Wentzville Teachers Awarded ABLE Grants

The St. Charles County Alliance for Business, Learning, and Education (ABLE) and the Mid Rivers Tech Prep Consortium have announced that three initiatives will receive grants through the ABLE Mini-Grants for Schools Program.

Community Helpers, created by Kindergarten Teacher Sarah Teague, and Challenger Space Center, a program created by Science Teacher Michele Cherry will each receive a $400 grant from ABLE. Measures of Center and Real World, a program created by Math Teacher Constance Hallemeier, will receive a $500 grant.

At the high school level, Hallemeier said the grant money will be used to purchase netbooks for her Consumer Math students to utilize in the classroom to investigate how different career choices and education levels lead to different incomes.

According to Cherry, students in her seventh grade science classes will utilize the grant money for a hands-on field trip to the Challenger Space Center in Ferguson, MO.

“Astronomy is a large part of the 7th grade science curriculum, which focuses on the interactions of objects in space, Newton’s three Laws of Motion, technology, and technological developments,” said Cherry. “This experience will enhance all of those areas in a concrete manner, which is vital to understanding.” 

Teague’s Community Helpers program helps even our youngest students learn about various career options. 

“We spend a lot of time teaching our students about different career paths, how our community would not function properly without our community helpers, and how many things we can learn from parents in our own classroom,” said Teague. “This grant will purchase us a set of 10 career costumes as well as a book series all about community helpers. This will allow our students to extend their learning on these careers as well as use their imagination when wearing the costumes.”

ABLE is a school and business partnership that exists to support participating schools and programs in order to empower and prepare students for future success. ABLE has partnered with Mid Rivers Tech Prep Consortium to offer the mini-grants for teachers and schools that have enrichment programs that focus on career development, career exploration, and/or career readiness skills.