The Consortium for Public Education

The Consortium For Public Education is a member of the Public Education Network.

The Consortium For Public Education • 410 Ninth Street, McKeesport, PA 15132 • 412-678-9215 (phone) 412-678-1698 (fax)

GRANT AWARDS
Round 47 - Fall, 2010

PRIMARY/ELEMENTARY
LEVEL AWARDS

Title:Everything’s Coming Up Roses… or Green Beans, or Marigolds…
Level: Elementary
School: Cardale Elementary School, Brownsville Area School District
Contact: Jolene Hough, Melanie Brosky, Brandee Chrobak, Olivia Frazier, Glenda Freas, Rebecca Harvey, Scott Hruby, Jackie Korber, Melissa Lofgren, Carolyn Marucci, Suzanne Morris, Paula Petrie, Lynn Reed, Dana Roebuck, Angela Ryan, Kim Sheehan, Kelli Stout, Lisa Swartz, Abby Thompson, Nancy Thompson, Erin Tisot

In an effort to maintain and increase student proficiency in science, this project will give students at all grade levels an opportunity to grow plants year-round at school. While the primary focus of growing various plants is to enhance life science, biology and weather lessons, it will also be integrated into math by creating charts, graphs, diagrams, measuring, addition, and subtraction. Also in Language Arts, students will be reading and writing related to their planting experience.

Title: Tune Into Fluency
Level: Elementary
School: Chartiers Valley Primary School, Chartiers Valley School District
Contact: Rochelle Territ, Robin Moore

This program will add music to reading class in order to build reading fluency. Three times each week students will use repetitive, choral and echo reading along with musical instruments to build reading proficiency. They will build skills through rhyme and phoneme segmentation using rhythm sticks. Students will strengthen vocabulary (with singing) and spelling (using shakers). They will model proper voice and expression through repeated readings and singing. The reading interventions will be integrated with science, social studies and math content. Finally, students will showcase their reading fluency in a year-end production, “Tune Into Fluency”.

Title: Welcome Aboard the Fairy Tale Train
Level: Elementary
School: Clairton Elementary School, Clairton School District
Contact: Pamela Black, Andrea Baker, Nancy DeMedio, Amy Dooley, Cheryl Englert, Shana Mignogna, Nina Ohm

This program will promote a love of reading and build reading/writing skills through a variety of activities including community/parent guest readers, buddy reading between second graders and kindergarten students, performance, writing original stories/poems, and solving math/social studies problems based on the stories read. Students will be exposed to a variety of stories and games to build skills and develop a love for reading.

Title: The Heart of the Community
Level: Elementary
School: Fairless Elementary School, Woodland Hills School District
Contact: Rachel Scholze, Jean Livingston

This grant will initiate a Service Club comprised of students in the upper elementary grades. Through participation in this activity students will develop leadership/organization skills and compassion for others as they plan and carry out school/community service projects. Students will lead the effort for school-wide service projects such as collect for Treats for Troops, hosting a talent show for Make-a-Wish, pairing with younger students to make cards/pillows for a nursing home, etc. Students also hope to improve intergroup relations within the school through mentoring, seasonal group activities and anti-bullying lessons. Finally, the students will work to increase parental involvement and improve community relations by sponsoring various family events such as Fall Festival, Winter Craft Night, and Community Clean-up Day. Through this program, older students can develop important life skills and a positive school culture will develop.

MIDDLE/INTERMEDIATE LEVEL AWARDS

Title: CSI Investigation: Putting Science Skills to the Test
Level: Intermediate/Middle
School: Mount Vernon Intermediate School, Elizabeth Forward School District
Contact: Andrea Solomon, Elena Vogel, Janet Iacone

Through participation in this grant project, students learn scientific method via becoming a student CSI in the classroom. As students investigate problems and mysteries, they will employ all senses, apply science, math and reading skills, and create a presentation to demonstrate their evidence and conclusions.
The goal is to enhance students’ critical thinking and inquiry skills in a hands-on engaging way.

Title: Buddies Club
Level: Intermediate/Middle
School: Greensburg Salem Middle School, Greensburg Salem School District
Contact: Christine Metzer, Julie Romagnoli

The Buddies Club is a mentoring program for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students who serve as friends, role models, and teachers to their peers with disabilities in academic, social, and functional life skills. Through organized educational activities, games and service programs within the school and community, students learn from one another, take pride in helping the community, and have a positive impact on the school building culture. Students in the club will also promote the anti-bullying program by modeling behavioral expectations. A primary goal of the program is to help students with disabilities obtain and build skills to gain as much independence as possible.

Title: Teaching 21st Century Technologies with Modern Tools
Level: Intermediate/Middle
School: Laurel Highlands Middle School, Laurel Highlands School District
Contact: Larry Frank, Shaun Valente

The goal of this program is to help students to become technologically literate by introducing them to 21st century tools and equipment. This project helps transform the Industrial Arts Shop to a Technology Education Lab where students are introduced to and master engineering design, production, testing and analysis. The student learning outcomes of this project include (but not limited to) comparing and contrasting concept sketches and design sketches, analyzing design rules, using CAD software, assembling/testing /inspecting a CO2 dragster, and creating a product portfolio. Students will gain “real world” experiences and will explore career paths in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.

Title: Greenhouse Effect with a Side of Salsa
Level: Intermediate/Middle
School: Steel Valley Middle School, Steel Valley School District
Contact: Beth McCallister, Sara Sullivan, Mike Hofbauer, Steve Large

Greenhouse Effect with a Side of Salsa project allows students to expand their work in the outdoor classroom and expand the growing season through the addition of a greenhouse. The greenhouse project will be incorporated into math (measuring and calculating cost, blueprint layouts for the transfer of greenhouse plants to the garden), social studies (understanding the greenhouse effect and growing season maps), science (investigating soil samples and parts of plants), Tech. Ed (building and maintaining the greenhouse) and language arts (writing in journals and creating garden inspired poetry). While enriching the academic opportunities for the students is a primary goal of this project, it is also a goal to have students successfully work in teams building pride in their accomplishments and their school. The culminating activity will be harvesting the garden produce and making salsa to be shared in celebration.

HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL AWARDS

Title: Trout in the Classroom
Level: High School
School: Brownsville Area High School, Brownsville Area School District
Contact: Kathy Lacek, Jane Bock

In this program, students in Environment and Ecology classes will raise brook trout from eggs to fingerlings and release them into a cold-water stream. Throughout the program students will investigate water quality, determine suitable trout habitat, explore the trout life cycle, describe factors of egg and fry survival and understand cold-water ecosystems. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission will offer help for this program, as well as, technical support by Pennsylvania Trout Unlimited.

Title: Research and Development Lab Promotes Science, Technology, Engineering and Math
Level: High School
School: Central Westmoreland CTC
Contact: John Kovach, Michael Albright, Debbie Grindle

Understanding Research and Development is becoming increasingly important for all technicians. This grant program will give students the opportunity to experience an accurate simulation of the collaborative research and development process used by leading manufacturers. Students will use the lab to enhance cross-disciplinary, problem-solving activities that incorporate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Students from the various technical shops will collaborate to handcraft experimental prototypes of guitars and then select a design for mass production. The project creates a real-world experience that mirrors practices used in manufacturing.

Title: Greenhouse
Level: High School
School: Forbes Road CTC
Contact: Georgiana Gamberoni, Jim Gould, Christine Miranda, Jack Ferguson, Tony Kresicki, Dan Shorthouse

Through this project, students in Landscape and Design, Building and Construction, HVAC, Electrical Technology and Culinary Arts will collaborate in the construction, horticulture, ongoing maintenance and product use of an on-site greenhouse. Students will construct the greenhouse following blueprints and schematics. They will install electricity, heating, ventilation and air conditioning to sustain plant growth year-round in the greenhouse. Students will design the interior layout of the greenhouse selecting appropriate plants, shrubs and plants for use by the school campus, and vegetables and herbs for the culinary program. All aspects of the project are student driven and build competencies in each of the technical studies involved.

Title: Fitness Walking Trail
Level: High School
School: Forbes Road CTC
Contact: Nancy Jakicic, Jim Cristillo, Janel Perretta, Jack Ferguson

The goal of this program is to introduce students to a lifetime of fitness by utilizing outdoor activities to promote health and wellness. Collaboration between Physical Education, Landscaping, Building and Construction and Commercial Arts programs will result in the design, construction and utilization of a fitness nature trail on the school campus. The building programs will create the trail, install the fitness stations and the Commercial Arts students will create informative and educational signage for use on the trail. Accommodations of this fitness trail and the circuit activities are adapted for all ages and levels of fitness. Once the initial phase has been completed students in physical education classes will utilize the fitness trail, participate in wellness units, understand the five fitness components, and develop their own personal fitness plan. The trail will become an ongoing component of the physical education curriculum.

Title: School and Community News and Sports Coverage
Level: High School
School: Laurel Highlands Senior High School, Laurel Highlands School District
Contact: Paula O’Connell, Jason Kurek, Earl Wingrove, Matthew Kalich

This program will give high school students the opportunity to help produce a TV segment that will feature community service documentaries, as well as, news and sports broadcasts for the local community. Students will be able to explore various careers in broadcasting and gain the related academic (writing, interviewing, listening, speaking) and technical skills (filming, editing, story/program production). Community volunteers and a partnership with California University’s CUTV will be part of this program.

Title: Music Technology for the 3rd Millennium
Level: High School
School: Steel Valley High School, Steel Valley School District
Contact: Bradley Thompson, Sharon Ellis, Rebecca Russell, Ed Wehrer

Through this grant program students will use the latest technology and software to be able to write, produce, videotape, record, and edit original music compositions. In music technology, students will be introduced to and master various new technologies related to music such as how to create a loop progression (in order to change the pitch of loops) using Apple Loops and integrating nursery rhymes, percussion and sound effects to create Nursery Palooza. In addition, the program will add teaching piano to middle and high school general music classes that will give students valuable preparation for music technology classes. This program will also be utilized during the school district’s summer enrichment program.