Ingalls Shipbuilding awards $70,500 to school districts

PASCAGOULA -- Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division awarded $70,500 in grants Friday to 19 school districts and organizations in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. The company said the grants will be used for STEM projects -- science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Irwin F. Edenzon, Ingalls president, said, “Keeping up with and exploiting technology advancements, especially in shipbuilding, continues to be a critical part of how we meet our customer’s needs. It will be even more important in the future. The next generation of shipbuilders will need the technical and engineering skills that help us build affordable, great ships.”

The 2012 STEM grants to Mississippi schools:

D’Iberville High School: $5,000 to buy software and other STEM-related materials to help give students a basic understanding of STEM subjects and how they relate to career choices.

East Central High School: $2,500 to help students conduct a working prototype of a solar dry-heat sterilizer that can be deployed with a local medical or dental missionary group to aid with sanitary conditions in underdeveloped countries.

East Central Middle School: $1,000 to allow students to participate in a Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology Robotics competition.

Gulfport School District: $4,500 to implement RACE for Success (Robotics and Community Education) in grades 5-12. The program is a collaboration of electricity, robotics and the problem-solving process.

Jackson County Chamber of Commerce: $5,000 to be used for scholarships presented during the annual Explosion of Excellence.

Moss Point Schools: $5,000 for ninth-grade students to engage in more hands-on activities in STEM disciplines. Students also will be encouraged to attend job-shadowing events. An additional $1,000 for a robotics competition was previously awarded.

Pascagoula Schools: $5,000 to go toward the installation of a WeatherBug station in the Family Interactive Center. The station will be monitored by science and math students and will provide real-time data, which can be used to alert the community of impending inclement weather conditions.

Resurrection Catholic School: $2,500 to help seventh-grade students explore design, using an interactive 2D CAD program to create bridges and other structures.

St. Martin High School: $2,500 to be used as part of the Plant Now, Harvest Later program. Students will landscape undeveloped land, incorporating all the elements of science, engineering, technology and math.

St. Patrick Catholic High School: $2,000 to allow students to participate in a FIRST Robotics Competition.