The Fremont #1 Technology Office has been very fortunate to receive nearly a quarter of a million dollars in grant funding from the Wyoming Department of Education over the last five years.
The WDE distributes funds from a state general fund revenue annually as innovative program grants, with the purpose of creating innovative educational opportunities related to computational thinking and computer science for public school students at all levels. This is a competitive grant awarding $250,000 annually to up to five school districts, with a maximum of $50,000 per awardee.
You can learn more at https://edu.wyoming.gov/for-district-leadership/grants/innovative-education/
Here's a summary of grant projects for each year:
2024-2025 award: "Integrating Computer Science and Al" $49.950 awarded
This proposal empowers Fremont County SD #1 to complete an ambitious set of goals that will strengthen and broaden our use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and computer literacy concepts within our district. Provide funding to grow the 6-12 Robotics Club. Continued Tech Club and Lego Club activities for grades 4-5. Continued preschool and set up a dedicated space at Pathfinder HS for setup and equi
(WDE did not offer the grant program during the 2023-2024 school year)
2022-2023 award: "Ambitions Upward @ Fremont #1" $49.980 awarded
Provide pilot funding for a grade 6-12 Robotics Club and set up a dedicated space at Pathfinder HS for setup and equipment. Continued Tech Club activities for grades 2-3, added a Lego Club for grade 1, added Tech Club pilot activities for grades 4-5
2021-2022 award: “Forward Together: Authentic Integration of Computer Science” $49,980 awarded.
Strengthen the bonds between computer science/computational thinking and their district curriculum. Fremont #1 will build the capacity for teachers to integrate these skills into the curriculum. Establish Fremont #1 as a leader in providing quality content on Wyoming OER. Provider K-5 students with innovative , diverse, and engaging opportunities that will strengthen their application of computational thinking, design modeling, and computer science. Provide local preschool providers with age appropriate resources for Pre-K Children.
2020-2021 award: “Building Excellence for STEM Students and Teachers” $49,950 awarded.
Fremont #1 has a goal to enable their teacher’s capabilities to understand and incorporate computer science, analytical reasoning, and computational thinking. They will accomplish this through a targeted approach to professional development opportunities. They will align their resources with Wyoming state standards and internal computer science curriculum standards. Another goal in Fremont #1 is to increase the participation and engagement for PreK-8 students by offering a diverse menu of activities focused on strengthening computational thinking, creativity, STEM concepts, and analytical thinking skills.
2019-2020 award: "Reaching Forward with Computer Science" $49,995 awarded
This year focused on two goals. The first goal is to update and modernize their existing technology professional development with deeply-embedded computational thinking and problem-solving strategies. The second goal is to increase participation and engagement for PreK-5 students with activities both at school and at home. This grant will help create a focused, in-depth professional development course that will empower teachers to comfortably integrate computational thinking and computer science skills into their existing units of study.
2018-2019 award: "Fremont1 @Coder" $49,940 awarded
Expand opportunities in Computer Science to preschool through eighth grade students in the district by creating a modern K-8 computer science and computational thinking curriculum to be implemented district-wide and developing resources kits for community preschools to teach introductory computer science and STEM skills. The target populations for this program was: after school program participants, tech club participants, and all K-8th grade students. The goal for this program was to reach at least 75% of Fremont #1 students in either computer science and coding or computational thinking during the 2018-2019 school year.