FALLS CHURCH, Va. – Jan. 13, 2017 – From among the nearly 200 public middle schools nationwide that participated, the Northrop Grumman Foundation is pleased to announce the five winners in the second year of its Fab School Labs makeover contest. Each of the winning schools will receive a grant of up to $100,000 to help turn their current science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) facilities into state-of-the-art, fully-equipped STEM labs. The five winning schools are:
- Cottonwood Valley Charter School – Socorro, New Mexico
- Del Dios Academy of Arts and Sciences – Escondido, California
- Downtown College Prep Alum Rock Middle School – San Jose, California
- Harriet Tubman Village Charter School – San Diego, California
- UP Academy Leonard – Lawrence, Massachusetts
In addition to the top grant winners, the 20 remaining semifinalist schools will each receive a $2,000 grant they can use to help furnish their labs with supplies and equipment.
“Northrop Grumman congratulates each of our Fab School Labs winners, all of our participating schools, and all the STEM teachers across the country who work tirelessly every day to engage and inspire their students,” said Sandra Evers-Manly, vice president, global corporate responsibility, Northrop Grumman, and president of the Northrop Grumman Foundation. “We are excited to work with five more schools in helping them transform their STEM facilities as a means to engage more students to pursue careers in these ever-changing, demanding and dynamic fields.”
The Fab School Labs contest was designed to drive student interest in STEM by providing public middle school teachers and administrators the chance to create a dream STEM lab and giving students access to the latest learning tools and technologies that stimulate as well as teach. To help meet the technology-driven demands of our world, the Northrop Grumman Foundation’s Fab School Labs program is helping STEM labs become places of inspiration, imagination and opportunity for tomorrow’s innovators and inventors.
Announced earlier last year, the Fab School Labs contest invited teachers, principals and school administrators to submit videos, essays and photos to tell their school’s story and vision for a state-of-the-art STEM lab. Winners were selected from a field of 25 semifinalist schools, who were chosen based on existing classroom/lab resources, level of need, student impact, feasibility of upgrades and plans proposed, and how well each met contest eligibility and entry requirements.
To help determine the five winning schools, the Northrop Grumman Foundation enlisted the public via a five-day online voting campaign hosted on the Fab School Labs Facebook page. In addition to the public support received by each school, a final review of the 25 semifinalists was conducted by the Fab School Labs team with the help of the National Science Teachers Association.
Winning schools can now begin working with a professional STEM lab design team to plan and build a lab with all of the equipment, technology, tools, resources and furnishings they have long needed to keep students challenged, engaged, and learning at a competitive level.
The Northrop Grumman Foundation has been actively working with the contest’s previous winners over the past year - Benjamin Syms Middle School, Hampton, Virginia; Clifton Middle School, Monrovia, California; Aurora Frontier P-8, Aurora, Colorado; Lucille M. Brown Middle School, Richmond, Virginia; and Bertha Sadler Means Young Women’s Leadership Academy, Austin, Texas – to realize their dream STEM lab makeovers.
To learn more about the Fab School Labs contest, visit www.FabSchoolLabs.com.
About the Northrop Grumman Foundation –
Northrop Grumman and the Northrop Grumman Foundation are committed to expanding and enhancing the pipeline of diverse, talented STEM students globally. They provide funding to sustainable STEM programs that span from preschool to high school and through collegiate levels, with a major emphasis on middle school students and teachers. In 2016, Northrop Grumman and the Northrop Grumman Foundation continued outreach efforts by contributing more than $19 million to diverse STEM-related groups such as the Air Force Association (CyberPatriot), the REC Foundation (VEX Robotics), National Science Teachers Association, and the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering.
For more information, please visit www.northropgrumman.com/foundation.
