2008-2009
Foundation Grant Recipients
Grant Recipient: Jill Cox
Program Title: “BEST (Bringing Engaging Science Teaching) to all Students”
School: Groves Elementary
Amount: $ 2,927.00
This student centered science program allows each student to learn best science practices through hands-on learning and inquiry-driven activities. It supports six science modules in the classroom. Each module will provide students an opportunity to investigate science topics through a combination of activities which promote scientific inquiry, encourage critical reading and thinking skills and allow for collaboration and interaction with fellow students. For example, in the Electrical Circuits Module students are provided with twelve hands-on activities and accompanying science reader. They will investigate the factors, besides switches, that affect the flow of an electrical current and are given opportunities to master the design of simple open and closed circuits before progressing to the construction of parallel and series circuits.
Grant Recipient: Pam Montgomery
Program Title: “The Last One Chosen”
School: Akin Elementary
Amount: $ 750.00
Remember when you were in school and there was a child no one wanted to be around, play with or be on their team? But what if it was “cool” to be kind and accept others? That is the goal of the elementary branch of “Friends of Rachel.” The elementary branch is called “Kindness and Compassion Club.” The program is based on the writings of Rachel Scott, the first child to lose her life in the Columbine High School shootings. Through the program, the children are taught that they can make a difference by small acts of kindness. Students are shown an introductory DVD and taught how to set positive goals and journal their thoughts.
Grant Recipient: Janet McMillen
Program Title: “Write On! Write Pad!”
School: Akin Elementary
Amount: $ 2,013.00
A wireless slate is a computer sensitive writing pad that enables a teacher to control any software from 52 feet away from the computer. The attached battery-free pen allows an instructor to write notes and highlight information. A teacher can teach from anywhere in the classroom and students can interact with information from their seats. The teacher can use physical proximity to provide feedback, reinforce effort or give recognition. Write On! Write Pad! provides a solution to the problem of how to use the district’s high tech math materials and still provide innovative and proven instructional strategies to improve student mathematical achievement in the area of problem solving.
Grant Recipient: Mindy Allen
Program Title: “Patriot PE Partners”
School: Draper Intermediate
Amount: $ 1,691.00
Students involved in a buddy program in which disabled students work closely with non-disabled students show an increase in self-esteem, confidence and overall grades. Each fall, students from 5th and 6th grades begin “Patriot Power” or accelerated instructional time. This program would give students who are considered at-risk an opportunity to interview to become a PE Partner to a special needs student for 2-3 days a week. Studies have shown that giving students opportunities to be mentors greatly increases self confidence which leads to better grades and test scores. These students would be trained during workshops and would meet regularly to write reflections about their experience. Materials will include items which give the students opportunities for activities such as completing an obstacle course with their partner, assisting with gross motor skills (throwing, kicking or hitting a ball; dribbling a basketball down the court).
Grant Recipient: Tandi Owen
Program Title: “Dancing and Groovin and how we make it happen”
School: Wylie High School
Amount: $ 2,873.00
With over 600 muscles in the body, this is one of the largest units of study in the Anatomy and Physiology class. It can be difficult to understand since there are numerous muscles which are easily visible and many more down below the initial layer. This project would provide students with a real life model which will provide the opportunity to work hands - on with the muscles of the arm and leg and remove certain muscles from the model to explore the muscles deeper below. Along with identification, the models will provide a tactile image of the muscle and give them a better understanding of movements created when certain muscles contract. Also, the joint model will provide students with an up-close look at the bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles and how they work together to provide movement.
Tibbals Family Grant
Grant Recipient: Tandi Owen
Program Title: “Interrelationships of Human Body Systems”
School: Wylie High School
Amount: $ 2,681.00
The study of the structures of the body and how they work and are interconnected is the primary focus of the Anatomy and Physiology class. The torso models provided by this grant give students an opportunity to work in small groups and have access to the models and their organs - several of which are removable for inspection of the deeper parts of the cavity. A function torso is also part of the package which gives students a closer look at the digestive, circulatory, respiratory, urinary, and nervous systems. This see-through model is set up with various structures then fluids are sent through the “systems” so that the students can gain a better understanding of how the systems work.
Grant Recipient: Tandi Owen
Program Title: “Follow your Nose”
School: Wylie High School
Amount: $ 446.00
This project includes various methods that students use to explore their own sensory perception. Students “map” the taste of sweet, salty, bitter, and sour by using four previously prepared solutions of each taste. Students then test for olfactory fatigue. The question is how many scents they can distinguish before they can no longer tell the difference and what is their recovery time? Then students will “map” different sensory receptors in the skin. Touch receptors will be tested by using cotton balls and toothpicks. Testing of vision and blind spots will be the next experience. These tests will give students a solid exploration of their special senses.
Grant Recipient: Tandi Owen
Program Title: “Urine-Urout”
School: Wylie High School
Amount: $ 485.00
Many processes within the body are extremely complex and difficult for students to understand. The “Working Nephron Model” shows students how the kidney works. The lab kits for this project allow a few relatively simple tests to demonstrate extremely difficult processes that are necessary for continued functioning of the human and for student understanding of the interrelationships of systems within the body. The students will be able to test simulated urine for the presence of abnormal constituents and discover the role of urinalysis in diagnosing and monitoring certain disorders.
Grant Recipient: Diane Hite
Program Title: “Stairsteps to Science Success”
School: Akin Elementary
Amount: $ 3,000.00
The purchase of National Geographic Themed Sets with this grant will aid in the implementation of differentiated instruction in the area of science literature. Each of the four books in the set provide the same core concepts but within different contexts and will compensate for the wide range of reading levels. This program targets all learners. Using colorful graphics, award winning pictures and differential instruction, teachers will be able to engage students in science and insure all are challenged while meeting core curriculum requirements.
Grant Recipient: Karen Jurotich
Program Title: “Project SMILE: Smart Board Math Increasing Learner Engagement”
School: Burnett Jr. High
Amount: $ 3,000.00
Project SMILE puts engaging, motivating tools directly in the hands of students. Many 7th and 8th grade students still need concrete models and hands-on examples to help them understand and become comfortable with new concepts in math. Project SMILE makes virtual manipulatives accessible to every student through the use of an interactive whiteboard. With this beneficial technology, the student can move, tilt and rotate objects with ease. The physical movement and manipulation used to compare and contrast, classify and measure items enhances the depth of understanding. The whiteboard comes with many math tools and lessons that are instantly useful in the classroom.
Grant Recipient: Trona Jurden
Program Title: “Go With The Flow”
School: Hartman Elementary
Amount: $ 500.00
“Little scientists” will learn to build circuits with the kits provided with this grant. Each teacher on the second grade teaching team designs an engaging project which is then shared with the students in other classes. In this SCIENCE SWAP, the students switch rooms and learn the concept designed by each teacher. Students truly feel like real scientists when they realize that the closed circuits make light bulbs light up, fans spin, and buzzers buzz. This grant allows for several circuit learning stations to be set up for young budding scientists to build with their own hands.
Grant Recipient: Angie Cortez
Program Title: “STARS (Students Achieving Reading Success)”
School: Birmingham Elementary
Amount: $ 300.00
Project STAR uses the latest technology in optical character recognition, a Reading Pen, which scans, defines, translates, and pronounces words from any text is funded by this grant. Students with learning disabilities will have full access to a broad spectrum of texts when using this pen. Providing a sense of independence, this pen can provide reading assistance which, to date, has most often involved a teacher reading to a student. This pen can provide the same assistance through the privacy of ear buds.
PBK/RLK/Gallagher Grant
Grant Recipient: Vicki Knipp
Program Title: “Distillation and Phase Changes”
School: Wylie High School
Amount: $ 494.00
The equipment provided by this grant provides the necessary pieces to assemble a simple distillation apparatus. Obtaining the specialized glassware and alcohol burners will be an enhancement for learning about distillation as a method of separating two substances and analyzing phase changes. Students are able to observe and measure the vapor point and condensation point of various liquids and/or solutions. This project will allow general chemistry students to be exposed to the hands-on process of using distillation and observing the physical changes that accompany the process.
Grant Recipient: Vicky Knipp
Program Title: “Water, Water Everywhere”
School: Wylie High School
Amount: $ 366.00
Two magnetic water molecule classroom kits will be provided by this grant. Students will be able to use these hands-on manipulatives to explore the way water molecules behave when in contact with other water molecules and how they are able to dissolve many different substances. The “molecules” have strong magnets inside the plastic atoms which behave as electric charges in a real molecule. Students will be able to feel the attraction of opposite charges provided by the north and south poles of the magnets and the repulsion of like charges of the same magnetic poles. They will also learn first-hand how hydrogen bonding and surface tension work.
Grant Recipient: Joanne Montes
Program Title: “STEPS –Soaring Toward English Proficiency and Success”
School: Burnett Jr. High
Amount: $ 3,000.00
The STEPS Program uses wireless laptops to increase English proficiency in ELL (English Learned Language) students. It will be an electronic version of a traditional response journal. The students will submit their response and receive immediate feedback. The feedback imbeds and corrects errors in comprehension, syntax, grammar, and spelling from the students’ original response to improve their English proficiency by modeling them correctly. By making students active learners in control of their learning experiences, students are empowered. In the STEPS program, ELL students are no longer limited by language, but given a tool for engagement, development of computer skills, and language acquisition.
Sanden Grant
Grant Recipient: Brenda Oksanen
Program Title: “I Want to be the Teacher!”
School: Smith Elementary
Amount: $ 920.00
In a program designed to improve preschool speech and language, a tool known as a sound amplification system will be used. The primary goal is to encourage and allow students to use their speaking skills. Sound amplification systems help students improve both volume and confidence through the technology of equalized sound delivery. Each week a student from speech class is selected to lead the other students using the system to act as “teacher” of the class. They lead the other students in circle time activities of weather, calendar, alphabet and book of the week.
Grant Recipient: Tracey Baskeyfield
Program Title: “Caution: Problem Solving Ahead”
School: Birmingham Elementary
Amount: $ 2,808.00
Digi-blocks, a manipulative based supplemental program that effectively teaches base -10 number sense, place value and operations with whole numbers and decimals is the foundation of this program. It is a system of small rectangular-shaped boxes and empty holders that allows students to discover for themselves the relationship between ones, tens, hundreds and thousands. The problem solving cards can be used individually or for cooperative learning. The CDs are used for whole class instruction. All students benefit from this hands-on approach to math.
Grant Recipient: Jennifer Wiseman
Program Title: “Smith Lab Rats”
School: Smith Elementary
Amount: $ 2,993.00
“Smith Lab Rats” is a program in which students teach students how fun and enjoyable science can be. The fourth grade has two complete sets of science kits on topics such as rocks and soil, insects, plants, force and motion, matter, weather, solar system, electricity and other subjects. Each six week period, one lab will be taught in each fourth grade classroom as a teaching tool and as a model. Once the lesson has been completed, four to six students from each class will be chosen to teach and model the same experience to a second or third grade class. Fourth graders will be chosen to be “Lab Rats” based on performance during the activity and knowledge of the concept. This gives every student the opportunity to be a “Lab Rat” during the year.
Atmos Energy Grant
Grant Recipient: Sherri Scott
Program Title: “Do you Hear What I Hear?”
School: Special Programs Center
Amount: $1,000.00
Following along in a district required text while listening to a CD of the text helps the student become a fluent reader who comprehends what he or she is reading. The Listening Library provided by this grant gives students this opportunity using CD players, headphones and books. These books are required by the district for language arts, but are used for a variety of subjects. The students may learn the geography of a setting for a story or the science of an animal they read about. The books are an important part of all instruction, not just language arts. By actively reading the texts and listening to the CD the students develop new vocabulary, increase fluency, increase ability to decode words, and improve comprehension.
Grant Recipients 2006-2007
Grant Recipients 2007-2008
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