FAYETTEVILLE -- Teachers from the Fayetteville School District will buy a dog mannequin, sewing machines and tools for projects designed to help students learn through experience.
The Fayetteville Public Education Foundation on Thursday named 19 teachers who are recipients of a combined $103,466.73 in spring grants from the foundation. The announcement was made during a news conference in the Matthew William Moore Library at Fayetteville High School.
Fayetteville Teacher Grants
The Fayetteville Public Education on Thursday announced more than $103,000 in grants:
SchoolNameAmount*Project
Agee-Lierly Life Preparation & Services CenterLuke Adams$3,500*Participation of 30 students in the National History Day Contest
AsbellAudrey Caldwell$3,500*100 nonfiction e-books and matching hardcover titles
Asbell, Butterfield Trail, Holcomb, Washington, Owl Creek Pre K-7 SchoolMarjo Burk$18,500*iPads and library media specialists to help children develop digital literacy skills
Butterfield Trail, Happy HollowJenny Gammill$1,976.72*Tinkering studios for fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms
Butterfield Trail, Happy Hollow, Holcomb, Leverett, Owl Creek Pre-K-7thKathleen Hale$2,817.22*Books and educational materials in science, technology, engineering, art and math for 120 prekindergarten students
Fayetteville High SchoolJade Cameron$25,000*Hands-on learning in veterinary medicine for more than 400 high school students
Fayetteville High SchoolEmery Faulkner$3,650*Partnership with UA graduate electrical engineering students to build quadcopters
Fayetteville High SchoolDawnelle Fincher$750*Performance at Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Fayetteville High SchoolBarry Harper$2,500*New music for marching band
Fayetteville High SchoolJohn Hart$4,535.88*More than 150 students will create videos to enhance algebra curriculum
Fayetteville High SchoolWarren Rosenaur$6,000*Sewing machines for students learning basic sewing, fashion design and costuming
Fayetteville High SchoolKatie Stueart$1,500*Publication of Connotations, the school literary magazine
Fayetteville High SchoolRick Ternes$1,200.91*New soccer goals and balls for intramural sports
Fayetteville High SchoolAnna Beaulieu$3,000*Language competition for more than 500 students in the World Languages Department
LeverettMaurissa Robers$15,000*Engineering labs for 300 kindergarten through fifth-graders
RamayLouAnn Hays$450*AirZooka toys that blast balls of air to teach eighth-graders about waves
RamayLori Linam$2,800*New Introduction to Multimedia class
Ramay and WoodlandAmy Blevins$4,986*German teacher to study abroad in Austria
WashingtonTara Lechtenberger$1,800*Summer field trips for 50 students and their families
"The Fayetteville Public Education Foundation funds projects and activities that go beyond the normal classroom experience," said Sara Eichmann, grant chairman for the foundation board.
The grants awarded will support projects tied to world languages, agricultural science, summer projects, fine arts and libraries and will benefit students from the elementary level through high school, Eichmann said.
The projects awarded were among 52 grant applications from teachers who submitted proposals either for a standard grant of up to $5,000 or for larger "Big Innovative Project" grants of 5,001 up to $25,000. The larger grants are a new component of the teacher grant awards from the foundation, said Cambre Horne-Brooks, the foundation's executive director.
"We hope to give teachers an opportunity to experiment and try innovative and pioneering programs that enrich the academic experience of the students," Horne-Brooks said.
Jade Cameron, a Fayetteville High School agricultural science teacher, received the largest grant of $25,000, one of four Big Innovative Projects awarded Thursday. The money will give animal science students interested in veterinary medicine more experience with what they might see in a veterinary practice, she said.
The grant will pay for a dog mannequin allowing students to practice administering injections and performing CPR, Cameron said. She also plans to purchase equipment and supplies commonly found in a veterinary clinic, including animal holding equipment and tools used in surgery. The grant also will pay for a livestock trailer.
A $6,000 grant awarded to Warren Rosenaur, a high school theater teacher, will pay for 25 sewing machines and five sergers for students taking a new costume design and technology course planned for next school year, as well as for students in family and consumer science and in marketing, he said.
The high school is adding courses as part of the transition from a sophomore through senior campus to a freshman through senior campus, Rosenaur said. The new costume course is awaiting approval from the Arkansas Department of Education, but the teacher Sarah Sone has experience as a costume designer and seamstress, he said.
"We didn't have any sewing machines in the building," he said. "It's nice that the foundation is there to help supplement curriculum."
Jenny Gammill, the district's director of science and instructional technology, received a standard grant of $1,976 to develop "tinkering" studios in fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms at Butterfield Trail and Happy Hollow elementary schools. The two schools will pilot a project Gammill hopes to expand across the district.
"We're going to give kids real tools," Gammill said.
The children will have the opportunity to work on projects, such as building robots that scribble, she said. The studios will support science instruction and teach students how to be creative and figure out problems.
The project also involves a partnership with the Amazeum in Bentonville for teachers to learn about how to use the studios and tools effectively, she said.
The spring grants begins a new grant cycle for the foundation, Horne-Brooks said. Teacher grants historically have been announced once a year in the spring, but the board of directors in 2014 decided to change the cycle so grants are awarded each year in the fall and spring semesters.
The first fall grants under the new cycle will be awarded in the 2015-16 school year, Horne-Brooks said.
Last year, the foundation awarded $447,000 in teacher grants, with $182,000 from a distribution of the foundation's $3.2 million endowment and another $263,000 from corporate gifts and donations, Horne-Brooks said.
NW News on 02/06/2015