The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), in partnership with Bicentennial Volunteers Incorporated (a TVA retiree organization), recently awarded three schools in the Duck River Electric Membership Corporation (DREMC) service area grants totaling $11,000 for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education projects and school projects heavily focused on career and community enrichment. These schools include Coffee County Central High School and Hickerson Elementary School in Manchester and Forrest High School in Chapel Hill.

“The TVA grant program is popular and competitive with more than 240 grant applications submitted to TVA this year,” says DREMC Interim President and CEO Charles McDonald. “We are pleased that these three schools in our area were selected as recipients of the funding and will be able to further student education.”

The 2019 grants are awarded as part of $580,000 in competitive STEM grants awarded, which are awarded to 161 schools across TVA’s seven-state service territory.

Across the valley, educators submitted projects large and small to further their STEM and educational initiatives in the classroom.

Coffee County Central High School plans to use the $1,000 grant to purchase new storage cabinets, utensils and commercial-grade cookware among other needed items for their CDC class according to Lisa James and Erin Dobson, work-based learning coordinators, who teach students life skills and train them for future jobs.

Hickerson Elementary School will apply their $5,000 grant toward construction of a 40 x 60-foot greenhouse on school property to teach students how to grow and care for vegetables and other plants. Plans also include hydroponic gardening. According to Principal Jimmy Anderson, vegetables harvested in the greenhouse will be served to students in the cafeteria, bringing the experience full circle for the students.

Forrest High School also received a $5,000 grant, which they will apply toward the school’s Forrest Goes Green: Investigating Alternative Energy initiative. According to the school’s biology teacher, Laura Carter, this will include purchasing inquiry-based STEM activity sets from Carolina Biological Supply from which students will begin investigations of renewable energy through experimentation and demonstration. Students will learn in detail about geothermal energy, hydroelectric power, biofuel engineering, solar design, wind turbines and hydroponic gardening.

“The grant program provides teachers an opportunity to apply for funding up to $5,000, and preference was given to grant applications that explore TVA’s primary areas of focus: environment, energy, economic and career development and community problem solving,” says Rachel Crickmar, TVA’s community relations program manager. “Schools receiving grant funding must receive power from a TVA distributor like DREMC.”

“The goal of the program was to help further STEM education across the valley,” adds Crickmar. “Now we’re looking forward to seeing the impact these projects have.”

A full list of the grant recipients can be found at HYPERLINK “http://www.tvastem.com” www.tvastem.com.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is a corporate agency of the United States that provides electricity for business customers and local power companies serving nearly 10 million people in parts of seven southeastern states. TVA receives no taxpayer funding, deriving virtually all of its revenues from sales of electricity. In addition to operating and investing its revenues in its electric system, TVA provides flood control, navigation and land management for the Tennessee River system and assists local power companies and state and local governments with economic development and job creation.

Duck River Electric Membership Corporation, a Touchstone Energy® cooperative, is a not-for-profit, member-owned organization providing electric and other services to over 76,000 homes and businesses in southern Middle Tennessee. DREMC serves an area of approximately 2,500 square miles in Bedford, Coffee, Franklin, Giles, Grundy, Hickman, Lawrence, Lewis, Lincoln, Marion, Marshall, Maury, Moore, Rutherford, and Williamson counties in southern Middle Tennessee.