By David Meade
During the monthly Board meeting Tuesday, Anderson School District One was presented a $25,000 check from Bosch to be used in a program designed to encourage students to pursue subjects like science and engineering. Randy Bunch, Director of Human Resources and Continuous Improvement Process at Bosch of Anderson, presented the check which will be used for the purchase of STEM kits.
“The need to encourage students to pursue key subjects like Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) is tremendously important right now,” Bunch told the Board.
The STEM kits are made available by the Society of Automotive Engineers’ “A World in Motion (AWIM) and will be made available to every fifth-grade classroom in District One.
Bunch said STEM education is not only critical to the continued success of Anderson and to businesses like Bosch, but is also important for the nation’s ability to compete.
The grant is part of the Bosch Community Fund (BCF) which awards up to $3 million annually in grants to non-profit organizations and educational institutions.
“The BCF seeks opportunities in the US that encourage the next generation of talented young men and women to pursue STEM education and sustainability initiatives,” Bunch told the Board.
“At Bosch we say that all Bosch products are “Invented for Life.” For more than 125 years Bosch has demonstrated its commitment to produce products that help protect the environment and enhance the quality of life for those who use them.”
Bunch said, “Bosch strongly believes in the importance of investing in the future of our communities. The Bosch Community Fund enables sites like Anderson to work within our respective communities to promote STEM education and environmental sustainability.”
Anderson School District One is the first in the Anderson community to be honored with the grant. Similar grants will also be presented to each of the five school districts, Bunch said.
The grant will also provide AWIM fuel cell kits for the Palmetto High School physics class, he said.
The AWIM program is benchmarked to national standards and incorporates the laws of physics, motion, flight and electronics into age appropriate hands-on activities that reinforce classroom STEM curriculum, according to Bunch.
“Both of these important modules provide students the opportunity to work together, to design and test their own theories with an actual product, and to present their findings in an attempt to sell their product to a manufacturer,” Bunch said. “AWIM kits make learning fun, memorable and often times, life changing.”
District One Superintendent David Havird and Board Chairman Fred Alexander accepted the Bosch Community Fund check presented by Bunch.
