Bright Ideas
Bright Ideas is an award-winning statewide cooperative program that provides funding to public school educators for innovative teaching projects that would otherwise go unfunded. The Carteret-Craven Electric Foundation provides supplemental funding to the Bright Ideas program so more educators can see their projects realized.
The grant amounts may be small, no more than $1,000, but the impact is great by comparison. Through the 2012-2013 school year, we have funded more than 386 Bright Ideas projects impacting more than 65,278,000 students. Since the program's inception in 1994, Bright Ideas has awarded more than $8.5 million in grant money to North Carolina's teachers to sponsor more than 8,300 projects reaching more than 1.5 milliion students.
Judges select creative teaching projects that reach across the curriculum from kindergarten through the 12th grade in Carteret County and Havelock schools. The funding has been used for activities in music, art, history, language, reading, science, career-planning, information technology and more.
The proposals are judged by an outside group of professionals. Some of elements the judges consider are:
- use of creative and innovative teaching methods
- ongoing benefits to students
- clearly defined goals and objectives
- measurable results that can be evaluated
Eligible educators include teachers and principals in North Carolina public schools located in Carteret-Craven's service area serving grades K-12. Grants in other areas of the state are available from electric cooperatives in that area. Grants will not be awarded for educator salaries, released time or expenses related to professional training.
Interested educators teaching at schools within Carteret-Craven's service area can contact grant coordinator Bill Ward at 1-800-682-2217 or 252-727-2251 or e-mail at: billw@ccemc.com. Applications and information for 2013-14 grants can also be found at www.ncbrightideas.com and are being accepted beginning April 1. Applications received by August 16, 2013 will be entered into an additional contest to win a $500 gift card. Final deadline for applications is September 20, 2013.