FALL 2009 AWARDS - $23,730 awarded! (Projects to be completed between 1/1/10 and 6/30/10)

09F-1 Explorations of Leonardo da Vinci (1st year) BSS $950
Jed Dion, Pamela Wicinas
Smith College students in the departments of math, art, and engineering will collaborate with a fifth-grade teacher to design four units, including an introduction and Leonardo’s interdisciplinary work in the three named fields.  Explorations of Leonardo will conclude with individual student projects.  The overall project will be designed so that in future years any fifth grade teacher can conduct it.

09F-2 The Very Hungry Storytellers: Inspiring Young Artists and Authors through Picture Book Art and Bookmaking (1st year) BSS $2,000
Mary Beth O’Connor, Katie Galenski
Eric Carle Museum educators will visit Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade classrooms, to read stories and to talk about book design, production elements, and illustrations.  Second grade students will then author and illustrate their own books.  Finally each second grade class will read, display, and take questions on their completed books during an “Author’s Tea,” to which school staff and families are invited.

09F-3 Creating a School Garden as Outdoor Classroom (2nd year) JSS $2,000
Mary Bates, Aaron Piziali, Mary Ellen Reed, Susan Ebitz
In the first year of this grant a school garden was created that functioned as a viable outdoor classroom.  Teachers spent hundreds of hours designing, creating, and maintaining the garden, coordinating volunteers, and developing related lesson plans.  Students used the garden for a range of lessons – from organisms to seasonal changes, Native American traditions to economics.  In the second year of the project teachers and students, with the help of a consultant, will continue to maintain and cultivate the garden, connecting it with the classroom curriculum.  Organizers will also develop a strategic plan to make the program sustainable, including  connecting it to local farms, promoting healthier eating, and affirming the identity of multi-cultural students.

09F-4 Teacher Round Table (1st year) JSS $308
Mary Bates
In seven after-hours workshops, elementary school teachers will participate in a research group on student thinking and the ways in which classroom teachers can access and understand student learning.  Students benefit from teachers who develop a habit of mind of paying closer attention to student thinking.  They learn how to pay closer attention to their assignments and activities, and begin to see themselves and their classmates as thinkers. 

09F-5 MOVIExperience (1st year) JSS $2,000
Cathy Santosus, Gwen Agna, Nancy Fletcher, Veronica Rahal Haddad
An eight-week after-school workshop will be offered on improvised moviemaking.  The project intends to help build character and confidence among 4th and 5th grade girls from a cross-section of socio-economic backgrounds using a tested technique that combines improvisation and video.  The video created by the workshop will be screened at school and on Northampton Community Television.  A subsequent workshop will be offered to boys and girls.

09F-6 Ewe Drumming (1st year) JSS/RKFRR            $2,000
Kim O’Connell
Ewe drumming is a complex tradition from West Africa.  Workshops and classes will be held for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders at both schools on drumming, lyrics, and basic dance steps.   A master drummer will teach exercises using patterns and movements.  The students’ work will culminate with concerts in March.

09F-7 For Whom the “Belle” Tolls (2nd year) JSS/NHS $1,997
Susan Ebitz, Suzanne Strauss
After studying aspects of Emily Dickinson’s biography and poetry, students at NHS and fourth graders at JSS will partner four times for the purpose of developing and deepening their understanding of Dickinson and the beauty of her work.  Docents from the Emily Dickinson Museum will visit and share artifacts and background material appropriate to the development of the students.  Later, the two school groups will visit the museum together and use Dickinson’s poetry as a model to write their own poems at the very place where she composed 1800 pieces.

09F-8 Parent Math Nights (2nd year) Leeds $1,790
Michele Subocz, Kathy Lajoie, Ruth Mackenzie
The goal of this project is to increase mathematics achievement by providing information to parents so they can support their children at home in making sense of mathematics.  Two evening sessions for parents will be led by seven classroom teachers from a range of grade levels.

09F-9 Friends of Charlotte (2nd year) RKFRR            $947
Susan Lavallee, Barbara Kowalski, Lynne Lovett
Fourth graders will read Charlotte’s Web and, together with kindergartners, create a story board to depict each chapter. They will then take part in drawing lessons, create “Barnyard posters” to be displayed in the school’s entry, and write.  Finally, fourth graders will help teachers escort kindergarteners as they attend a live theater production of Charlotte’s Web by THEATERWORKS USA.

09F-10 Three Cups of Tea (1st year) JFK  $1,400
Dinah Mack, Tracy Dawson-Greene
In preparation for classroom activities, the two teachers will attend a workshop at Bard College.  Then, using the book Three Cups of Tea, they will lead all the 7th-grade classes in: participating in literature groups for reading and discussing the book, conducting research about issues in south and southwest Asia, and participating in cooperative learning groups to explore issues of social justice.  By reading this non-fiction book and applying it to “real life,” students should achieve a sense of accomplishment and also an understanding that one person or a dedicated group can have a positive effect on people in other parts of the world. 

09F-11 Science Fair (2nd year) JFK $950
Kate Parrott, Lesley Wilson, Phil Korman
During class and after-school sessions, teachers will work with students to develop projects tied to the science curriculum and well-suited for exhibition.  A science exposition will then be held over two days, with students presenting their work in locations around the school.  The PTO will host an evening reception for students, parents and teachers.   In response to student requests, this year’s projects will be judged and ten grand prize winners will be selected.

09F-12 Recyclones Reach Out (1st year) JFK $2,000
Julie Spencer-Robinson, Kathy Adamcik, Liz Albertson, Amy Burlingame
Sixth grade students on the Recyclones team will read a book that addresses one of three social issues: hunger and poverty, war and US troops, and physical and cognitive disabilities.  Then students will learn how these issues are manifest in their own community.  Finally, students will help design and implement service projects to meet local needs related to each issue, e.g. a food drive, writing letters to the troops, or together with JFK students with disabilities visiting pediatric residents at Northampton Nursing Home.

09F-13  Invention Convention (1st year) JFK $325
Liz Albertson, Jon Henry, Jim Kohrman, Ken McDonald
After learning about the design process, inventors, and common inventions, all sixth graders will design and build their own inventions.  Inventions will be presented to the whole school and the community at large during the Invention Convention.

09F-14  Child Soldiers throughout the World (1st year) Smith Voke $842
Emily-Ann Dumais
In the 11th grade “World Cultures and Geography” class, students will do an in-depth study of child soldiers in Sierra Leone.  They will then study the phenomenon in other parts of Africa and the world, expanding their knowledge of geography, history, and political conflicts and wars.  The curriculum will include discussion, reading a biography of a former child soldier, mapping, researching the issue as it is manifested on different continents, watching a documentary, and listening to a guest speaker with experience working with former child soldiers.

09F-15  Voices in Theater (3rd year) FLC $1,000
Chip Kaufman, Heidi Haas
A theater consultant will work with students to accomplish the following goals:  1) identify the different roles/voices they have in their worlds, 2) find ways to share those voices through theater, 3) appreciate theater, 4) feel safe enough to take more risks in improv games and exercises, and 5) create an original theater piece themselves.

09F-16            Chemistry Olympiad Competition (2nd year) NHS $1,471
Susan Biggs
Forty-three AP and Honors Chemistry students will attend the local Chemistry Olympiad competition in March of 2010, with the prospect of sending individuals on to the national and international Olympiads.  NHS teams have had impressive results in past years, including, in 2004 and 2009, sending two students to the nationals.

09F-17 Connecticut Science Center AP Trip (1st year) NHS $1,750
Amy Johnson, Susan Biggs, Leslie Prudhomme
The three AP science teachers will spend a day working with museum educators to plan a program for students in the three AP classes.  Approximately 90 students will take part in the field trip in late May, during the period after the AP exams and before the end of the school year. This grant will lay the groundwork for a yearly educational experience for students who choose AP science courses.

SPRING 2009 AWARDS - $15,975 awarded! (Projects to be completed between 7/1/09 and 6/30/10)

09S-1 Yoga in the Classroom (1st year) Leeds $2,000
Hollie Marron, Janet Spearance, Karen Bryant
Eight teachers will take part in classes to learn yoga, and in after-school sessions they will be trained and supported as they use yoga in their classrooms.

09S-2 Inspiring Young Writers (2nd yr) RFKRR $2,000
Margaret Riddle, Paula Drabek, Cindy Berry, Michele Andrews, Greg Kerstetter
The goal of this project is to inspire students to write fluently. A consultant will lead a series of eight writing workshops in third and fifth grade classrooms. As a result, students will be able to recognize the strengths in their pieces and teachers will learn how to lead the workshops themselves. Each student's favorite piece will be published in a class booklet. In addition, a writing workshop for the entire faculty will be offered so that other grade levels may benefit.

09S-3 Middle School Mentors (1st year) JFK, RFKRR $2,000
Linda Hamashima Umbach, Sal Canata
Fifteen JFK students will be trained to become peer mentors, and then be paired with RFKRR students as part of the after-school program. An adult advisor and several after-school coordinators will provide the training and program oversight. At the end of each peer mentoring session, the JFK student mentors and their advisor will meet for processing, support, and additional training.

09S-4 Jazz Education for Middle Schoolers (1st year) JFK $2,000
Claire-anne Williams
This project will introduce 140 traditional band students to styles, influences, and practitioners of jazz. Subsequently, 20-25 jazz band students, in grades 6-8, will take part in three hands-on skill-building clinics led by Northampton-area musicians. New arrangements will be acquired and the school's band drum will be upgraded. The band leader will lead weekly jazz band rehearsals.

09S-5 Dance! Baile! Drum! (2nd year) JFK $1,000
Julie Spencer-Robinson
TSeventy-five sixth-graders will learn Latin American and West African dance from native teachers. The two weeks of intensive dance and drumming instruction complement the varied approach to teaching about Latin America and Africa, which will also include reading and writing, researching chosen topics, cooking food from the regions, and creating Latin American and African art projects.

09S-6 Literacy Through Photography (3rd year) NHS $1,000
Kate Way, Michael Jacobson-Hardy
This year-long project will serve fifteen to twenty "underachieving" students, who will borrow the project's cameras to document their lives, both in and outside of school. The focus will be on combining written and visual literacy as a means of expression, and on producing work of quality and depth which reflects the students' lives. The final phase of the project will be to select and combine various photographs and writing from each student into a group show to be exhibited in the area. At each step along the way, students will be learning skills deeply embedded in both language and image-based literacy.

09S-7 Art and the Three R's (reduce, reuse, recycle) (1st year) NHS $1250
Martha McCormick
The Graphic Design class will design logos or other "Green" designs for reusable shopping bags and possibly tee shirts, and print them using the silkscreen method. These items could be used by the students themselves, for art department fundraising, and/or for funding to replenish printing supplies to continue this project.

09S-8 Culinary Competition (2nd year) SVAHS $2,000
Nelson Lacey
All interested students take part in eight weeks of after-school training in the areas of menu building and design, food cost, plate presentations, garnishing, hands-on practice with different foods, equipment and cooking methods, and practice working in competition-like conditions. Five students will be selected to take part in the state-wide Pro-Start culinary competition, with a chance at advancing to the national level.

09S-9 Exploring Ocean Ecosystems (1st year) SVAHS $1725
Mary Belge
TStudents in the Environmental Science class will supplement their study of ocean ecosystems and the effects of climate change with a day-long field trip to the New England Aquarium and a whale watch, where they will be accompanied by a marine educator. It is anticipated that this will be the first time that some of the students have seen the ocean.

09S-10 Veterans in the Classroom (3rd year) SVAHS $1,000
Rob Wilson, Kathy Brown, Matthew Gilbert
The project will bring volunteer veteran speakers, trained by the Veterans Education Project (VEP), into classrooms to give presentations that will complement the History, English, Health, Violence Prevention, and Substance Abuse Prevention curricula. Speakers will share compelling stories about important historical eras, drawn from wartime and civilian life experiences, from the 1940s to the present.

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Last Updated: July 15,2009