Officials with the Monsanto Fund, Friday night, presented Atlantic Community School District officials with a ceremonial check for $25,000. The funds are from the “Grow Rural Education” program, that allows eligible farmers to nominate their local public school district for grants to help enhance STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education. Since 2011, the program has given over $9-million dollars to rural school districts.

Once nominated, school districts submit applications to compete for $10,000 or $25,000 grants to help fund projects that enhance their STEM curriculum. Schuler Principal James Northwick and 5^th Grade Teacher DeLana Harris applied for the grant, which will be used by the District to create a Science Lab for Schuler Elementary School.

Schuler Principal James Northwick and 5th Grade Teacher DeLana Harris receive a ceremonial version of a $25k check from Monsanto sales reps.

In general, the grants are used to help improve test scores, but more importantly, according to Monsanto officials, they’re getting kids to think bigger about their tomorrow. Other school area districts that were nominated and are receiving Grow Rural Education grant funds, include:

The Coon Rapids/Bayard Community School District: $10,000 for Equipment Allocation for Student Motivation, Innovation, and Experimentation;  And The Mt. Ayr Community School District: $10,000 for Science Investigation Using Virtual Reality (3D) Technology.