Classroom Best Practice  |  

STEM Grants and Funding Resources!

Aug 16, 2017

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

It’s the beginning of the school year, and rumor has it you’ve been thinking about tinkering and designing some interesting computer science lessons and activities for your students. And now you’re thinking about how to integrate computer science into the school day. There are so many models that we’ve seen:

  • Some of you are finding great success with creating and implementing after-school robotics and coding clubs for your students.
  • Others are focusing on creating library media center makerspaces. These centers are infusing researched-based learning experiences into recreated spaces. Makerspaces often focus on the WHY for computer science and introduce students to interesting STEM career choices.
  • Some of you have expanded your learning opportunities with dedicated tech center STEM labs for grade levels PreK-4, 6-8, and 9-12.
  • Some of you have expanded your learning opportunities with dedicated tech center STEM labs for grade levels PreK-4, 6-8, and 9-12.
  • And others are focusing on a schoolwide, district approach to integrate computational thinking into each and every classroom.

It’s great to see this interest, the engagement, and the access that you’re providing for your students! But … do you find yourself not having enough STEM learning tools and resources to adequately meet the diverse learning demands and needs of ALL your students?

Teachers are jumping for joy and telling us how excited they are for the new educational solutions bundling of Dash and Dot, their accessories, and our new curricular resources. We didn’t want to leave you wanting, so we’ve pulled together some very creative funding resource solutions for you!

We have pulled together the best of the best computer science grants and funding resources nationwide! These grant opportunities have a target audience of K-12 classrooms — and better yet, impacting student and teacher learning through STEM and computational thinking are the primary focus.

Take a look and see how straightforward it is to write a computer science grant to fund your next classroom robotics initiative. Or tackle a larger grant as a school or districtwide effort with your creative teaching team for a chance to supply each and every classroom with computer science program solutions.

Master List of STEM Grants and Funding Resources


11 New Grants for STEM and EdTech Grants

Adopt A Classroom — Classroom Funding

See how Wonder Workshop works with Adopt A Classroom to bring you a 30% discount in this blog article.

Academic Enrichment Grants

Captain Planet Foundation

Character Lab

Class Wish — Classroom Funding

Edutopia’s List

Digital Wish — Classroom Funding

DiscoverE Collaboration Grants

Donors Choose — Classroom Funding

Read this blog article to learn how Wonder Workshop will fund 10% of qualifying Donors Choose projects.

Foundation for Rural Service Grants

Frey Scientific Grants

Funding Your Tech Dream

Get Ed Funding

Grant Alerts

Grants For Teachers

Grant Watch

K-12 STEM Activity Fund

K12 Grant Opportunities

KaBoom Grants

Lily Sarah Grace Art Grants

Lowe’s Toolbox

Meemic $500 Grants

National PTA Stem Grants

National Science Teacher Foundation Grants

NEA Foundation Grants

Pledge Cents — Classroom Funding

PITSCO Education Grants

Scholastic and Dash and Dot Robot Creative Funding Opportunity

New! Dash & Dot are now offered in 2017–2018 Scholastic Dollars™ Catalog.

Science Educations Funders

STEM Equity Grants

Stemfinity Grants

STEM Classroom Grants

STEM, STEAM, and Makerspace Grants

STEM Grants for Teachers

Target Teacher Grants

Teachers Choice Program

Teachers Count Grants

Teacher (Middle School) Professional Development Grants

Teacher (High School) Professional Development Grants

Walmart Foundation Grants

We Are Teachers Contests

Favor — Please take this 9 question survey to help us better understand how your are introducing your classrooms and your schools to Dash & Dot!

Wonder League Robotics Competition FAQ | Year 8

Hello, robotics enthusiasts! If you’re here, you’re probably as excited as we are about the 8th Annual Wonder League Robotics Competition! To help you and your teams have the best possible experience competing this year, we wanted to share answers to some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

Who Can Compete:

Any kid, anywhere in the world, ages 6-8 (Innovator Cup) and 9-12 (Pioneer Cup). There are two age brackets: 6-8 and 9-12 and team members have to fall within the age category at some point during the competition. Participants must be the qualifying age for their bracket on the last day of the competition, but if they gain a year during the competition, that’s OK. They won’t age out! 

Competition Brackets:

  • Innovator Cup (Age 6-8)
  • Pioneer Cup (Age 9-12)

What Makes a Team:

A team is made up of a supervising adult coach, and one or more children (up to 5). That’s right, kids can compete solo, but a coach who is 18+ is needed to help with the submission process. For multi-kid teams, each member must be in the same age bracket. Coaches may have multiple teams and can register all their teams after registering as a coach. Please keep in mind that each team will need a separate Class Connect registration.

Note: Younger students may participate in the 9-12 age category, but please be aware that the missions have been designed with older students and advanced coding skills in mind.

What a Team Needs to Compete:

Class Connect subscription

The team is made up of a supervising adult coach and one to five members

  1. Compatible device
  2. 5′ x 8′ mat of 30cm squares and basic prototyping materials
  3. Teams in 6-8 & 9-12 age brackets will need a Dash robot
  4. Internet access to download and upload materials

Teams will need one Dash robot: https://store.makewonder.com/products/dash

Check Device Compatibility here: https://www.makewonder.com/compatibility

We will be offering a mat image that you are welcome to use and print with your local printer, but teams are absolutely encouraged to make their own if they prefer. For more on how to make your own mat, check out this blog post.

Coaches will, of course, need internet access to download the apps and keep up with the competition as it progresses, and may want to print out some kid-facing materials that we will provide at each stage.

Class Connect Subscription:

To register for the 8th Wonder League Robotics Competition requires a subscription to Class Connect, providing additional resources like standards-aligned content assignable right inside a student’s Blockly app. Learn more about Class Connect here.

If you already have a Class Connect subscription, you have access to register a team, based on your student license amount. If you have more than one team of 5 students, you will need to purchase another Coach Success Pack or consider a larger subscription to accommodate more teams and students.

  1. A Coach Success Pack provides:
    Participation in the WLRC for up to 5 students
    Access to all Missions
    Full access to Class Connect, (including Math Activities and Dash’s Neighborhood), for 5 students and 1 teacher for 7 months
    A discount code for a Dash robot from our online store at https://store.makewonder.com

Please note: Teams will need a physical Dash robot to complete the Missions.
The Coaches’ Dashboard in Class Connect will help our coaches register and manage their team(s). The dashboard will be your one-stop shop for all Wonder League Robotics Competition management. You will be able to access the Coaches’ Corner–where all competition-related content and resources will be hosted–the Heartbeat community forum, and all the submission forms right there on the Dashboard.

Accessing Missions for the Innovator Cup and Pioneer Cup:

Once your purchase is completed for Class Connect, you will receive an email to activate your Class Connect license.

Once this license is activated, you will be able to register yourself as a coach and register your teams. This is done on your portal page under the Robotics Competition tab.

Once your team/teams are registered, you will get an additional email from CoAssemble, our partner hosting the missions this year. This email will state you have been registered for the “2022-2023 Coaches Corner Course”.

Click on the link to be redirected to the CoAssemble website, and you will see the course and can access the Coaches’ Corner Guide as well as the Missions (available November 3, 2022).

Still having trouble accessing all the resources in the Coaches’ Corner? If you have previously had a license to Class Connect and registered as a coach, and have not seen Coaches’ Corner added to your CoAssemble list of courses, please email us at support@makewonder.com, and we will provide assistance.

Last Year’s Missions:

Taking a peek at last year’s missions might help you get a sense of what the competition is like. Just sign in with your Class Connect subscription and register as a coach to take a peek at the previous years by going to the Coaches’ Corner and selecting the desired year.

2022-23 Wonder League Robotics Competition Milestone Dates:

Here are important milestone dates to keep in mind as coaches develop timelines for teams competing in the 2022-23 Wonder League Robotics Competition.

 

  1. October 21, 2022: Student Team Registration Opens
  2. November 3, 2022: Round One Opens + Five Mission Released
  3. January 13, 2023: Student Team Registration Closes
  4. January 27, 2023: Mission Evidence Submission Closes 
  5. January 28-March 5, 2023: Invitational Round Notification 
  6. February 6, 2023: Invitational Round Opens + Final Mission Released
  7. March 24, 2023: Invitational Round Submission Due 
  8. April 10, 2023: People’s Choice Voting Opens 
  9. April 21, 2023: People’s Choice Voting Closes 
  10. May 4, 2023: 2022-23 Wonder League Robotics Competition Winner Announcement

NEW Award Category: WLRC People’s Choice Award

Teams may opt in to participate in the WLRC People’s Choice Award category by creating a :30 second video explaining the Team’s Invitational Round Final Mission solution that will be shared with the community at www.makewonder.com/classroom/robotics-competition/ in an “online crowd vote” competition. The WLRC People’s Choice Award allows teams to share and celebrate their work in the WLRC and encourage community support in voting for their team. This is an optional category for teams to enter and will not impact scoring of the Invitational Round submission as they will be judged by STEM and Coding experts using a published rubric.

Children’s Privacy:

We take our participants’ privacy very seriously and comply with COPPA when collecting any information. In the invitational round we ask only for the students’ first names, and request parents’ permission. For those that make it into the Invitational Round, we ask for full names, again with permission. We are never marketing, selling to, or corresponding with children. All contact is through the proxy of the coach.