College of Education Awarded ASAP Grant to Help Fund Annual Summer Camp
By Brett Buckner
The Jax State College of Education and Professional Studies has been awarded the Alabama Summer and After School Program (ASAP) grant. The $48,300 grant will enhance the college’s STEAM summer camp by expanding student participation, introducing new activities, and strengthening collaboration with families. Dr. Ahmad Alhammouri, Dr. Linda Mitchell and Aimee Weathers wrote the proposal.
“The Steam camp provides the school students with an informal, early college life experience through the camp,” said Dr. Alhammouri, associate department head in the Department of Secondary Education. “We hope this will motivate [participants] to go to college and become Gamecocks one day.” The ASAP grant will fund more teacher candidates from the College of Education and Professional Studies to participate in the summer camp, providing them with informal practicum experience.
“This represents a transformative experience that our candidates can take to their classrooms,” Dr. Alhammouri said, “when they become teachers, they engage their students in hands-on activities.” He added that the college has been running the STEAM summer camp since 2019, starting with 15 students and a “very limited budget,” and has steadily increased, with 60 students attending last year’s camp. Those camps focused on three subjects - math, science, family and consumer science. With the grant, the college plans to add a literacy component and double the number of participants.
Where the camp used to be for students in grades third through sixth, it will now accept students from grades first through eighth. Sessions will be divided into two weeks. The first will be for first through fourth graders, and the second for fifth through eighth graders. “We want to change these students’ perceptions about certain subjects,” Dr. Alhammouri said. “By having them participate in hands-on activities, we want to send them back to school with a new vision and belief about what they’re learning and see how it’s relevant to their daily lives.”
The ASAP grant is funded through the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) to implement or enhance existing after-school or summer learning programs that provide student learning and academic enrichment activities. These programs must include students in Pre-K through 12. Funds must be used to accelerate student learning in science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and reading.