Mark McAllister, an engineering teacher here at Lafayette, recently won a $2000 grant from the Missouri Chamber of Commerce for being one of the top 10 innovators in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics classes. The grant from the Chamber of Commerce was funded by Monsanto.

McAllister plans to use the grant money to purchase new materials for his classroom.

“I’m going to buy three small 3-D printers for my classroom so students can 3-D print more and so we don’t have to use the large 3D printer that generally I just do demonstrations on,” McAllister said.

McAllister was surprised when he received the award, but he was pleased nonetheless.

“ It felt great, I was really surprised,” Mcallister said. “It’s an honor to be able to get more money for my class and also just to be recognized.”