Muncie, IN—Local teachers will receive $6,564.48 in Robert P. Bell Education Grants from The Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County, Inc. More than 1,000 students will benefit in this first grant cycle of the academic year.
Awards of up to $450 are available through the Bell Grants program. Funded projects are creative or innovative ideas or programs designed to stimulate learning in students. Delaware County teachers may apply throughout the year over four grant cycles.
This past summer, The Community Foundation established the Robert P. Bell Teacher Grants Fund to permanently endow the program to ensure that teachers have access to funds to help engage their students in meaningful ways for years to come. Individuals can contribute to the new endowment fund to memorialize a special teacher, honor a retiring teacher or teacher celebrating a work anniversary, or to simply show their support for K-12 education in Delaware County.
The next deadline for the second round of grants in the 2016-2017 academic year is December 1, 2016. For more information about Bell Grants applications and the Robert P. Bell Teacher Grants Fund, contact Colton Strawser, Program Officer at cstrawser@cfmdin.org. Information is also available at www.cfmdin.org.
- Christy Bilby and Whitney Whitehair, Albany Elementary School, were awarded $272.30 for second grade students to choose, analyze, and create an animal of their choice based on the non-fiction book “Who Would Win” to battle against peers in the “opposing” classroom. Students will bring their animals to life with 3-D posters and small model habitats and write a supporting essay on why they believe their animal would win in a “battle” in an Ultimate Face-Off between classes.
- Lance Brand, Delta High School, was awarded $351.98 for high school biology students to practice the scientific method through collaborative learning by puzzling a book together as a team. Students will work together to create 3D models of their ideas and presentations to their class using Mystery Tubes, Water Kits, and Data Dilemma models.
- Lisa Brand and Courtney Williams, East Washington Academy, were awarded $153.00 for third grade students to create sweet shop book reports while reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Students will create book reports in the forms of desserts mentioned in the book highlighting various literary components including the books title, author, illustrator, and setting.
- Lynde Bratton, Royerton Elementary School, was awarded $444.64 for fifth grade students to engage in baseball-themed cross curricular learning including math, history, language arts, and business. While reading baseball themed novels, students will study graphical statistics, discuss figurative language, create timelines to understand historical baseball facts, visit virtual museums, and research team history before creating their own team and marketing plan.
- Amanda Bullion, Wes-Del High School, was awarded $238.90 for high school child development students to learn how to make infant mobiles that stimulate intellectual growth. Utilizing infant brain research and technology to design and create their mobiles, students will present the mobiles and defend how the various components can assist with infant brain development.
- Felicia Gray, Burris Laboratory School, was awarded $300.00 for first grade students to participate in an independent reading improvement program “Shine a Light” that encourages a positive reading culture by utilizing personalized reading bags including books students enjoy, a reading journal, pencil, and a flashlight while allowing students to read by flashlight in flexible seating options around the classroom.
- Felicia Gray and Becky Juday, Burris Laboratory School, were awarded $450.00 for first and fifth grade language arts students to engage in creative storytelling by altering famous fairytales to be their own. Fifth grade students will work with first grade students by reading and studying fairy tales and then writing a fractured fairy tale and script in multi-age groups. Students will additionally design and make their own puppets and backdrops and perform their fractured fairy tale for the school community.
- Matt Huber, Kristi Gibson, and Ashley Osterholt, Albany Elementary School, were awarded $449.38 for first grade students to “travel the world,” studying geography, language and culture while also learning about different countries from exchange students who are visiting the United States from various parts of the World. Culminating in a World Showcase during International Education Week, students will create their own passports, keep learning journals, and design a scrapbook to take home.
- Lee Ingles, Cowan Jr./Sr. High School, was awarded $450.00 for high school physical education students to participate in physical fitness activities related to the sport of Lacrosse, creating a new avenue to engage students that may not have previously been exposed to the sport.
- Tiffany Ingles, West View Elementary, was awarded $181.20 for fourth and fifth grade students to learn specific musical selections determined by the Indiana Music Education Association for an annual regional honor choir event and for community performances. Students will participate in musical enrichment activities including working with a guest conductor, improving their ability to read printed music and studying repertoire representing a variety of musical styles, time periods and cultures.
- Becky Juday, Burris Laboratory School, was awarded $385.00 for fifth grade students to participate in a differentiated award based reading program that rewards student readers at all levels for their reading successes by encouraging them to keep track of their individual goals, read in creative ways with flashlights, and rewarding students with prizes geared towards reading including bookmarks, reading journals, and books.
- Ashley Kinsey, Yorktown Middle School, was awarded $273.00 to provide special education students in grades 3 – 8 who receive speech-language services naturalistic communication opportunities by operating and managing a healthy snack school store. The project would encourage students to advance their skills with money and allow students to practice functional communication with peers outside of the therapy room by participating in marketing efforts, budgeting, managing inventory, customer service and operations.
- Karen Kirtley, Delta Middle School, was awarded $119.45 for middle school Family and Consumer Science students to conduct a service-learning project focused on enhancing their sewing skills. Students will create rice heating pads that will be donated to the school clinics and local elderly care facilities.
- Rusty Lumpkin, Cowan Jr./Sr. High School, was awarded $318.00 for junior high science students to witness soil production and decomposition in a classroom bottle garden. Students will layer containers with dirt, sand, and plants to see how soil mixes through the assistance of organic matter such as earthworms and pill bugs over time.
- Rusty Lumpkin, Cowan Jr./Sr. High School, was awarded $385.00 for junior high science students to recycle old paper into homemade construction paper. Students will utilize the recycled construction paper to create brochures and posters informing the community about the importance of recycling.
- John Marsh, Indiana Academy, was awarded $228.00 for high school social studies students to participate in a mock U.S. Presidential Election by participating in the various roles of poll workers and by voting in the nearly identical procedure to live voting on Election Day. Students will tabulate and certify results for actual candidates on the national and state ballot, as well as two mock referendums to be discussed and debated ahead of the election.
- Michael Mayfield, Indiana Academy, was awarded $167.00 for high school anatomy students to study the external circulation and internal structures of their own heart by creating an illustration from a dissected preserved sheep heart and by utilizing computerized probeware to produce a three lead electrocardiogram (ECG) of their own heart. Students will then transfer their illustrative drawings onto the front of a tee-shirt and trace their ECG on the back of the shirt.
- Les McSparrin, Indiana Academy, was awarded $297.00 for senior biochemistry students to have the unique opportunity to learn the same biochemistry procedures with accurate equipment that is currently used in biotechnology labs across the United States by isolating and folding proteins and studying chemotherapy techniques and mutations that cause diseases like sickle cell anemia.
- Pamela Meier-Fisher, Wes-Del High School, was awarded $112.63 for AP English students to dial back technology and create sculptures with Play-Doh to practice critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity by engaging in activities with the Play-Doh such as creating timelines of historical fiction, practicing vocabulary and terminology, defining symbolism in literature, and small group collaborative projects.
- Kiki Pavlechko, Yorktown High School, was awarded $403.68 for high school art students to participate in mix media advanced techniques, including utilizing paste paper and embroidery to encourage more creative types of painting projects and move students out of their comfort zone as artists.
- Jennifer Robinson, Indiana Academy, was awarded $209.07 for high school French students to participate in hand painted pottery traditions of France during National French Week. Students will participate in a two-part workshop, including a historical and cultural presentation and demonstration on Quimper pottery, creating their own pottery pieces with a personalized signature, and exhibiting their art in a school gallery show. Students will also create a pottery item to offer someone in the community.
- Candace Smithson, Cowan Jr./Sr. High School, was awarded $246.80 for high school science students to partner with 2nd grade Science Buddies to encourage learning about the role of a scientist, how to solve projects, how to take descriptive notes, and how to design experiments.
- Susan Speicher and Chris Hannah, Albany Elementary School, were awarded $175.00 for fourth grade social studies students to expand on real-life economic lessons during an Entrepreneur Extravaganza, an opportunity to create services or products that they will “sell” while tracking their own budgets, expenses, and possible profits.
- Leesa Wise, North View Elementary School, was awarded $228.45 for first grade students to complete multiple activities around the topic of owls in a year-long project that incorporates science, social studies, math, language arts, art, music, and physical education. Students will keep “owl binders,” journaling their experiences during weekly “owl activity time” and will visit Camp Adventure to spend the day in a cabin for the final day of research in the spring.
