December 2024 Grant Recipients

At our school, we believe in our students getting their hands dirty. We feel that the best way for students to learn science is for them to perform their own experiments. We have two sets of experiments we would like our students to run that will require some additional equipment--and a bit of actual dirt.

The first is a long-term project we run with our Biology students in our Biology A course. In this project, students discover a combination of scientific process and deeper understandings of plant biology and photosynthesis. Students are assigned to create an experiment revolving around the plant life cycle. This experiment runs from the beginning of the term until the end of the term--with the students setting the parameters they will test on their plants during that time period.

Our Biology B project calls for students to make a sustainable, contained ecosystem using a 2-liter space. Inside that space they must have an aquatic ecosystem as well as a land-based ecosystem, complete with living creatures (usually goldfish, crickets, super worms, etc.) as well as plant species. They are tasked with balancing their ecosystem so that it will last for 4 weeks with at least some of their organisms still living.

Many students in our dropout prevention Title 1 are classified as "ACES" student given they have been unhoused, lived in group homes, and/or live with domestic violence. Meeting the Social Emotional needs of our students is extremely important to their success. ACEs students are 5x more likely to have attendance issues, 6x times more likely to have behavior problems, and 3x times more likely to experience academic failure.

Our students are challenge with anxiety disorders, mental health issues, and PTSD. An SEL "ZEN DEN" Tool kit would support our students in feeling safe while learning about their emotions and encourage self-regulation skills so they are able to make responsible decisions and create frameworks to achieve the goal of earning a diploma.

This tool kit would also build trust among students and staff since students here are learning to communicate and express themselves appropriately when triggered. Feeling safe is critical to success at school.