The District 112 Foundation is pleased to announce that we’ve funded 8 grant requests for a total of $15,000. We received over 30 worthy submissions for thoughtful, innovative projects to take student learning to the next level in Eastern Carver County Schools! These 8 grants are spread out among 2 of the high schools, all of the middle schools, and 2 elementary schools.
The District 112 Foundation is excited to support these grants: 1. Chanhassen Sensory Room (Chanhassen High School) and 2. The Reset Room (Chaska High School) These grants support the creation of rooms where staff could encourage students to go for a quick reset when they are dealing with anxiety, high stress, or high emotions. The rooms will give students the opportunity to regain composure and assist them in self-regulating behavior in an appropriate space. 3. Extending Makerspace: Circulating Makerspace Kits (Chaska Middle School East) This grant provides for expansion on the weekly offering of Makerspace sessions during WIN time. By creating mini Makerspace kits that can be checked out by staff or learners, CMSE will expand the Makerspace Learning Center program into classrooms and exponentially increase learners’ opportunities to enrich and extend their learning. 4. Next Generation of Music Education (Chaska Middle School West) This grant enables the music department to go beyond the traditional scope of teaching band, choir, and orchestra. Students will have the opportunity to study other genres of music like rock, hip hop, and pop. Students will learn instruments like drum set, guitar, and piano. Students will use technology to create music like it sounds today. 5. Harmony Bridge: Bridging Generations through Music (Pioneer Ridge Middle School) This grant supports bringing the Harmony Bridge program to the music department. Harmony Bridge is a multi-faceted program which connects elementary through high school students to elderly people through musical performances and fellowship. It would be a sustained program intertwined with the schools’ curriculum and students’ service to the community. 6. Gizmos and Gadgets: Coding through Physics (Carver Elementary School) This grant funds Little Bits Code Kits to be used as another tool to build student skills in coding, block programming, electricity, and physics. With Little Bits Code Kit students are able to code using snap together circuits, lights, and sensors to allow students to code and build their own inventions while learning the code behind the functions of the kit. 7. Diverse Resources for Diverse Learners (Bluff Creek Elementary School) This grant offers the 3rd/4th/5th grade team, who work together in a PBL (Project Based Learning) and IBL (Inquiry Based Learning) model additional authentic materials and books for all science and social studies learning target areas. 8. Growing Curiosity in the Winter Garden (Bluff Creek Elementary School) This grant supports the BCE school garden committee in turning their garden into a cold weather growing space. Students will have access to the garden and can see things in various stages of growth for a longer period during the year. Students will be able to use the garden for STEAM and service projects, to conduct growing experiments, and to spend more time outside during colder months while engaged in hands on learning. The District 112 Foundation funded 3 teacher grant requests in full! Our support of innovative teacher projects totaled $3,289.69. Full funding of these 3 selected teacher grants was made possible by a $3,500 grant from Charter Bank to the District 112 Foundation, specifically for this round of grants. Thank you Charter Bank for enabling the District 112 Foundation to support these exciting grants: 1. Coding to Fly Drones (District Wide - 5th graders, up to 750 students) This grant expands upon a pilot program so that all 5th grade students have the opportunity to participate in the coding to fly drones experience. It is intended to spur interest in coding by having students write code in order to fly the drones. See a video of this drone project in action here! 2. Learning a New Language Through Light Reading (Pioneer Ridge Middle School - Spanish 1 & 2 students, approximately 175) This grant creates a magazine library in the classroom that allows for student voice and choice. This project promotes Spanish language acquisition through the use of Spanish language reading materials that address both different student interests and proficiency levels. 3. Photography Portrait Studio (Chaska High School - Photography students, up to 300. And 25+ seniors who receive free senior portraits) This grant provides for an indoor lighting portrait studio adjacent to the photography classroom. This project will allow students to be able to create professional quality portraits with studio lighting for class projects, but in addition it will support senior portrait shoots for students with financial need in order for them to be included in the yearbook. The District 112 Foundation received a $5,000 grant from the Chaska Rotary Foundation at the end of May, as we were selected to be a recipient of funds from the Rotary Club of Chaska's 2018 gala. Thanks to the Chaska Rotary Foundation, 3 new wifi hotspots will be put to use within Eastern Carver County Schools next school year! The wifi hotspot program provides students who do not have at home internet connection the ability to successfully complete homework and other school projects on their school issued Chromebook. Of the nearly 10,000 K-12 ECCS students, approximately 2,000 students (20%) do not have readily available access to wifi at home. To address this need, the district has acquired and maintains 28 individual wifi hotspot “pucks” available that students can check out from school media centers for home use on weekday evenings and return the next morning. While these hotspots are an effective solution to provide wifi to students who need it, the current supply does not fully address demand. Please contact us if you would like to support needed wifi access for our students. |
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