and others in the industry are joining in on the conversation to help raise awareness about agriculture and share their stories with their communities. Learn more at cfiengage.org.