Press release, 2018 February 23

For immediate release Feb. 23, 2018

Office of Communications (404) 651-7774

Deal announces Innovation Fund Tiny Grant award winners

Gov. Nathan Deal today announced six award winners for the Innovation Fund Tiny Grant program, a competitive grant opportunity that provides funding to traditional public schools, charter schools and school districts to implement small-scale programs that directly engage students.
"The Innovation Fund Tiny Grant connects educators with additional resources to implement innovative initiatives to improve student achievement," said Deal. "These grant proposals address critical areas in today's educational environment and provide a foundation for educators to develop new strategies. I congratulate each of the award winners and I look forward to seeing the impact each Tiny Grant will have on the futures of students in Georgia."
Programs funded by Tiny Grants must align with one of three priority areas: applied learning with a focus on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) education, development and replication of blended learning school models, and birth-to-age-eight language and literacy development.
Grantees will evaluate the impact of the programs on student engagement and achievement and submit their findings to the Governor's Office of Student Achievement at the end of the grant period.

The grant award winners and respective programs are listed below.
Applied Learning with a Focus on STEAM Education
Woodland Middle School Bartow County School District Engaging and Achieving Through Maker Lab
Statesboro High School Bulloch County Schools Using Virtual Reality to Teach Blueprint Reading & Design
Metter High School Candler County School District Metter High School Algebra I Graphic Design Logo Project
Paulding County School District STEAM Resource and Development Innovation Lab
Birth-To-Age-Eight Language and Literacy Development
Esther Jackson Elementary School Fulton County Schools Project SOAR

Furlow Charter School Sumter County Schools Bilingual Book Project
Descriptions of the winning proposals are attached.
About the Innovation Fund The Innovation Fund invests in public education entities that develop and scale programs that enable Georgia educators to improve student performance and tackle our state's most significant education challenges. In 2011, the Innovation Fund began as a $19.4 million grant competition created under Georgia's Race to the Top (RT3) Plan. To continue the Innovation Fund's work beyond RT3, Deal appropriated state funding for Fiscal Years 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Since its inception, the Innovation Fund has invested more than $36 million of state and federal funding through grants to school districts, charter schools, postsecondary institutions and nonprofit organizations to pilot innovative education programs, ranging in focus from teacher and leader induction and development to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) applied learning, blended learning and birth-to-age-eight language and literacy development. More information about the Innovation Fund is available on the GOSA website.
Jen Talaber Ryan jen.ryan@georgia.gov
John Vaughan john.vaughan@georgia.gov

INNOVATION FUND TINY GRANT AWARD WINNERS JANUARY 2018

School District School Project Name Priority Area Amount Funded
Description of Project

Bartow County School District Woodland Middle School Engaging and Achieving Through Maker Lab Applied Learning with a Focus on STEAM Education $6,947.34
Woodland Middle School (WMS) will partner with Georgia Highlands College, Georgia Power, and others to create a science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) maker lab. The maker lab will provide students with hands-on STEAM activities to increase student achievement and student engagement.

School District School Project Name Priority Area Amount Funded
Description of Project

Bulloch County Schools Statesboro High School Using Virtual Reality to Teach Blueprint Reading & Design Applied Learning with a Focus on STEAM Education $5,700.00
Statesboro High School will purchase SketchUp Viewers to help construction students develop skills in blueprint design. Students will design blueprints and use the viewers to see designs in 3D allowing them to make precise changes to strengthen their final designs.

School District School Project Name Priority Area Amount Funded
Description of Project

Candler County School District Metter High School Metter High School Algebra I Graphic Design Logo Project Applied Learning with a Focus on STEAM Education $6,982.26
Metter High School (MHS) students enrolled in Algebra I will create logo designs using TI-Inspire CX graphing calculators. Students will collaborate with graphic design community partners to develop a logo, create functions to match lines of art rendering, print the design, and explore careers with logo digitizing and stitching. This project will increase students' their understanding of linear, exponential, and quadratic functions.

School District School Project Name Priority Area Amount Funded
Description of Project

Fulton County Schools Esther Jackson Elementary School Project SOAR Birth to Age Eight Language and Literacy Development $7,000.00
Esther Jackson Elementary school will implement Project SOAR, an eightweek summer program designed to bridge the gap between school and home. Each Wednesday during the summer program, teachers will work with prekindergarten through third grade students on literacy strategies designed to combat the summer slide. The school will also leverage community relationships to provide resources, such as books and literacy activities, to parents to work with their children at home.

School District Project Name Priority Area Amount Funded
Description of Project

Paulding County Schools STEAM Resource and Development Innovation Lab Applied Learning with a Focus on STEAM Education $7,000.00
Paulding County School District (PCSD) will create a STEAM Resource and Developmental Innovation Lab for teachers to check out resources and equipment to implement STEAM lessons. The district will use tiny grant funds to purchase STEAM supplies to build an inventory of activities that could impact all students in PCSD.

School District School Project Name Priority Area Amount Funded
Description of Project

Sumter County Schools Furlow Charter School Bilingual Book Project Birth to Age Eight Language and Literacy Development $5,000.00
The Bilingual Book Project at Furlow Charter School will use code-switching pedagogy to increase kindergarten through third grade English, French, and Spanish proficiency. The school will create a bilingual book library, which is an audio library narrated by students, as well as a lab in which students can create, narrate, and publish their own bilingual books.