As it continues to grow its involvement with middle and high schools and colleges, the NFPA Education and Technology Foundation announced it has created a new Challenge Grant Program to award grants to schools and educational institutions. The move is all part of its Fluid Power Challenge program, where students are charged to solve an engineering problem using hydraulics and pneumatics. Teachers will receive awards to help introduce and teach fluid power in the classroom. The end goal, says NFPA, will be to have those classes then enter teams into or hold their own Fluid Power Challenge event.
Two types of grants will be awarded: Challenge classroom exercise kits (such as lifter, rotational arm, clamp), or component parts; and for Challenge event kits (or program materials) for use in Challenge events. NFPA says that any school, college, university or educational organization may submit an application at any time during the calendar year, and applications will be reviewed on an on-going basis.
Applicants must submit the following information: a description of the type of materials requested; type of class, activity, or Fluid Power Challenge event they will be used in; class size; and grade level. Follow-up reports, photos, videos and testimonials on the schools which have earned awards will be published on the Foundation’s web site at www.nfpafoundation.org.
Contact Carrie Tatman Schwartz, Education Program Manager, at (414) 778-3347 or ctschwartz@nfpa.com, for more details.