Continental's Funding The Future Grant

Mrs. Cranston and her 1st grade class

By: Jenna Cranston, First-Grade Teacher at Heart River Elementary School

Last summer, I had the opportunity to attend the 2022 Governor’s Summit on Innovative Education at Dickinson Middle School.  While in attendance, I listened to Governor Burgum, along with other leaders throughout our state, speak about the future of education and jobs that accompany that.  Governor Burgum spoke of job opportunities that entail coding, also commonly known as computer programming, and how big of a need there is at this time and in the future for students with those skills and qualifications.   

This gave me the idea of writing a grant through Continental Resources to provide my students with some possibility of initiating that spark of learning through coding. My grant comprises of $1500 worth of coding materials that I researched and would purchase to provide my students with hands-on learning in my classroom. Some of the items that will be purchased are Coding Critters, where students will have interactive pets to code so they can move, play hide and seek, and fetch a ball. There will also be Coding Robots, where they will have to code to move the robot in six different directions and put a light show on display.  My grant was approved, and I look forward to the experience and learning more about coding with my students.

We will kick off our coding unit February 2nd when the Dickinson High School Science Club students will come into my first-grade classroom and host an hour of code.  This will be an introduction to computer science aimed at increasing participation in the field worldwide.  The DHS Science Club has developed a special coding activity and will implement it with my students.  We are eager to have the high school students interact with our elementary students and see the excitement of learning this will have on all of our students.   

I wanted to express my sincerest gratitude to Continental Resources for their generous donation, the DHS Science Club for their skills and taking the time to help my students learn about coding, and to our amazing HS Science Teachers, Bridget Jacob and Elisa Kensinger, for this fantastic opportunity.  Thank you so much!