AIKEN— The Savannah River National Laboratory honored 29 Georgia and South Carolina educators at an Aug. 14 reception for the 2025 K-12 Catalyst Grants for STEM Education.
With the sponsorship from Battelle’s Columbus Foundation, these teachers were selected from 83 applicants to receive a combined $125,000 in funding for innovative classroom projects that bring STEM – or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – learning to life, according to a news release.
The K-12 Catalyst Grants, created by a former teacher who believes education changes lives, are designed to spark creativity and hands-on problem-solving in Central Savannah River Area classrooms. The grants, awarded in amounts of $2,500 or $5,000, were judged through a blind review process to ensure fairness and merit-based selection, the release said.
This year’s winners include 19 teachers from Georgia and 10 from South Carolina, each with a unique project aimed at inspiring curiosity and preparing students for future STEM careers. Projects ranged from robotics and coding initiatives to environmental science explorations and creative technology integrations.
“At SRNL, we know that every scientist, engineer, and innovator can point to a teacher who first lit that spark of curiosity,” said SRNL Director Dr. Johney Green. “These educators are the foundation of our STEM pipeline, and these grants are our way of saying: we see you, we value you and we believe in the impact you have. When we invest in teachers, we invest in our community’s future and the discoveries that will keep our nation strong.”
SRNL has awarded $375,000 in STEM education grants since 2022 to local teachers, empowering them to bring transformative learning experiences to their students.
The K-12 Catalyst Grants for STEM Education will open for applications again in February 2026. SRNL encourages all K-12 teachers in the CSRA to apply and bring their innovative ideas to life in the classroom.
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