News Photo by Julie Goldberg In this photo from November, Alpena High School hosts a For Inspiration and Recognition of Science Technology Robotics offseason competition. School districts arond the state received grants from the Michigan Department of Education to keep building robotics programs.

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ALPENA — School districts around the state can continue growing their robotics programs this upcoming season because the Michigan Department of Education recently announced its yearly recipients of robotics grants.

For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Robotics grants were awarded to 506 public and private school districts across Michigan, covering more than 2,300 teams. There was $3.5 million available in grants for public schools and $300,000 available for nonpublic schools.

Northeast Michigan schools received some grant funds.

Alcona Community Schools received $13,300, Alpena Public Schools received $13,700, both Atlanta Community Schools and Hillman Community Schools each received $6,500, Onaway Area Community Schools received $4,300, and Posen Consolidated Schools received $2,500.

School districts received a coach stipend and grant funds based on how many years the district’s robotics teams have been around. For example, both Atlanta and Hillman received $6,500 because they received a $1,500 coach stipend and $5,000 for being second-year high school FIRST Robotics teams.

The grants will help the teams improve mathematics, science, and technology skills by participating in events hosted by FIRST, Robotics Education and Competition, or Science Olympiad. The grant is also intended to increase the number of students demonstrating proficiency in science and mathematics on the state standardized tests, and to also increase the number of students who are college- and career-ready when they graduate from high school.

The grant funds will help students who are in FIRST Robotics — which includes FIRST LEGO League Jr., FIRST LEGO League, FIRST Tech Challenge, FIRST Robotics Competition, VEX, VEX IQ, or the Science Olympiad program — continue participating.

The awards must be used by next September.

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.