TULSA – Three FFA chapters in southwest Oklahoma will receive $8,937 in STEM After-School grants from the American Electric Power Foundation.
The AEP Foundation is the charitable arm of American Electric Power, parent company of Tulsa-based electric provider Public Service Co. of Oklahoma (PSO). The grant program is made possible through a partnership between PSO and the Oklahoma FFA Foundation.
Since 2018 the AEP Foundation and PSO have awarded grants totaling more than $123,000 to state FFA chapters, to fund a wide range of programs and activities that help advance agricultural education, foster innovation and inspire success, said Stan Whiteford. In 2020 the AEP Foundation announced a $200,000 grant to fund the program for another five years, said Whiteford, PSO’s region communications manager.
This year’s grant recipients include FFA chapters in Boone-Apache, Burns Flat, and Temple.
“These grants will help students learn technical and critical thinking skills that can help fuel innovation and set them on a rewarding career path,” said Tiffini Jackson, PSO vice president – external affairs
“Many of our chapters are limited to learning about technology via the internet and what they see on a screen,” said Jacey Fye, Oklahoma FFA Foundation executive director. “These grants will give chapters the opportunity to have technology at their fingertips. Having equipment in their programs – and sharing among programs – will allow students hands-on learning with real life technology being used in the agricultural industry.”
• Temple’s FFA chapter received two AEP Foundation STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) grants.
A $2,000 grant will provide students with an opportunity to learn about electrical wiring, “a trade that needs a lot of workers,” the chapter wrote in its application. The grant will provide scenarios and a curriculum to learn. The grant proceeds will be used to purchase tools that students will need, including an electrical wiring kit and scenario cards from Realityworks, a company which provides comprehensive learning solutions that pair curriculum with hands-on learning aids, student activities and assessment tools.
A $2,500 grant will “continue and expand our raised flower bed/garden to have vegetables and flowers that we can either sell and or give to the community,” the chapter wrote. “This is a small project we started this year to give students time during and after school to learn more about horticulture while trying to beautify our school. The funds will be used to buy more materials to build the flower beds, landscaping materials, plants, soil, and everything needed to make this project as big as we possibly can.”
• The Boone-Apache FFA’s STEM grant will be used “to better serve our local agriculturalists by providing data through the use of drone technology,” the chapter wrote in its application.
The initial project with a new drone will be “to provide landowners with an estimate of area coverage and water consumption by invasive eastern red cedar trees,” the chapter explained. “In the first year of the project we have set a goal to provide this data on red cedars to four landowners. We will then expand to eight the following year.”
Proceeds from the grant will be used to purchase a DJI Mavic 2 Zoom with a “smart controller” as well as an extra accessories kit and larger storage card, the students said. The estimated cost of the project is $2,200. The $2,000 STEM grant will be supplemented with funds from the FFA chapter.
• The Burns Flat FFA chapter received a $2,437 STEM grant.
“The goal is to be able to offer another venue for students to get involved in the agriculture program, as well as open for more students to join the FFA to learn about more advanced technology,” the chapter wrote in its grant application.
The scope of the project will be to serve 70 students in the Burns Flat-Dill City Agriculture Program with the intention of broadening the scope to cover in upwards of 100 students in the Burns Flat-Dill City Secondary School system, the students said.
The funds will be used to purchase two 3-dimensional printers as well as two replacement filament packages containing five different colors of filament. “These printers will be used during the school day during Agriculture Education classes and will be available for use after school for those students who would like to gain knowledge of the new technology.”
Students will be able to learn about graphic design, blueprints, and different forms of livestock, then use the printers to build a smaller scale model for visual, hands-on education, the application relates.
PSO, a unit of AEP, serves more than 562,000 customer accounts in 232 cities and towns in eastern and southwestern Oklahoma. The utility serves at least 37 communities in southwest Oklahoma, including Lawton, Altus, Duncan, Cache, Elgin, Fletcher, Porter Hill, Hobart and Rush Springs.
FFA is an integral part of the Agricultural Education division of the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education system. With more than 27,000 members and 360 chapters, the Oklahoma FFA Association is the fourth-largest state FFA association in the nation.