Northborough – Northborough Education Foundation (NEF) awarded over $26,000 in grant to 15 grant recipients during a special ceremony held at the Northborough Free Library Sept. 15.
Superintendent of Schools Christine Johnson thanked NEF and noted her appreciation for teachers and staff who went the extra mile to seize the opportunity to write and submit a grant and to continue to put the kids first.
NEF President Marile Borden communicated her thanks to NEF’s corporate sponsors as well as to the community and schools who have supported the numerous fundraisers throughout the year.
Some of the grants awarded include:
Mobile Maker Spaces (Marguerite E. Peaslee School): Students will be able to tinker, build, create, design, invent, solve problems and learn in a self-guided environment using a combination of high-tech and low-tech tools.
Digging Deeper – Developing Digital Literacy (Marion E. Zeh School): This grant will be used to purchase 10 Chromebooks and a Chromebook cart which will be housed in the school’s library and dedicated to students in all grade levels working on collaboratively taught group projects which insure our students become digitally literate.
Fluency with Chromebooks in the Foreign Language Classroom (Robert E. Melican Middle School): Computer technology can be used in the foreign language classroom to enhance language acquisition, support the content, and provide motivation and promote student engagement. NEF will be funding five Chromebooks for the Foreign Language department.
Getting into Learning with Green Screens and Video (Melican Middle School): Students will use Chromebooks and green screen technology to really “get into their learning” by taking video footage of themselves superimposed over real images. Using green screen technology to transform the learning process enables students to appear to be virtually anywhere in the universe. NEF will be funding 10 Chromebooks for this project.
A Toolbox for Every Classroom (All K-5): This is a program that will give teachers updated physical tools and strategies to teach their students how to regulate their bodies to remain available for learning throughout the course of their school day. Classroom teachers, instructional aides, occupational therapists, behavior specialists, and school psychologists will work together to instruct, model, and incorporate tools and strategies within whole group learning and individual times for needed breaks. NEF is funding comprehensive kits for each classroom.
Metabolism and Energy Production Evaluation by Calorimetry (Algonquin Regional High School): This grant will enhance science curricula. NEF will fund the purchase of calorimeters and Eppendorf Pipet Pumps from Thermo Fisher along with a heated water bath from Edvotek.
Perfect Pairings (Lincoln Street School): This project focuses on one of the most critical reading skills presented in the Common Core State Standards—reading across multiple texts and media. NEF will fund multiple copies of paired texts along with DVDs that align with the topics or themes presented in the texts.
The complete list, descriptions, and photos of the 15 grant recipients can be viewed on NEF’s website at www.northboroughed.org.
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