By John Tredrea, Special Writer
WEST AMWELL — West Amwell Elementary School has received $1,200 in grants from ExxonMobil for new science equipment, said Deborah Sarmir, principal.
”In September, three of our science teachers, Donna Blum, Larry Nemeth and Donna McKee, applied for grants from ExxonMobil.
”These dedicated teachers were seeking some outside funding that could be used to purchase some motivating new science equipment for their classrooms. It was their intention that the purchase of this equipment would help them to bring the new science curriculum alive for our students,” Ms. Sarmir said.
Recently the teachers learned that all three grant applications had been approved by ExxonMobil.
On Nov. 19, the school received the check from Jeff Morrison, of ExxonMobil.
This past summer, the three teachers who applied for the grants participated in the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy in New Orleans, Louisiana.
”As part of ExxonMobil’s partnership with West Amwell, by way of this grant, ExxonMobil is continuing to team with our teachers to help each of them implement key concepts from that Academy within our newly adopted science curriculum,” Ms. Sarmir said.
”A large part of this grant money is designated to purchase materials directly related to the Mickelson Academy. We are absolutely thrilled that ExxonMobil continues to support our school in this way,” Ms. Sarmir said.
THE MICKELSON ExxonMobil Teachers Academy is for third- through fifth-grade teachers only. They come from all over the United States.
According to its website, the “Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy is a cool summer camp just for teachers . . . Teachers do lots of fun math and science experiments to share . . . in the classroom. The experiments seem like games, but really they help everyone learn about math and science!
”The Academy was started by pro golfer Phil Mickelson and his wife, Amy. They worked with ExxonMobil to create a special learning environment for teachers.
”They are joined by math and science experts from the National Science Teachers Association and Math Solutions who teach the teachers at the Academy. They come up with fun ways to learn math and science while playing with balloons, rocket cars and marbles.”
