(BENTON, IL) — The Benton Consolidated High School District has received a $10,000 American Farmers Grown Rural Education grant. Officials say this grant, sponsored by the Monsanto Fund, will be used to buy laptops and robotic sensors and probes for Benton High School students taking physical science courses. Students will use the equipment to build and program robots. Marla Harp, curriculum and technology director at the high school, says these hands-on activities will teach students to use STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills to perform real-world tasks. Farmers who nominated the school district and representatives from the school and the Monsanto Fund attended a check presentation to celebrate the grant during a home football game last Friday. The school district also received this year an educational starter kit from Monsanto Company to help establish a pollinator garden, which will give students first-hand knowledge of the critical role habitat plays in providing bees and butterflies with food, shelter and places to lay eggs.