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Congratulations to Provo School District Foundation Mini-Grant Winners! This year, the Provo School District Foundation once again awarded mini-grants to teachers in the district. In order to receive these mini-grants, teachers had to explain their idea for an innovative project within a two-page application. The completed applications was sent to the Provo School District Foundation Selection Committee who then selected 13 mini-grant winners.

Winners are awarded $500 in order to fund their project and are expected to write a brief report describing the project’s outcome.

The faculty who were selected are as follows:

Stephen VanOrden, German Teacher Timpview High School

“Russische Horner in Christmas Concert”

Stephen plans to use his grant to fund building Russian horns out of PVC to sew and make traditional Russian costumes. 

Kaleb Ostraff and Tiffany Chandler, Art Teachers Centennial Middle School

“Long Boards”

Kaleb and Tiffany found a company, Roarockit, that specializes in reaching out to at-risk students through their long board creation kits and curriculum. Their principal has funded the initial purchase of supplies and equipment. In order to continue the work they have started, they will be using their funding to purchase grip tape, trucks, wheels, and bearings. 

Connie Stone, 3rd Grade Teacher Canyon Crest Elementary

“Mini Ecosystems”

Connie will be using the funding to purchase materials for students to explore, observe, draw, build, test, create, compare record, explain, and present. The materials will help students create mini woodland ecosystems, mini pond ecosystems, and mini desert ecosystems. 

Ann Bigelow and Karen Murray, Kindergarten Team Rock Canyon Elementary

“Learning Teams in Math & Science”

The funding will be used to enhance the materials needed for their Math and Science teams. It will be used for both consumables and for materials to stay in the team (center) from year to year. 

Christy Giblon, Music Teacher Dixon Middle School

“iPads for Music”

Christy will be using the funding, along with money from her budget, to purchase a few iPads for her classroom. Through this purchase, students will be able to record their playing test rather than taking up instructional time to have each student play their instrument in front of the class. 

Kimberly Peterson, Art Teacher Franklin Elementary School

“Coded Sculptures – 3D Printer”

Kimberly will use the funding to purchase a 3D printer and a filament pack for her art classroom. This will be used for many projects that will be focused on the older grades that are a part of the technology initiative. These projects for each grade can be integrated with math, science, tech, and social studies core curriculum. 

Baylee Jensen, Paige Drumm, & Kayleen Dewey, 5th Grade Team Amelia Earhart Elementary

“Math Extensions”

This fifth grade team will use funding to facilitate a math extension group for high achieving students. This extension group will meet daily to participate in more rigorous instruction and activities than those during normal Tier 1 instruction. Students will be given a set of math olympiad books and have the opportunity to use these books and work together to solve the challenging problems. If each student is able to have their own copy of the math olympiad curriculum book, the extension group will run much more efficiently and students will be given a greater opportunity to participate and experiment with more involvement. 

Lori Sarkady, Tracee Arney, and Karen Cox, Kindergarten Team Lakeview Elementary School

“Animal Comparisons”

This Kindergarten team will be using their funding to purchase an “animal coverings specimen observation kit”, “animal covering sorting kits”, “science activity kit”, “National Geographic ABC animal informational cards”, “animal non-fiction trade books”, and to fund 2 buses to take students to the BYU Monte Bean Museum. One of the Kindergarten science core standards is “Compare the parts of different animals, e.g., skin, fur, feathers, scales, hand, wing, flipper, and fin”. They plan to use this project to enhance the learning of the students and to provide a real-life experience that will bring learning alive and help them learn the science standard. 

Rodolpho DeAndrade, Teacher Lakeview Elementary School

“New Horizons – Portuguese Book Series for Dual Immersion”

Rodolpho will be using the funds to purchase popular book series that are translated into Portuguese for the Dual Language Immersion students. These would include books like Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Eragon, etc. 

Ashley Haug, Biology/Environmental Science Teacher Provo High School

“Milkweed for Monarchs”

Ashley will use the funding to purchase supplies for a student-directed milkweed garden to attract monarch butterflies. Supplies will include, but not be limited to: gardening tools, soil, boxes for raised gardening beds (or the materials to build such), milkweed seeds, and any art supplies the students need to make the area interesting and attractive. 

Gayle Painter, Language Arts Provo Adult Education

“Tech for Reading Comp”

Gayle will be using the funding to purchase 12 Kindle Fire Tablets. The tablets will be used daily for reading and social studies assignments. She hopes that utilizing these tablets will help her students to be successful in the workplace, allow students to work at their own pace, and will provide up-to-date reading materials. 

Leslie Stilson, 3rd Grade Teacher Spring Creek Elementary

“STEAM Engineering Items”

Leslie will be using this funding to purchase materials for engineering activities. She will buy a class set of small circuit motors and the other necessary items needed to create small robots. Besides robot materials, she will also buy legos and bins for storing them. Any leftover funding will be used to purchase class sets of magnetic triangles for her students to build additional engineering structures with and books with elementary school engineering projects. These items will be added to her school STEAM materials for school-wide use. 

Shauna Sprunger
  • Coordinator of Communications
  • Shauna Sprunger
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