LP Foundation and PENCIL Team Up to Bring New STEAM Resources to Metro Students
NASHVILLE, TN, September 26, 2022 – PENCIL (Public Education Needs Community Involvement and Leadership), the premier nonprofit community resource recruiter to Metro Nashville Public Schools, is pleased to announce that LP Foundation has committed an investment of $40,000 to create the LP STEAM Lending Library.
Beginning this fall, PENCIL’s LP STEAM Lending Library will provide Metro middle school students with access to a first-of-its-kind lending library in Nashville, consisting of specialized “kits” that teachers use to supplement lessons from physics to geology. The lending library will serve all 17 MNPS traditional STEAM middle schools within the first two years of the initiative.
“The whole LP team are exceptional to invest so heavily in this new dream,” said Angie Adams, PENCIL President & CEO. “As PENCIL celebrates its 40th year of service to Metro Schools, LP stands apart as a corporate leader and Partner for their commitment to public school education.”
LP Building Solutions was the seed funder and sustainer of the LP PENCIL Box, PENCIL’s teacher resource center, from 2006 to 2021. During that time, the LP PENCIL Box grew from $26,175 in total annual distributions to $2.7MM. In all, LP invested more than $1M in grant funding, tangible resources, and sponsorship support to PENCIL during that period of sustained growth.
As LP has sharpened its philanthropic focus on STEAM education in public schools, PENCIL and LP leaders saw an opportunity to fill a gap for teachers whose limited supply budgets made it challenging to purchase the components needed for these high-tech, hands-on learning kits.
Ultimately, investing in this new initiative was about ensuring Metro middle-schoolers had equitable access to resources that nurture experiential learning. “The LP Foundation is honored to partner with PENCIL to provide these tools for Metro schools and teachers,” said Teade Tagaloa, Procurement Transactional Supervisor and LP Foundation Board member. “These kits will help teachers cultivate students’ curiosity and expand their knowledge base with practical, hands-on learning in a way many students have never before been able to experience. We look forward to helping PENCIL grow this program in our schools.”
PENCIL staff consulted with MNPS’s director of STEAM and Science, Dr. Jennifer Berry, to identify the most useful kit types to offer educators, such as robotics, virtual reality, and mechanical/construction kits. Teachers will check out kits for a few weeks at a time from PENCIL. After the first year, PENCIL and LP hope to expand kit selection further to offer teachers even more variety in their classroom lessons.
“I’m really excited first and foremost that we’re going to have an opportunity for teachers to check out items that support classroom instruction focusing on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics – STEAM,” said Dr. Berry. “We have a guiding principle in our office: You cannot love what you do not experience. The LP STEAM Lending Library provides a personalized hands-on experience for students. It’s getting students excited about STEAM and future STEAM careers. That’s incredible.”
PENCIL will host a special event celebrating the launch of the LP STEAM Lending Library at McMurray Middle School (520 McMurray Dr, Nashville, TN 37211) on Tuesday, September 27th. Representatives from LP Building Solutions, PENCIL, MNPS STEAM Department, and McMurray students and teachers will be present.
This event is closed except for invited media members only. Please contact Kelly Rolf (PENCIL) for details.
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About PENCIL
Founded in 1982 by a collective of Nashville business leaders, PENCIL (www.pencilforschools.org) is celebrating 40 years of linking community resources to Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) to help young people achieve academic success and prepare for life. Our work is guided by the needs of MNPS, is student-centric, and is achieved through partnerships and tangible engagements. PENCIL envisions a world where all students have equitable access to opportunities and resources.
About LP Building Solutions
As a leader in high-performance building solutions, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (LP Building Solutions, NYSE: LPX) manufactures engineered wood building products that meet the demands of builders, remodelers and homeowners worldwide. LP’s extensive offerings include innovative and dependable building products and accessories, such as siding solutions (LP® SmartSide® Trim & Siding, LP® SmartSide® ExpertFinish® Trim & Siding, LP BuilderSeries® Lap Siding, and LP® Outdoor Building Solutions®), LP Structural Solutions (LP® TechShield® Radiant Barrier, LP WeatherLogic® Air & Water Barrier, LP Legacy® Premium Sub-Flooring, and LP® FlameBlock® Fire-Rated Sheathing, LP NovaCore™ Thermal Insulated Sheathing, and more), LP® TopNotch® Sub-Flooring, and oriented strand board (OSB). In addition to product solutions, LP provides industry-leading customer service and warranties. Since its founding in 1972, LP has been Building a Better World™ by helping customers construct beautiful, durable homes while our shareholders build lasting value. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, LP operates 22 plants across the U.S., Canada, Chile, and Brazil. For more information, visit LPCorp.com.
