Harper McCaughan teacher wins $1,000 grant for project

A gifted education teacher at Harper McCaughan Elementary in Long Beach School District has been named a 2021 Mississippi Professional Educator Classroom Grant Award winner.

Carly Parker won the $1,000 grant for her project entitled ‘workshop wonders.’ The project consists of four different workshops.

Workshop ‘CSI Time Traveler’ teaches students about the evolution of forensics. ‘Chocolate, Chocolate, and more Chocolate’ teaches students about the history of chocolate. ‘Survivor’ places students in teams to compete in STEM activities. ‘Fairy Tale Trials’ teaches students real world crimes and court trial regularities by using popular fairy tales.

Parker said, “Not everybody is interested in the same thing, so we offer the different activities. They can select the one they are most interested in, and when they’re interested in it, it gives them more buy-in to the actual activity that we’re doing.”

Parker says her project was created to encourage students to use critical thinking, analytical and communications skills to solve a series of real-world challenges.