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By NOAH WORTHAM | Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – With 2024 complete, another local educator received grant funding to make their instructional dreams possible thanks to The ABCs of Computer Science K-12 Grant.

Each year in December, during Computer Science Week for Shelby County Schools, the grant is awarded to an educator who has applied for the funding to help with materials for computer science classroom instruction. The grant program is made possible thanks to a partnership between the Shelby County Schools Education Foundation and District Technology Coach Ashlee Elliott.

“There’s a huge need for the skills that come with learning computer science and whether (or not) students end up using those skills within a computer science field, they’re very transferable,” Elliott said. “I just really feel like these teachers are taking these creative outlets to engage students with this technology.”

The 2024 recipient of the grant was Jason Mayfield of Columbiana Middle School who received $500 to assist with implementing a drone program into his classroom instruction.

Mayfield pitched a program entitled, “Entering the Drone of Proximal Development” which aims to teach students how to utilize the Python coding language to program and operate a drone.

“This project is an extension of Python coding lessons that students have already been learning,” Mayfield said in his application. “It helps bridge the gap between the simple coding demands of elementary school and the demands of AP programming in high school.”

The 2023 recipient of the annual grant was Olivia Carroll from Helena Middle School who was awarded $500 for a program utilizing Dash robots.

Each year, educators apply for the grant through an application process that opens in November before the funds are ultimately awarded during Shelby County Schools Computer Science Week in December.

“It’s a pretty simple application process but they do have to explain the connection to the device they’re applying for or what they want to purchase,” Elliott said. “They have to connect it to computer science… This year, we had a total of nine grant applicants, and they were all very impressive applications.”

Funding for the grants is made possible due to the partnership between the Shelby County Schools Education Foundation and proceeds from the sales of Elliott’s book, “The ABCs of Computer Science” which released in 2023.

“That book wouldn’t have been possible without Shelby County Schools because my illustrator came from this school system,” Elliott said.

Now, with the 2024 grant awarded, Mayfield can work on implementing the new educational program at Columbiana Middle School and other educators can look forward to applying for the grant which will be awarded in December 2025.

“It’s just really exciting for me to see teachers out there doing (lessons in technology) because we know that the workforce, no matter what job (or) career path that they take, wherever their life leads them after the K-12 years, these skills are going to be a part of some facet of their job.”