We have awarded our final $500 EdTech grant of the year (and of the decade!), closing out 2019 with over $5,000 worth of EdTech contributions to schools and teachers around the country! For the month of December, we’ve awarded our grant to Ellen Peterson, a STEM and technology teacher at the Smithfield Middle School in Smithfield, VA. Ellen’s was one of the first applications we received when the December application window opened and, as we typically are, we were very impressed with the creative intentions she has for her new technology! Keep reading to learn more about Ellen, the project she has in mind, and what STEM tools she’ll be receiving from us. 


Ellen has been teaching at Smithfield Middle School since 2014 and took on a new role as a STEM teacher at the beginning of the 2018 school year. She works with anywhere from 150-180 middle school students each semester and helps them learn how to go from consumers of digital content to producers of it. She learned quickly that her students—like her—want their learning experiences to be relevant and she has worked hard to make sure this is always possible. Among those experiences have been programming robots, learning through VR, and more, but now she wants her students to program video games, which is what led her to apply for our grant.



When she applied for the grant, Ellen detailed a very interesting project that she had in mind should she be selected. She requested a set of Bloxels kits from us upon being selected and, in collaboration with one of the school’s history teachers, Ellen and her students will be programming their own video games as they travel through history! Using the Bloxels platform, Ellen sees her students programming video games as different groups are assigned to be Allies or Axis powers from World War II. Depending on which side they’re on, students will be challenged to include relevant elements in their games using Bloxels.


With the Bloxels kits, Ellen plans on challenging her students to use their design and technology skills to create different levels that represent various historical battles. While students will also be able to fine tune their programming skills, the ultimate goal of this project is to teach them more about World War II in an engaging way. Taking things a step further, Ellen is also going to have her students design their own cases for the devices that they’ll display their video games on. She’ll be introducing them to the concept of propaganda that was used in these times and students will have to design a case that displays headlines and examples of propaganda—another extremely creative idea!



Throughout the length of this project, Ellen is going to be able to capitalize on something students love (video games) and use it to teach them some of the most important skills by having them collaborate with each other to show what they’ve learned. As of now, Ellen is planning on having her students use Bloxels to create the icons for their games and sees the hands-on elements of this technology as highly beneficial for them. Knowing that game design is a very promising STEM career these days, she hopes it might even inspire some students to develop the skills needed to become a game developer!


Most importantly, Ellen wants to use this opportunity to inspire her students to get creative with technology and show them how to use it to be creators rather than just consumers. With Bloxels, her students will be able to think critically about the steps in the problem-solving process and get to learn the important pieces of history in a unique way! We love Ellen’s commitment to integrating technology in all subject areas and are excited to be able to provide her with the Bloxels kits so she can do just that. To learn more about our EdTech grant program and to apply for January’s award, visit the grant section of our website and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram as well!