By Mary Whitfill
Features Editor

IBM (International Business Machines) awarded $15,000 in grants to Coppell ISD that will be used to encourage middle school girls’ interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math.)

A $10,000 IBM Catalyst Grant will help CISD increase what they call the “girl friendliness” of middle school STEM programs. The grant will be used to purchase equipment to implement a rigorous STEM program that taps into interest of girls and enhance certain math and science classes. The objective of the Catalyst Grant is to provide role models with positive images of females in the fields of science and engineering.

In addition, a $5,000 IMB Community Grant will be used to purchase iPad 2s to be used in a variety of educational fields.

IMB employees who submitted the grants were Jo Ann Hill, Andrea Solka and Jo Lynn Golden. CISD employees Linda Cook and Donna Carpenter also contributed to the writing of the grant.