To enrich learning in Warwick schools above and beyond the school district's budget, the Warwick Education Foundation (WEF) has awarded 12 grants worth $27,548 for the 2019-20 school term. The Raising Warwick fund drive was slated to end on Nov. 17.
To determine how to place extra learning tools in the classroom for a highly focused impact, the foundation works alongside the teachers at all grade levels. Ten innovative education grants and two expert-in-residence grants were awarded this year.
Four Warwick High School science teachers - Doug Balmer, Diana Griffiths, Ray Mount, and Beth Lynch - won a $2,933 grant to buy handheld devices that enable students to work outdoors using sensitive probes to collect data measuring the sun's rays, atmosphere, and water quality.
Three other science teachers - Kimberly Sweigart, Emily Badaracco, and Cynthia Kensinger - are using their $2,290 grant to purchase test kits their students will use to analyze how lifestyle choices affect health. They will test foods for contamination, identify nutrients, prepare milk for cheesemaking, uncover bacteria in food processing, and determine the effects of pollutants on the body.
Teams from all four elementary schools - led by first-grade teachers Stacey Bernstein, Crystal Harnick, Gwen Wenger, and Amy Henschel and second-grade teacher Nicole Miller - are using $2,090 to buy Raz Kids digital books and quizzes that allow students to boost language fluency by practicing their reading anytime, anywhere.
Second-grade teachers at Kissel Hill - Yvonne Engroff, Dena Cascarino, and Elizabeth Smith - are putting $775 into an incentive program that encourages children to read books across six different genres and rewards them for each one.
Thanks to a $800 grant won by Megan Cupo-Fisher and Meghan Young, Bonfield's sixth-grade students will run the Alaskan Iditarod dogsled race by following an account told by Newbery-winning author Gary Paulsen. They will calculate distance traveled, analyze weather conditions, and write a detailed report on their favorite musher.
At Lititz Elementary, a team of fifth-grade teachers - Amy Griffith, Dan Shelly, and Sue Oswald - will use a $360 grant for a Nearpod interactive system to select or custom-design engaging lessons and tests, push them out to student laptops and iPads, and get immediate feedback.
With Alina Rakiewicz and Martin Meier's $1,400 grant, advanced broadcasting students at Warwick High School will learn how to design a broadcasting studio, and a tech student group will then construct the set.
High school teacher Lisa Gleason won $1,400 to give students access to Newsela, an online platform of nonfiction articles in every subject. Students can read independently while controlling their own reading levels and measuring comprehension.
Four teams from the four Warwick elementary schools, led by Colleen Heckman, Will Maza, Heather Bellows, and Kathy Steinour, were awarded a $10,000 grant for the annual One Book, One School, One Community family reading program. Each of the nearly 2,000 elementary school families is given a copy of the same novel along with a reading schedule and activities to perform. The program often concludes with a visit and presentations by the book's author.
Middle-school teachers Lee Walter and Austen Lambert teamed up to garner a $600 grant in support of students designing projects for the annual Science Olympiad and competing in one of its 23 events. The money will go to pay entry fees and material costs.
Warwick Middle School teacher Christie Cosmore was awarded a $2,500 grant to bring professional actors and a live performance of "My Heart in a Suitcase" to the seventh grade. Having learned about the Holocaust reading "The Diary of Anne Frank," students watch the play to experience the real-life drama of Anne Fox, the 12-year-old daughter of a Jewish family in Berlin facing growing persecution by the Nazis.
The other expert-in-residence grant went to Lititz Elementary teachers David Houseknecht and Melissa Reifsnyder for a multimedia demonstration by artist Patrick Dunning of The Signature Project. More than 1 million signatures form his 36-foot-by-76-foot mural, by people with stories of adventure, hope, courage. The grant covers a school day performance and would be raised to $4,800 if an evening community performance can be scheduled.
Contributions to the Warwick Education Foundation can be made by visiting http://www.WarwickEF.org.
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