For the 2010/2011 school year WEF allocated a total in $17,426 in grants. The grants went to teachers in every school within the district for new programs as well as to continue successful programs funded in previous years.
Africa Day (Third year of three-year grant)
Mill Pond School
Shannon Barca, Caitlin Gardner, Stephanie Garrett, and Diane Johnson
$2,700
Students will study an African country in depth and display their knowledge at a community event.
Robotics Alive
Mill Pond School
Amy D’Avia
$1,308
Robotics Alive will be a brand new program for 5th and 6th graders included as part of their Technology class, which meets every other week. The program will give students an introduction to programming using Logo as its foundation. Students will be introduced to the concept of robots and robotics and will program ‘Pro-Bots’ to accomplish certain tasks, such as turning right/left, and going forward/backwards. The Pro-Bot also comes with built in sensors, providing a strong foundation in robotics concepts. Aligns to MA Technology Standards.
Software Design with Scratch, The Scratch Club
Gibbons Middle School
Marie Hopkinson, Carol Alcusky
$1,375
Students will use a free programming application, Scratch, developed by researchers at MIT in conjunction with a grant from the National Science Foundation, to create their own multimedia projects. Scratch’s unique interface allows participants to learn complex programming concepts. Students will brainstorm a project integrating their grade level curriculum, develop their own objectives and goals, draw their own backgrounds and sprites (characters), and add their own sounds. At the end of each design cycle, students will be expected to present their work to a large audience both face-to-face and online.
Gibbons Middle School
Denise Casale, Sandy Denny
$2,050
This is an interdisciplinary project based on the ideas behind the popular CSI series. The target population will be one 7th grade team, with the hopes that it will grow to include the entire 7th grade. The team teachers and students, as well as the school resource officer and a possible detective will be involved as students use their math, science and literature skills to solve a crime that takes place within the science lab and which involves the destruction of valued microscopes. Students will create an intricate database of evidence within Moodle software, which in turn can be exported to Excel to be further manipulated in math classes. The students will maintain “evidence” notebooks where observations and key pieces of information will be documented after labs, measurements, interviews, and lessons have been completed. Students will present their findings to the team/class. Students will also read a mystery novel to learn procedures used in solving mysteries.
Westborough High School
Eleanor Brown
$1,400
The Global Nomads Group is an NGO that creates videoconferencing opportunities between students in the U.S. and around the world. This grant will allow approximately 75 Westborough French-language high school juniors and seniors to have seven one-hour conversations with students in Haiti. The idea is to have a meaningful exchange with students in another part of the world, to increase compassion for and understanding of others, and to contribute to the global education of Westborough students. After the conversations, there were will be time for questions, comments and reflections.
Beetle Ranching at Westborough High School: A Natural Approach to the Restoration of the Local Wetland Ecosystems
Westborough High School
Anita Lotti
$1,101
The purpose of the project is to restore balance to the local wetlands of Westborough through a joint venture with the Westborough Community Land Trust (WCLT) and the environmental science students at Westborough High School. The two have partnered to raise Galerucella beetles that will be used to naturally control the invasive species, purple loosestrife, that pervades the local wetlands of Westborough. During the summer, volunteers will release the beetles at a pre-approved wetland area. In the fall, environmental science students and WCLT volunteers will return to the release area to monitor the amount of purple loosestrife in the target area. This field study will include information such as percent cover, number of plants, types of plants, and health of plants in the target area. Data from the fall field study will be evaluated each year to look for changes in the local population. Students will take part in the collection and evaluation of the field study data. This is a multi-year project that will have significant impact on the local community.
Westborough High School
Maria DeVuono-Homberg
$1,577
The high school robotics team will purchase software, a dedicated laptop and high-tech auxiliary components to facilitate their engineering and designing for robotics competitions.
Armstrong, Hastings, and Fales Elementary Schools
Sue Bardsley, Joanne Fridley
$2,500
Partial funding for an evening of interactive literacy events for students and families.
Gibbons Middle School
Carol Alcusky
$2,250
This grant will provide 5 netbook computers with software dedicated to ELL students to enhance their participation in the History Alive computer-based 7th grade social studies curriculum.
Westborough High School
Matthew Desjardins
$1,165
This grant will allow students of various levels to visualize three-dimensional concepts at various levels with computer programs using Infocus