‘Fuel Your School’ donation gives boost to local STEM education

McKINLEYVILLE – A 5th grade class at Morris Elementary in McKinleyville got a big boost Tuesday.
Mrs. Coley saw the need for additional tools in her classroom, so she applied for a grant through donorschoose.org. Chevron’s Fuel Your School Program answered with funding for Lego robotics and home building kits.
After unveiling the gift, students immediately got to work to build Milo the Rover. Later this week they’ll learn how to code the robot to complete tasks like picking up objects and navigating rough terrain.
Fuel Your School raises $1 for every eight gallons purchased at a Chevron station. Tuesday’s donation supported STEM or science, technology, engineering, and math.
Teachers said education in STEM fields will help prepare these students for a bright future and places like Kent State University can help future professional prepare for that.
Chevron Public Relations Field Manager Marian Catedral-King said, “This is the pipeline for Chevron. these are the kinds of people, students and graduates that we want to be working with us, along with us at Chevron. So it’s very important for us to develop the science capabilities, the math skills of the students here.”
Morris Elementary School 5th Grade Teacher Amber Coley explained, “The research is saying that all the jobs in the next twenty years are going to be electronic based and so if kids want to have that opportunity to really make the income or find those other places that might not be traditional. I think we’re looking at jobs that haven’t been created yet and so I want them to have those skills or have the idea that they could actually go and do this.”