PASCAGOULA, Miss., Jan. 27, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) announced today that its Ingalls Shipbuilding division has awarded $70,500 in grants to 19 school districts and organizations in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. The grants will be used by the districts for various science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) projects.
"These STEM grants provide school districts with resources that math and science teachers can use to get students excited about solving hard problems," said Irwin F. Edenzon, president, Ingalls Shipbuilding. "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. Ingalls Shipbuilding is proud to support programs that get and keep students engaged in STEM studies."
The school districts and organizations were presented checks today at Ingalls Shipbuilding, and representatives from the various schools also were given a shipyard tour.
"We greatly appreciate the continued support of Ingalls Shipbuilding and its generous support of the Pascagoula School District," said Wayne Rodolfich, superintendent, Pascagoula School District. "Because of this grant, students will be exposed to science, math and technology through our WeatherBug program, which goes hand-in-hand with the STEM precepts of developing a future workforce and encouraging students to excel."
The 2012 STEM grants include:
Mississippi
- D'Iberville High School - $5,000 to purchase 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 under-developed countries.
- East Central Middle School - $1,000 to allow students to participate in a BEST Robotics (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) 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 will also be encouraged to attend various 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.
Alabama
- Alabama School of Math and Science - $2,500 to be used to support students in FIRST Robotics Competitions.
- Daphne High School - $2,500 to be used to purchase CAD software that will be used by students in pre-engineering and pre-architectural programs.
- Jubilee BEST Robotics - $5,000 to be used for sponsorship of BEST Game Day 2012
- Mobile Area Education Foundation - $2,500 to be used to support students attending engineering camps.
- Mobile County Public Schools - $2,500 to be used to purchase supplies needed to implement engineering design challenges in all seventh-grade science and math classes.
- St. Vincent DePaul Catholic School - $1,000 to allow students to participate in a BEST Robotics (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) competition.
- Theodore High School - $2,500 to help students build a robot for Robots for Design in the Mobile Schools. Students will then write an essay on its function and purpose.
Louisiana
- Greater New Orleans schools - $15,000 to provide two weeks of hands-on science training for greater New Orleans high school teachers.
- North Shore High School - $1,000 previously awarded for a FIRST Robotics Competition.
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) designs, builds and maintains nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and provides after-market services for military ships around the globe. For more than a century, HII has built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. Employing nearly 38,000 in Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and California, its primary business divisions are Newport News Shipbuilding and Ingalls Shipbuilding. For more information, visit:
- HII on the web: www.huntingtoningalls.com
- HII on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HuntingtonIngallsIndustries
- HII on Twitter: twitter.com/hiindustries
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