[July 08, 2011] Kauffman pledges $3.2 million to education alliance Tweet Jul 08, 2011 (The Kansas City Star - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Robotics and engineering education will get a $3.2 million boost from the Kauffman Foundation over the next five years. FIRST Robotics and Project Lead the Way -- two of the area's most popular STEM programs -- have essentially joined forces in Kansas City through the Kauffman-supported KC STEM Alliance. STEM -- science, technology, engineering and math -- has long been a key target for the foundation's investments in education. And the alliance will key the region's next phase in preparing students for STEM careers, said Munro Richardson, Kauffman's vice president of education. "We see an opportunity for greater synergy in these complementary programs," he said. Project Lead the Way is a nationwide engineering curriculum that locally is used in more than 80 schools in 24 districts in the KC STEM Alliance's five-county Kansas City region, alliance director Laura Loyacono said. FIRST Robotics -- For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology -- is an international extra-curricular robotics program that has more than 40 area schools participating in annual competitions. The engineering curriculum during the school day and the robotics after school have involved thousands of area students and been a major draw for business and corporate partnerships in schools. Their alliance, based at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Computing and Engineering, aims to build more interest in STEM programs, Loyacono said. To see more of The Kansas City Star, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.kansascity.com. Copyright (c) 2011, The Kansas City Star, Mo. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]