SMARTer Kids Foundation Awards $80 Million
Jun 22, 2004 6:30 PM
The SMARTer Kids Foundation (www.smarterkids.org) announced that 5,509 grants worth more than U.S. $80 million have been awarded since October 2003. Available to all accredited, not-for-profit educational institutions, museums, libraries, and home schools in the United States and Canada, the grants reduce the price of SMART (www.smarttech.com) products by 20 to 70 percent of the suggested list price. Technology products, including SMART Board interactive white boards and software worth U.S. $671,000 were also given to the winners of the U.S. State Teachers of the Year competition this year through the foundation’s Teaching Excellence Award program.
The SMARTer Kids Foundation also runs several programs that promote awareness and learning through the use of technology in the classroom. The Connections program fosters sharing and understanding. Eight schools from Canada, the United States, and Mexico received two SMART Board 580 interactive white boards and will use the technology to collaborate on projects and communicate with each other until the classes complete grade six, in 2005.
The ImagiNations program is an international collaborative learning program for elementary/primary school students. It promotes cross-cultural experiences through the travels of a toy ambassador that collects information and memorabilia to share with students at each stop of his journey. More than 160 teachers and 4,000 students from Canada, the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom, England, Belgium, Singapore, Mexico, Qatar, and Brazil are participating in the program.
The SMARTer Kids Research program helps educators research the effects of technology on teaching and learning and publishes the results of these studies. This year the program has supported studies on gender roles and their impact on technology access during group work, the effect of using a SMART Board interactive white board as an assistive technology device to improve participation of students with disabilities and the impact of interactive computer-based simulations on students’ retention and conceptual understanding of physics.
“The SMARTer Kids Foundation’s goal is to provide opportunities for students and teachers to learn new skills and grow in self-confidence by placing technology, grants, and programs at their service,” says Nancy Knowlton, executive director of the SMARTer Kids Foundation. “As the foundation completes its third quarter of the current fiscal year, I am pleased to report that we are on track with achieving our objectives and will award more grants to deserving teachers and students than ever before.”
