Education notes: Students headed to robotics competition

Four teams of Tucson students are headed to St. Louis this week for a world robotics competition.

Teams representing Tucson at the FIRST World Championship are the Sonoran Science Academy; Palo Verde Magnet High School; Bit Buckets Robotics, a community team that includes City High School, Tucson High, Basis Tucson North, University High and Catalina Foothills; and Local Legends, a team of students from Esperero Canyon Middle School and Basis Tucson North.

The FIRST program works to encourage students to pursue education and careers in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — and to inspire them to become leaders and innovators.

The competition runs through Saturday.

11 schools receive environmental grants

Eleven Tucson-area schools were selected to receive cash grants, tools and trees for environmental improvements as part of the Trees for Tucson project.

Trees for Tucson is a program of Tucson Clean & Beautiful, which worked with the Southern Arizona Environmental Management Society and the Arizona Native Plant Society’s Tucson chapter to award $4,000 in mini-grants, along with more than 130 trees, tools and technical assistance.

This year’s grant winners were Borton Elementary, Davis Elementary, Mary Belle McCorkle K-8 and Henry Elementary of the Tucson Unified School District; Sunnyside School District’s STAR Academic Center; Vail’s Cienega High School; Tortolita Middle School in Marana; Sahuarita Middle School in the Sahuarita School District; the independent tuition-based International School of Tucson; the private St. John the Evangelist Catholic School; and the Western Institute for Leadership Development charter school.

The Trees for Tucson program was established to educate community members about the benefits of planting and properly maintaining trees to increase energy efficiency.

Desert View student gets $20K scholarship

A Desert View High School senior has been awarded a $20,000 college scholarship.

Everly Miramontes was named a Class of 2015 Dell Scholar, which in addition to the financial assistance makes her eligible for support in addressing emotional, lifestyle and other challenges that prevent students from completing college.

The program is geared toward underserved, low-income students. It is funded by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, a private foundation dedicated to enabling children and youths to achieve their potential.