School librarian wins grant for STEM books

Joyce Wilson, the librarian at Wahkiakum High School, applied for three The Future STEMS from Reading grants. Much to her surprise, she was awarded all three grants, worth approximately $1,000 apiece.

She applied for a grant for J.A Wendt Elementary School, for the John C. Thomas Middle School and for Wahkiakum High School.

"I never imagined that I would get all three grants," Wilson said. "There are 50 titles, all science based plus three instructional manuals for each grant."

The books are all to encourage literacy in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) based subjects.

Wilson, who has an annual budget of $3,000 to buy library books for the district each year is pleased.

"This is really giving a boost to the science part of our program," Wilson said. "I try to buy some, but we have voracious readers and that is where the money goes. Kids are into series now, so I'm constantly buying books to finish series. Elementary and middle school students are our biggest readers and I usually spend more money down there than I do up here at the high school."

"These are awesome," Wilson said of the selection of books preselected by the foundation that provides the grant. "These are approved by the Washington State Library. I was lucky enough to add to our collection with books that are modern. Books that fit our times and with what is going on with technology and what is going on in the world."

"There are some really fun ones," she said as she showed off some of the titles, like Bad Science: Experiments Gone Wrong or Getting the Scoop on Animal Puke!

Students were excited to see the new books and wanted to help Wilson get them ready for circulation, but it was a one person task and she had a system. After sharing her excitement at winning three grants, she got back to business.