A $140,000 grant from the 3M Foundation will help Decatur City Schools promote engineering as a career possibility.

School officials said they will spread the money from second grade through high school and over 21/2 years. The 3M Foundation is a nonprofit organization funded by 3M and managed by 3M Community Affairs.

Curriculum Director Jeanne Payne said Decatur is the first school system in the state to develop engineering programs from elementary through high school.

Payne said the school system will train elementary teachers this spring in the Engineering Is Elementary program developed by the Boston Museum of Science.

The teachers will then teach a unit in April or May. Second grade will focus on material engineering; third grade on agricultural engineering; fourth on electrical engineering; and fifth on mechanical engineering.

The school system will hold an elementary engineering camp, called the Gateway Camp, next summer.

Payne said the goal with Engineering Is Elementary is exposure. The program goes well with the Alabama Math and Science Initiative, which the schools use.

“How can you dream of being an engineer, if you don’t know what an engineer does?” Payne asked.

Supervisor of Career-Technology Ramsey Huffman said the middle schools will benefit from the money when two teachers from each middle school attend summer training in the Project Lead The Way program. Project Lead The Way is curriculum that makes math and science relevant for students through hands-on projects.

The middle schools will implement this math-science program at the start of the 2009-10 year. The middle schools will also hold a Gateway engineering camp in the summer of 2010.

Others to benefit

Huffman said Austin and Decatur high schools’ engineering academies will benefit from the grant funds, too. The academies focus on the three major engineering specialties, electronic, mechanical and chemical, used in the Decatur area.

The local 3M plant will provide more engineers to assist and mentor.

The schools are working with The University of Alabama in Huntsville on the engineering academies. Huffman said UAH promised to take juniors and seniors and place them in situations with college-age students, which could possibly mean college credit for the high school students.