FirstEnergy on Thursday announced the selection of 16 teachers in Pennsylvania, including two in Butler County, who will receive STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education grants.

The grants, up to $500 each, will be used for a variety of hands-on projects, workshops and teacher development programs throughout the school year.

David Andrews of Butler Junior High School and Michael Losk of Knoch High School were the local teachers selected for these grants.

“FirstEnergy is proud to award these grants to our winning teachers to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics instruction for their students,” Dave Karafa, president of Pennsylvania operations for FirstEnergy, said in a news release. “We had an outstanding group of applications from Pennsylvania to choose from.”

FirstEnergy offers the grants to individual teachers and administrators at schools served by its electric utility operating companies and in communities where it has facilities.

Grant recipients are recommended by local educators who make up FirstEnergy’s Educational Advisory Council. As part of the program, recipients must furnish a written summary and evaluation of their projects that can be shared with other educators in FirstEnergy’s service area.