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Latest Great Idea Grants run the gamut

From a mock archeological dig to a video documentary project, proposals funded in the latest round of Great Idea Grants presented a dozen ways of making classroom learning more tangible or relevant for students.

The dig, at Elizabeth Forward Middle School, will help sixth graders apply and reinforce lessons about other civilizations as they unearth and examine “artifacts” that might have come from them. The video documentary project at Laurel Highlands High School will enable 200 sophomores, juniors and seniors to use filmmaking to explore their communities and possible career paths.

Those were just two of 12 projects that The Consortium’s Regional Review Committee selected from among 34 applications.

“The diversity of submissions was really excellent,” said Patti Hoke, Program Coordinator for Great Idea Grants. “Our committee saw all grade levels and academic disciplines represented among the applications and our members were very pleased with the number of projects that encompassed multiple disciplines.” Cross-disciplinary projects not only create collaborations among teachers and classes, they also stimulate learning from different perspectives, she added.

GRANT AWARDS
Round 49 - Fall, 2011

Pre-K/PRIMARY/ELEMENTARY LEVEL AWARDS

Title: Recycled Renaissance
Level: Elementary
School: Bentworth Elementary Center, Bentworth School District
Contact: Joy Gazi, Emily Masa, Virginia Vasko, Brian Nath

In Recycled Renaissance elementary students recycle, rethink and recreate works of art in multi-disciplinary themes and a cross-curricular approach to creativity. Students will employ the three R’s of Recycle, Reuse, and Rethink in several subjects (Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, Music) and especially Art where they will engage in several creative projects including creating a Trash-formation Sculpture, Recycled Material Printmaking, Dryer Lint Clay, Cardboard Tube Sea Life Creatures, etc. Students will also learn and practice techniques to save water, electricity and materials throughout the building and school day. Recycling is the method but creativity is the intended result.

Title: Trailblazers Program
Level: Elementary
School: Hutchinson Elementary School, Laurel Highlands School District
Contact: Eric Gaydos, and school staff

The goal of this project is to create a school/community nature and fitness trail on school grounds. The trail will include several exercise and stretching stations, as well as nature stations on the banks of the trail that would include birdhouses and a butterfly garden. Physical fitness classes will be utilizing the trail for PE lessons and science classes will incorporate nature lessons into their curriculum. This project will connect to another initiative that will create an outdoor classroom.

Title: An Author Centered Year
Level: Elementary
School: Clara Barton Elementary School, West Mifflin Area School District
Contact: Jill Jakub, Jennifer Zitelli, Heather Vidic

An Author Centered Year is a literature-based program designed to enhance children’s reading, writing and speaking skills by introducing and discussing a popular author and story each month. The children will learn about the author, be introduced to a story and research about other books by the author. During the month the students will get to take home a second book by the designated author to share with their family and create a story map and journal entry. The program will provide enriching language experiences for the children enhancing reading fluency and comprehension.

Title: Authors of the Academy (AOA)
Level: Elementary
School: Woodland Hills Academy, Woodland Hills School District
Contact: Dolly Heineman, Debbie Kritikos, Shannon Fitzwater, Venneasha Davis, Kellie Moreno

In this grant, students will write and publish children’s books for use in the primary classrooms. Using the StoryJumper website, students will write a story as a class followed by the development of their own original stories. Once the story is published, the authors will visit a primary classroom to share their work. The student author will leave their legacy through their book to be placed in the classroom and school library. The story may also be read on-line. While writing skills of some students are being honed, this project also hopes to encourage reading by getting students to read the works of other students.

MIDDLE/INTERMEDIATE LEVEL AWARDS

Title: Can You Dig It?
Level: Intermediate/Middle
School: Elizabeth Forward Middle School, Elizabeth Forward School District
Contact: Teresa McCracken, Lisa Tiberio, Jeff Stolkovich, Christina Parker

In “Can You Dig It?” students will learn about archaeology from professionals in the field of anthropology and archaeology and take part in a mock archaeological dig. Artifacts (authentic and student-made) that reflect the characteristics of various civilizations studied in Social Studies will be part of the dig. Using prior knowledge and research, students will analyze their findings to draw conclusions about the past. A mini-museum will showcase the student’s findings and help students understand the importance of preserving history.

Title: Where in the World?
Level: Intermediate/Middle
School: Francis McClure Intermediate School, McKeesport Area School District
Contact: Amy Dellapenna, Dr. Cathy Lobaugh, Jessica Zuber, Natalie Hartley, Kim Ursiny, Amanda Hyslop, Jill Lape, Patty Scales

The idea behind this project is to engage students in active, authentic learning experiences through a partnership with a local university’s science and health methods course. College students will plan, implement and assess project-based learning around biomes. The college students’ plans will be enhanced by classroom teachers’ integration of fiction and nonfiction literature along with hands-on math and science lessons and activities with the project. Activities include but are not limited to: reading fiction and nonfiction focused on the biomes theme, writing informational and creative pieces in journals centered around the science center biome activities, exploring and researching biomes through videos and computer exploration, and the creation of classroom biomes and greenhouse. Students’ reading, writing, science and math lessons will be enriched through this applied learning program and university partnership.

Title: The Speed Trap
Level: Intermediate/Middle
School: South Allegheny Middle/High School, South Allegheny School District
Contact: Bill Chessman, Tim Rizhel, Becky Fallert, Doug Marinos, Jayne Sweet, Mike Crown, Hal Minford, Bonnie Brock, Jason Rusich, Mike Fallert, Gary Kristen

This grant creates a transportation-safety themed program using mousetrap-powered cars to teach concepts in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM). Working in teams, students will employ scientific inquiry in the process of designing, testing and redesigning a mousetrap-powered vehicle. In addition to applying core concepts from several subject areas (physics, math and industrial design) to their work, students will make connections to driving and transportation safety throughout the program. Art classes will also engage students in lessons on form and function, line and color, optical illusion and sponsorship. This STEAM study will culminate with a “car show” event to showcase the students’ work.

Title: The Worms Crawl In, The Worms Crawl Out…
Level: Intermediate/Middle
School: Steel ValleyMiddle School, Steel Valley School District
Contact: Beth McCallister, Sara Sullivan, Steve Large

This project finds students getting down and dirty by recycling and composting materials that will be used in the school’s outdoor classroom complex, especially the vegetable garden and bird/butterfly garden. Using cafeteria scraps and a worm-lab, students will make compost for use in the greenhouse and gardens. Tech students will build the composters and others will apply their math and science lessons to develop the right mix for effective composting. In addition, language arts lessons and creative writing will be built around the garden and worm theme.

HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL AWARDS

Title: Energy Conservation
Level: High School
School: Forbes Road CTC
Contact: Georgianna Gamberoni, Tony Kresicki, Matt Bornak

This idea has students from HVAC, Building Construction and Electrical Technology building an energy efficient playhouse with the heating source being from a recycled pop can solar energy panel. Students from the involved programs will collaborate to construct the playhouse incorporating the proposed alternate heating source. The completed playhouse will be used by the school’s day care center and the pop can solar energy panel will be a prototype for other buildings on site.

Title: Create an Apple APP Store App
Level: High School
School: Forbes Road CTC
Contact: George Karnbauer, Beverly Koch, Eric Pino, Janel Perretta

The idea behind this project is to have students from many different vocational programs collaborate, brainstorm and create an App to be available on the Apple Store site. Students from Information Systems and Gaming will learn about how to create an App while students from Multimedia and Commercial Art classes learn about types of video and visual files needed to make an App. Computer Networking and Security classes will learn about Cloud based services and servers. Together the students will work as a team for their final project experiencing a hands-on entrepreneur activity.

Title: Career and Community Exploration Through Documentary Creation and Production
Level: High School
School: Laurel Highlands High School, Laurel Highlands School District
Contact: Paula O’Connell, Earl Wingrove, Mark Santore, Jason Kurek

Through this grant, groups of students will work together to develop a performance or exploration project, discover and interact with resource people in the community, and then create and produce a video program for the local access TV station. The project will aid the students in exploring their interests and talents, honing communication skills, gaining technical skills, and learning about their community through a direct, real world experience.

Title: Food for Thought
Level: High School
School: West Mifflin Area High School, West Mifflin Area School District
Contact: Veronica Mattson, Stacey Rutherford, Jaclyn Rutherford, Daneen Peremba, Linda Turner,
Jeff Kuzma, Marc Gambino, Scott Mizener

Since fresh food can increase a family grocery bill by 10%, many people forgo fresh items and do not eat a healthy diet. This grant project seeks to change that by engaging the students and residents of the school district to grow and eat healthy food by spreading community gardens throughout the district. Working with the local garden club, food bank and master gardeners through Penn State Extension, twelve families will be trained to begin and maintain gardens. Students from the chemistry class will perform soil tests. The food classes will grow herbs and use them in their menus. The graphics class will design and produce signs for the program. The woodworking classes will build raised gardening beds. The community garden program will begin with weekly evening classes in the greenhouse. During the summer the families will maintain the gardens with the support of the teachers involved.