After anxiously waiting through the safety and instruction lesson, Kristina Rudd’s third grade students at Henderson Ward Stewart Elementary began their hands-on science unit.
Each group assigned their members a specific task role, including the “getter” to retrieve different materials throughout the experiment. Students then slid on their safety goggles, pulled out their pencils and began working through the unit.
Working with prepared solution mixtures, the class determined mass, transparency and other measurements before mixing their own solutions.
The “See Our Spark: Scientists at Work” experiment seemed a fitting tribute to the very grant program the made it possible — a mixture of teacher initiative and invested community members meant to create solutions.
Rudd and fellow HWS teacher Megan Bateman secured $1,000 for the experiments through the Starkville Foundation for Public Education’s teacher grant program. That money bought science kits for the teachers’ third graders from the University of California-Berkeley-based Full Option Science Center, along with nine weeks of instructional material on subjects ranging from mixtures and solutions to magnitude, wheels and axles and engineering principles.
“As an elementary teacher, I would love to teach my students hands-on science every week in the classroom, but that is dependent on what materials are available,” Rudd said. “I knew I wanted to incorporate science and engineering principles they don’t always get to use.”
The grant program
The Starkville Foundation for Public Education, comprised of parents and other school district patrons, began in 1989. A year later, it started the teacher grant program, which has invested $135,000 district-wide for teacher-proposed projects deemed “exceptional.” Grants are a maximum of $1,000 each.
This year, the foundation has funded 14 grants, totaling $7,000, to teachers at Henderson Ward Stewart Elementary, Sudduth Elementary, Armstrong Middle School, Starkville High School, and the Millsaps Career and Technology Center.
Leslie Fye, president-elect for the Starkville Foundation, said because there is such a shortage of funding in the district, foundation members continuously try to reach students in new and effective ways.
“There is less and less money that is directly available for teachers to do innovative projects,” Fye said. “Our teachers really look forward to having some assistance this way.”
Although the foundation accepts donations throughout the year to help fund these grants, most of the funds come from the annual Hannah Pote Run for Education, a 5K race and one-mile fun run for students.
Ann Marshall, co-chair of the Starkville Foundation’s grant committee, said all members find people in the community or local businesses to sponsor the race. All sponsorship money and proceeds raised at the race, including entry fees, directly fund the teacher grants for the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District.
Other projects
Whether it’s focused curriculum, unique projects or innovative resources, the grants support an array of functions where state funding falls short.
Kimberly Wilkenson, dyslexia therapist at AMS, said she applies for a grant each year to help purchase materials for her dyslexia students, as well as fidget toy for students and bouncy bands for desks.
Bouncy bands attach to the bottom of desks or chairs and allow students to bounce their legs, tap their feet and stretch without attracting any extra attention or causing disruption to other students or teachers in the class. This helps them relieve any extra energy or anxiety they may have, Wilkenson said, and stay on task.
Fidget toys and fidget cubes have different sides with buttons to press, slide and flip which serves as an alternative for pen-clicking or tapping on desks and can help relieve anxiety and stress, as well, without causing disruption to the class.
Aside from the bands and fidget toys, the grant provides Wilkenson with funds so she can continue to do therapy with her dyslexic students.
“All of these materials are expensive,” Wilkenson said. “I don’t serve a lot of kids, but for those I do, I have to have specific materials to do so.”
Other grants have gone to fund art projects and reading materials for social sciences.
For Millsaps Career and Technology Center teacher Denise Adair, a grant funded a programmable drone and solar paneling project.
Adair is Millsaps’ robotics instructor, and she teaches engineering classes for high school students. She said that she applies for a grant each year in order to fund a new field for robotics, as well as implement cutting-edge technology in her curriculum.
“The foundation is an excellent organization,” Adair said. “Because they learn this in high school, they are prepared for college, and not every student gets that.”
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