In May, the ARRL Executive Committee reviewed grant applications for the ARRL's Education & Technology Program (ETP), awarding nearly $14,000 to nine schools. More than 300 schools across the country have received support from the ETP in the form of grants for equipment, curriculum and resources, as well as teacher in-service training through the Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology. The Executive Committee reviews applications for equipment and resource grants twice each year, in December and May.

The following schools recently received ETP grants:

Hamburg High School, Hamburg, New York: The lead teacher for this program is a recent graduate of the ARRL Teachers Institute and has some experience with practically applying ham radio in her classroom.

Pioneer High School, Yorkshire, New York: The program articulated in the grant application has an EmComm theme and is an extension of an existing program.

Pell City High School, Pell City, Alabama: The lead teachers for this program were participants in this summer's Teachers Institute. The program articulated in the grant application was thought to be aggressive and far reaching, and is supported by the local ham community, as well as by long term financial commitments on the part of the State and local governments.

Washington Technical Middle School, St Paul, Minnesota: The lead teacher for this program attended the Teachers Institute this summer. The program in the grant application is supported by the local ham community, including a retired Vice Director, Twila Greenheck, N0JPH. The school has already started on their program development by obtaining and using the Solder 101 24-hour Clock Kit that is part of the ETP resource portfolio.

Glenn Raymond School, Watseka, Illinois: The program suggested in this application is more broad and general, and suggests using ham radio as a support to other curricular areas. The Executive Committee felt this was a healthy approach to the use of ham radio and indicates a well thought out use of ham radio as a resource.

Sayreville Memorial High School, Parlin, New Jersey: This application articulates a program that is based on setting up a ham radio station in the school that is part of an EmComm component of the school's county Office of Emergency Management.

The following schools received Progress Grants:

Egg Harbor Township High School, Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey: The lead teacher for this program has taken a different approach to making the connection between the science of radio and robotics fundamentals by focusing on basic electronics. He requested the parts and pieces to make a robotic arm resource for use in his class.

Emanuel County Institute, Twin City, Georgia: The lead teacher for this program is a recent Teachers Institute graduate. He wants to expand the use of the activity board resources he learned about during the Institute into his regular curriculum.

Gateway Technical Community College, Sturtevant, Wisconsin: This applicant is requesting assistance in obtaining licensing resource materials for the college radio club. The resources obtained through this grant will be housed in a club library for multiple users.

ETP participants continue to sing the praises of the ARRL and the Education & Technology Program. Here is what a few of them had to say:

The ARRL has made our year! Words cannot express the gratitude that we feel because of the ARRL grant so generously provided to us. On behalf of the Rambler Radio Club of LaFayette Middle School, thank you. By the way, we are hosting Field Day for our sponsor club (Tri-State ARC). This will be their first Field Day in three years. They plan to have a GOTA station to encourage more people to get involved. Thanks to you and the thousands of ARRL members who have made the entire year seem like Christmas for us!

Today, I received a phone call from our calculus teacher who introduced me to one of our senior students. She has been accepted to the University of Arizona and will be taking courses for electrical engineering; her ultimate plan is to someday work for NASA and become one of the astronauts. She was excited when I told her about being able to talk to the space shuttle -- sounds like she came to the right place for the "right stuff." I happened to have the "Hello Radio" pamphlet available for her and also gave her an old copy of the Radio Amateurs Astronomy book. I wanted you to know how grateful I am to you and the ARRL for all you have done in helping Mohave High School get this off the ground, and as always, thank you for the great satellite images you send to us. One of the kids at school is using them to do an Independent Study course on weather.

I just demonstrated the BOE-BOT's telemetry powers to my math students and BINGO! They were excited. One of them immediately demonstrated how the data on the spreadsheet could be graphed using three dimensional graphics, a lesson she had just had in her computer class last week. Another student set up different barricades to test the BOT's ability to get out of the maze. The BOT did it and then they started accusing each other that the BOT was smarter than them. The radio club members in the math class wanted to know what the schematic looked like for the design.

The goal of the Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program is to improve the quality of education by providing an educationally sound curriculum focused on wireless communications. The project emphasizes integration of technology, math, science, geography, writing, speaking and social responsibility within a global society.