Title: Raising Healthy, Happy Hands
Level: Elementary
School: New Emerson, New England, Clara Barton & Homeville Elementary Schools , West Mifflin School District
Contact: Deanna Ferchak, Robyn Tedesco, Karen Truax, Christine Chiponis, Jane Rodgers, Dr. Mark Hoover, Donna Inglot
This program promotes staying healthy by employing the simplest but most effect solution – hand washing. Posters featuring “Henry the Hand” and presentations from high school drama students will introduce the Raising Healthy, Happy Hands program. Students will create their own posters for a contest to promote hand washing with the best being displayed in the administration building. Other activities include classroom lessons on hand Hygiene, coloring and activities sheets, and a Glo Germ solution demonstration. This project promotes school wellness and aims to reduce absenteeism.
Title: The Original State Fair
Level: Elementary
School: New England Elementary School, West Mifflin Area School District
Contact: Frank J. Capuzzi, Wendy Kennedy, Karen Trimbath, Lori Jakubovic, Amy Ferguson, Natalie Ciccanti, Shelley Scott, Pat Bevan, Robert Bogesdorfer, Stephanie Toth, Sarah Moreno, Sharon DiThomas, Mara Kramer, Heidi McCracken, Aubrey Beneski, Mary Jane Speaks, Mandi Cambest
The Original State Fair is a cross-curricular activity that gives students the opportunity to showcase their work and interact with others as they see, hear, taste and learn about the original thirteen states. Using a state fair theme and experience students will share their research about each of the states. Each grade level will be responsible for learning about designated states creating brochures, travel posters, bookmark fact sheets, TV commercials, etc. related to their state. On the day of the Sate Fair students will travel from state to state (booths prepared by the classes with the assistance of staff and the PTA) sharing information and even tasting from the state, and a hands-on activity or learning experience for the visitors.
Title: "Happy Bicentennial Birthday" Lincoln
Level: Elementary
School: H. W. Good and Mendon Elementary Schools, Yough School District
Contact: Linda Casey Kustra, Cathleen Laird, Lisa Terzolino, Lynn King, Pam Smith, MaryAnne Sichok
The upcoming national 2009 bicentennial celebration of Lincoln’s birth provides a rare and unique teaching and learning opportunity in all areas of the curriculum and extends into the surrounding communities. Institutions such as libraries, museums, and the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission have already been preparing for this occasion by increasing and developing their educational resources on Lincoln. This project taps into those resources and creates our own Lincoln bicentennial observance. Some activities of this project include in-school newscasts on the progress of the Civil War, a Lincoln Quote of the Day, a Lincoln book club, research on Lincoln and the events of the time from the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and the Library of Congress. Numerous activities across the grade levels and across the curriculum will be ongoing in both of the elementary buildings.
It is the goal of this project and the Yough School District elementary schools to not only use the available Lincoln resources to nurture student skills by sharing their Lincoln legacy knowledge and performing their accomplishments with the community during a “ Happy 200th Birthday Abraham Lincoln Party”, but to instill community awareness and involvement in this extraordinary event. Featured at the party will be a “museum” in the library that will exhibit anniversary artifacts on Lincoln’s life and era, student interactive trunks from Lincoln sites, and student made exhibits. Classrooms will also be transformed into time period historical settings. This grant program will be an impetus to immerse Lincoln’s legacy throughout the school, home and community.
MIDDLE/INTERMEDIATE
LEVEL AWARDS
Title: Walk Across Pennsylvania
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Brownsville Area Middle School, Brownsville Area School District
Contact: Mary S. Seelye
In Walk Across Pennsylvania, students will not only study social studies pertaining to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, practice math skills, gain internet skills, read for knowledge and strengthen their verbal skills, but exercise by walking daily. Each day, students will walk for 15 minutes and will count their steps with a pedometer. At the end of each week they will add the distance walked by all the students and, with a spinner, determine the direction they will travel. Using a map the students will plot their travels and discover the sights and other facts via the Internet about the destination they have reached. Students will learn geography, history, language arts, and math while they walk to keep fit.
Title: Acting It Out!
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Brownsville Area Middle School, Brownsville Area School District
Contact: Bethany Hughes
While students generally react to learning about opera and ballet with moans and groans, this program seeks to positively engage the students by showing them that many of the plots of the opera and ballet address issues similar to those affecting them. Students will be introduced to the plots and characters of each ballet and opera. They will connect changes in the music to the characters’ thoughts and feelings. They will act out plots to selected operas and ballets using props to help them visualize twists and turns in the plot. The disinterest of opera and ballet will disappear and the music and related stories and actions will come alive through “Acting It Out”.
Title: A Look at the World of Animals
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Brownsville Area Middle School, Brownsville Area School District
Contact: Mary S. Seelye
In this program, students will understand that animals are living, feeling beings that often experience the same needs and feelings as they do. The Life Skills students will construct a bird haven with a bird feeder, birdbath and benches in the garden. The entire school and community will be able to enjoy the bird haven and appreciate observing nature.
Title: Strippin' In the Library
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Brownsville Area Middle School, Brownsville Area School District
Contact: Mary S. Seelye
Got your attention? This project introduces graphic novels (a stand-alone story in comics form published as a book) to students to encourage reading and build reading skills. The novels, while fun, build vocabulary and confidence in reading. They will be integrated into the Accelerated Reading Program where students will demonstrate their comprehension of the reading material. In addition, art classes will assist with students making their own comic strips and recreating their favorite part of a story that they have read.
Title: Whose Life Is It Anyway
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Brownsville Area Middle School, Brownsville Area School District
Contact: Martha Davis, Charmagne Clark, Lori Rohrer, Lynne Hartmann, Leanne Orbash, Kathy Werry, Stacy Victor
This program seeks to broaden the scope of literature read by young adults by introducing high interest biographies, especially that of music, movie and sports celebrities. Young adults like to read about celebrities and by tapping into this interest students develop an interest in biographies. The biographies will be integrated into the Accelerated Reading Program. Art will also be connected as students create posters about the celebrities whose life stories they have read. Transferring the interest of reading biographies to writing, students write a biography about a friend, family member or community member. The goal is to improve the quantity and quality of what students read and to improve their reading ability.
Title: Crafts In the Classroom
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Brownsville Area Middle School, Brownsville Area School District
Contact: Mary Seelye
This project helps Life Skills students to develop creativity and imagination. Students will learn to utilize stamps to create words and designs to make posters and cards. As a reward for meeting objectives in writing class students will be permitted to make a special Mother’s Day Card and envelope.
Title: Haunting Holocaust vs. Powerful Peace
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Westinghouse Elementary School, East Allegheny School District
Contact: Kim Sroka, Deb Hlavach, Kelly Lindke
This grant award will create a cross-curricular unit of study based on the historical fiction book, Number the Stars. Students will study the Holocaust then analyze this important part of history with its issues and debate opposing points of view. Students will also participate in a simulation activity and a culminating peace activity.
Title: What a Wonderful World We Could See
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Westinghouse Elementary School, East Allegheny School District
Contact: Jennifer Kolodychak, Louis Gerbi, Peter Drakulic, Hope Gerbi, David Janusek, Martin Casper, Joanne Gummo, Deborah Repak, Marsha Gass
This project seeks to open up a new world to students through the lens of microscopes. Many of the science lessons will come alive as students can see, observe and write about various types of cells, amebas, parts of plants, and numerous other specimens. Students will use charts, graphs, and narrative to record their observations and data.
Title: Bridge to Monessen
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Monessen Middle School, Monesssen City School District
Contact:JoBeth Urcho, Nicole Popelas, Dave Katzman, Eric Miller, Dan Balestreri
This project finds students designing, constructing and implementing a civilization for their own kingdom. Based on Katherine Paterson’s book, Bridge to Terabithia, the students’ goal is to create a place that will alleviate one of the five relevant teenage-level social problems: intolerance, apathy, procrastination, peer pressure, and emotion management. Working cooperatively, students will assume the role of architect, constructor, designer, ambassador and social manager to plan, construct and create the government, religion, specialized works, etc. that have the potential to solve their stated problem. Creative critical thinking, real-life social problem solving and cooperation are the untested skills that students will demonstrate in this exercise.
Title: School-wide Science Olympiad
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Pleasant Hills Middle School, West Jefferson Hills School District
Contact: Jennifer Cramer, Lois Morris, Bill Martinis, Debbie Markwith, Kristin Prezel, Jim Benedek
The goal of the grant project is to encourage students to embrace science and math through a series of hands-on, standards-related activities. All students will participate in the Olympiad in small teams. They will have a team building session and review the events to decide on who will represent the team in various events. Events will include activities that span the curriculum. Students will earn points for their performance at each event and teams will be recognized for a plethora of accomplishments from the Olympiad.
Title: Robotic Renaissance
Level: Middle/Intermediate
School: Pleasant Hills Middle School, West Jefferson Hills School District
Contact: Matthew Betler
This program will enhance the eighth grade Technology Education program by introducing a robotic engineering component. Using NXT robotic kits students will design and develop robots capable of completing instructor designated tasks that requirethe use of light, sound, youth and ultrasonic sensors. In doing so, the students will develop their skills in programming, ratios and proportions, fractions and decimals, measurement, applied geometry, the scientific method, and technology literacy. Students will work in teams to develop the concept robot, build and test the prototype, decide on needed changes and implement them, and produce a final robotic system. A competition will be held with younger students as the audience to foster excitement for the program and the desire to gain the skills for their future participation in the program.
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