Innovative Teaching Grant Recipients • Spring 2005

Communication for Success - $417.90
Christina Rakow • Amy Parks-Heath Elementary School
Communication for Success focuses on helping kindergarten through sixth grade students with an identified speech-language disorder. Through performance based activities, students have enhanced independent evaluation of discrimination of auditory information, thus promoting effective verbal communication.

Explorers’ Zone - $995.52
Mary Akin • Howard Dobbs Elementary School
Explorers’ Zone opened a world of multi-media research and presentation options to first grade students of varying abilities, cultures, and socio-economic groups. Students investigated, discovered and chose to compile their own information in a number of ways: creating books, scrapbooks, presentation boards, and making a personal CD movie on individualized areas of interest. All of the class projects were then filmed and captured on a class DVD entitled, “Explorers’ Zone.” Subjects of reading, writing, art, science, math, geography, and computer/internet/video technology were all combined on this grant project. Students were able to experience creating something of their own, as well as enjoying the contributions of others. Parents and administrators were invited to the Explorers’ Zone presentation of the DVD movie that was made. It was exciting to see youngsters enjoy the learning process, strengthen academic skills, and make memories they wanted to keep and share.

Exploring the River of Earth Science Fun! - $806.78
Julie Anne Anderson • Dorothy Smith Pullen Elementary School
Exploring the River of Earth Science Fun! was an exciting hands-on earth science project for fifth graders. Students used a stream table to create rivers to study erosion and river formations. Next, students operated a digital camera to create “aerial photos” that were used to compare their simulations to images of real world rivers. These images were retrieved through the Internet during a “mission” using state-of-the-art ISSEarth KAM technology. Exploring the River of Earth Science Fun! Motivated my fifth graders and hopefully cultivated a life long interest in science.

ImPRESSions of the Past: Communicating Our Future - $1,000.00
Melissa Ann Boone • Doris Cullins-Lake Pointe Elementary School
Students learned about the history behind graphic design and typography, including process printing. They created printing plates which were then inked and ‘process’ printed multiple prints, layering different colors. Students were able to see and experience the printing process, start to finish, from the planning and development stages of printing plates, operating a printing press and pulling the actual prints from the plates. (A select number of prints were mounted, displayed and placed into the Art Auction at 2006 Celebration.)

Inventor’s K’NEX-tion - $3,760.68
Kathy Adams, Jamie Brown and Cheryl Kelly • Doris Cullins-Lake Pointe Elementary School, Dorothy Smith Pullen Elementary School, Grace Hartman Elementary School and Ouida Springer Elementary School+
From pulleys to levers, to seesaws to solar powered dune buggies, our creative kids used their imaginations to explore the notions and motions of energy and simple machines. In the process of connecting classroom experiences to the real world, students created their own inventions. We requested funding for K’NEX building sets, simple machine science kits, and academic resources to set our exciting hands-on investigation of energy and simple machines in motion. This unit was kinetic with exponential potential for building loads of learning and fun, as our inventors used team work, creative problem solving, and inventive thinking to harness their imaginations and energy.

It’s All Greek to Me ! - $1,933.50
Lana Bambico, Colleen Kosterman, Janice Longino, Mike McMahon, Kristi Mouse, Peggy Mumford, Jan Stonestreet and Noelle White • Amy Parks-Heath Elementary School
Sixth grade students participated in a day long Greek Festival which included dressing in ancient Greek clothing, acting in a Greek theater production, working math problems using abacuses, painting Greek vases, singing and learning Greek dances, and participating in a simulation of the ancient Greek Olympics. Students were served authentic Greek cuisine for lunch while they enjoyed listening to Greek music. The journey back to ancient Greece was a memorable experience for all sixth grade students, teachers, and parent volunteers.

Money Matters: Investing for OUR Future - $381.50
Kathy Adams and Cheryl Kelly • Grace Hartman Elementary School and Doris Cullins-Lake Pointe Elementary School
Each team of students entered The Stock Market Game which consisted of a 10-week simulation that allowed participants to invest a hypothetical $100,000 in the stock market. Each team strived to create the best-performing portfolio using a live, Internet-based trading simulation.

Robotic Rox - $939.00
Sharon Parker • Virginia Reinhardt Elementary School
Sixth grade students, with a little guidance from some high school students involved with robotics, learned engineering skills by designing, building and programming a robot.

Science Students Being Scientists - $958.80
Ursula Rakow • Maurine Cain Middle School
Eighth grade science students often have difficulty realizing that a graph is a mathematical representation of a real life situation. This activity ties physical motion to a graph and helps students overcome this problem. Concepts of distance, time, and velocity are reinforced, and students gain experience using a probe with a data collection device. The students will understand how a probe functions and how it is used in many life situations. They will see that the probe emits a sonic beam that extends out in a cone-like fashion. When the beam hits an object, it bounces back and the probe detects it. This experience can be related to mapping the ocean floor, weather mapping, detecting the speed of vehicles, and geological mapping. The probe and graphing calculator reinforces visually principles that have been explained many times in classroom instruction.

Storytelling Safari - $3,864.69
Renee Cecil, Sylvia Fernandez and Jennifer Rabe • Dorris A. Jones Elementary School
Pre-Kindergarten students took a journey through Cultural Country, Rhyming River, Helpers’ Hill, Language Lake, Math Mountain, Letter Land, and Science City with books and manipulatives. In each area the students were involved in activities and hands-on projects and had fun while learning!

What’s Bugging You? - $946.49
Melissa Peralez • Amanda Rochell Elementary School
Kindergarten students observed the cycles of insects, tadpoles, and chickens. Through the observations of ladybugs and butterflies, the students took an active approach to learning by writing and completing models of the changes that occurred during the units. On the last day of school, the students released the ladybugs and butterflies that had been raised in the classroom.