Details of the grants awarded during Fall 2010.

Name of Grant: Outdoor Science Camp
Campus: Athens
Teacher: Angela Saine, Kassi Harris, Shara Leonard
Amount: $3,000

The goal of this grant is to address science in a new and innovative manner.  The program at Camp Tyler along with teachers will design a day of hands-on, outdoor instruction utilizing their facilities. The goal being improved TAKS scores and to spark interest in future science related careers.

Name of Grant: SAT Vocabulary Novels
Campus: Athens High School-Pinnacle
Teacher: Tony Sikes
Amount: $900

This grant will introduce SAT vocabulary into novels within the context of the story.  Research has proven this method is more beneficial to the student when compared to traditional methods of vocabulary learning.  The goal of this grant is to increase SAT scores for college bound students.

Name of Grant: Death at your Doorstep
Campus: Athens High School
Teacher: Staci Phillips, Dinita Heitz
Amount: $3,000

Students will reconstruct miniature crime scenes with visual accuracy from detailed police crime scene reports.  They will photography and film the construction process and implement profiling for presentation purposes.  The resulting video podcasts (vodcasts) will be used for classroom presentations and personal electronic portfolios.

Name of Grant: Graphic TI-84 Calculators
Campus: Athens High School-Pinnacle
Teacher: Lauren Bartlett, Phyllis Gannon
Amount: $3,000

This grant will put Graphing calculators into the hands of students that need them for class work as well as homework.  Students will increase their number of hands on activities in science and math.

Name of Grant: Strengthening Core Concepts
Campus: Athens Intermediate
Teacher: Nikki Mason, Kim Storey
Amount: $1,600

Some students lose their focus and feel restricted by sitting in one position throughout the day.  This project is designed to provide students with a viable option to sitting in a chair for extended periods.  Students will be able to move more freely on balance balls and focus their attention on learning.

Name of Grant: Math Master Mind
Campus: Athens Intermediate
Teacher: Lynda Taylor
Amount: $1,300

This grant will provide mini-computers to enable students to practice their multiplication facts.  These can be used at their desks any time of the day and can be a fun way to learn.  Mastering multiplication is vital to learning more advanced math skills such as algebra and geometry.

Name of Grant: Weather Bug
Campus: Athens Intermediate
Teacher: Alejandro Guzman, Moises Sanchez
Amount: $3,000

This grant’s goals is to discover innovative ways to teach Earth Science.  Weather Bug will enable our teachers to bring real world discovery into our classrooms by teaching scientific investigation and reasoning which will increase student engagement and achievement.

Name of Grant: Texas News

Campus: Athens Intermediate
Teacher: Jodie Babb
Amount: $1,400

Texas Studies Weekly is a weekly newspaper which helps students in their social studies.  It contains a social studies lesson, a current event, an article describing a geographical region of Texas, a biographical spotlight of a prominent Texas citizen, an article on Texas wildlife.

Name of Grant: Rockin’ to Success
Campus: Athens Intermediate
Teacher: Becky Rogers, Bridget Scott
Amount: $3,000

With the rise in overweight children and diabetes, it is obvious that today’s students are not getting enough exercise.  Group activities that include specific types of music have even more health benefits associated with them.  This grant project will provide students an opportunity to participate in a physical group activity every morning before school in the gymnasium at our school.

Name of Grant: History Alive
Campus: Athens Middle School
Teacher: Kelli Miller, Joshua Burk, Juliann Foster
Amount: $2,600

TCI is a unique K-12 social studies publisher created b teachers for teachers.  The technology products challenge students to read critically and check for understanding of content while allowing the teacher to present classroom activities through state-of-the-art presentations.

Fall 2010 Total: $22,800