After retiring as a kindergarten teacher serving 33 years at North Aiken Elementary School, Annie Ruth Williams wasn't quite ready to call it quits.
She received a "Making Math Magical" mini-grant from Savannah River Nuclear Solutions on Thursday. Williams has spent the last seven years at the Second Baptist Church School and will take the project back to her kindergarten and first-grade students.
"This grant will help them with math concepts," she said. "It's been 40 years, and I'm not finished yet."
Public- and private-school teachers throughout the CSRA were recognized with monetary awards at a ceremony, held annually by the company. SRNS distributed $75,000 to the elementary and middle school educators in the areas of science and math.
"Every year, I'm excited to give out these awards," said Candice Carmody, the SRNS education outreach manager. "The money goes to the classroom, supporting so many of our students. Teaching is not an easy job. I was a teacher my first year out of school, and there were daily challenges. But the rewards were many."
The wide range of science- and math-based projects had such titles as "Botanists at Work," "Furs, Shells, Scales and Tails," and "4K Family Farm."
Leslie Tamplin, a Langley-Bath-Clearwater Middle School teacher, submitted the project "Ya Gotta Calculate the Positive (and the negative and everything else, too!)."
Nathan Lobaugh, a Clearwater Elementary School teacher, is introducing his fifth-graders to force in motion.
"They'll build differently-designed cars and add weights to them to test the force of motion going down a ramp," he said. "They'll use the same cars to test friction, whether it's on carpet or tile surfaces to see how fast and far they go."
Jackson Middle School librarian Sally Brady and four teachers - Kishni Neville, Amy McClain, Kennita Hairston and Kendra Lloyd - won several grants for their projects. Among them is "STEM: Engineering Marvels from the Middle Ages."
"We're helping the children become collaborators and have hands-on instruction," Neville said. "Every project from a Jackson teacher was approved."
The nation's ability to be global depends on the continuation of science and technology advances made by a well-educated workforce, said Carol Johnson, the SRNS president and CEO.
"We need to be innovative in teaching and learning," she said. "That depends on all of (the teachers) in this room. As a company, we understand we must assist the future workforce to help broaden the education pool and the educational level of the community."
SRNS welcomes the opportunity to help teachers deliver math and science instruction, Johnson said. She is inspired after reading the titles of various projects, which "made me want to go back to elementary school."
Senior writer Rob Novit is the Aiken Standard's education reporter.