A green project at John Yeates Middle School has received another boost, after the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association awarded a $1,000 grant to the SoWHy! energy and weather station program.

Daniel O’Leary, JYMS principal, presented a certificate commemorating the grant to teacher Louis Garland for the school’s Cooperating Hampton Roads Organizations for Minorities club.

The club’s project, whose name stands for solar, wind, hydrogen, started with a wind turbine. Additional grants have been written for solar panels, work benches, a makeover of an indoor classroom and construction of an outdoor classroom seating 40-plus students, according to Garland.

“The grant included a handicap-accessible ramp and outdoor table, skylights, upgraded energy efficient windows, and much needed STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) materials for various lessons in each of the alternative energy areas, and much more,” Garland stated in a news release.

During the past two years, Garland has written grants exceeding $34,000. The SoWHy! project will benefit the entire school district, he stated, by demonstrating how alternative energy can be used to power classrooms.

Thanks to the most recent grant, the project now incorporates a weather station. Analysis of each alternative energy source, and the effect of the weather, will be available on an upcoming webpage, according to Garland.

The Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association is a nonprofit serving members in the defense, homeland security and intelligence communities as a forum for exploring issues in information technology, communications and electronics.