2019 Innovative Grant Awards
Hydroponic Fodder System – Hancock Middle Senior High School
Teacher: Jamie Snyder
Award: $2,638.62 (Maxi-Grant)
Students will construct a hydroponic fodder system for micro greens to be used primarily for the aquaponics and poultry programs as feed for both the fish and chickens. The system will allow for fodder, or sprouts from grain seed, to be harvested daily. This creates a product that is more digestible for animals and contains higher amounts of protein and fiber than the grain alone. This will be used to supplement units including germination, hydroponics, nutrition, digestion, vertical integration and agribusiness- just to name a few!
South High Recording Studio – South Hagerstown High School
Teacher: Christy Hagerty
Award: $600
A recording studio located in the Media Center would allow students to create video and audio projects that are assigned through classes. It would also provide opportunities for independent projects and students seeking an extra credit opportunity. Students will be able to create videos, vlogs and podcasts. All equipment will be adaptive to current iPads used by students. Equipment would include microphones, both boom and lapel mics. Also backgrounds, lights, sound amplifier foam, and USB adapters. The equipment would be portable so it could be relocated easily around the media center or school.
The Gerrymandering Game – Boonsboro High School
Teacher: Ashley Vascik
Award: $350
This is the Game Description from the creators (which are high school students in Texas): You belong to a political party: Red Elephants, Blue Donkeys, Yellow Porcupines, or Green Leaves. Your only job? Make sure your party wins the next election. You get to redraw the districts. But so do the other map makers.Everyone starts with the same number of voters, spread across counties. Players each place four district borders per turn. When a district gets closed off, whoever has the most voters inside claims it. At the end of the game, the entire board will be sectioned into districts. The party with the most districts wins. If there’s a tie, the party with the most swing counties wins. You must scramble to draw the best lines first. Can you crack and pack voters? Can you scheme and strategize? Can you create unfair, lopsided, strangely shaped districts that will guarantee your party’s victory? It’s a hands-on way to try out gerrymandering yourself.
Farm to Table Through Hydroponics – Boonsboro High School
Teacher: Quinn Martin
Award: $1,000
This project will turn the existing greenhouse into a hydroponics greenhouse. Students will design and assemble an NFT hydroponic system to grow lettuce and herbs and a bucket system to grow tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. The variation will not only provide a variety of crops for students to experience, but will also allow them to compare the effectiveness of each system. This provides students an opportunity to experience cutting edge, sustainable technology in the greenhouse industry. Once built, all students (current and future) enrolled in the Horticulture Completer within the Agriculture Program at Boonsboro High School will be involved.
How Do Computers Think? The Turing Tumble – Pangborn Elementary School
Teacher: Benjamin Hurley
Award: $574.95
Imagine being able to see how a computer thinks! The Turing Tumble allows students the opportunity to construct a mechanical marble machine that performs an input and a variety of outputs to learn how computers work. 4th and 5th graders in my Coding and Stem Encore class would be researching Alan Turing, called the “father of computer science and artificial intelligence” and then using this tool to see Turing’s ideas and developments first-hand. With the big push in our county to use research skills to learn about Alan Turing, then apply that research using computational thinking and problem solving skills to explore how computers work.
Hydroponics: Year-Round Indoor Gardening for the Green School – Fountaindale Elementary School
Teacher: Karen Kirby
Award: $984.65
Teachers from all grade levels will be able to incorporate hydroponics into their life science units. From the needs of living things in preschool to solving real-world problems in fifth grade. It fits the curriculum of virtually every teacher in our school. Furthermore, it has numerous cross curriculum applications including seed counting, plant measurement and graphing. We look forward to brainstorming the new applications in the classroom to enrich our curriculum. Inspiration came from a Washington County Home Show vendor, Tower Garden, where I was introduced to The Bronx Green Machine sparking a new level of excitement and possibilities.
Hydroponic Farm – South Hagerstown High School
Teacher: Corey Weitzel
Award: $909.80
A Hydroponic Farm will allow students in the Culinary Arts program to grow fresh vegetables and herbs and utilize these items in class. Once students begin to grow products consistently, we plan on starting a Farmers Market to sell produce to faculty and staff at South Hagerstown High School. Funds will go directly back into Culinary Arts program and provide students with field trip assistance, transportation to job interviews and small equipment for the class.
NMS Family Garden – Northern Middle School
Teacher: Mary Zielinksi
Award: $704.68
Life skills students and Best Buddies plus classroom and other school staff will build 2 raised-bed vegetable gardens (8′x4′ each) with a paver walking path between them. These raised-bed gardens will add to the two existing beds built last year. The vegetable gardens will be located outside of the life skills classroom and will be planted and maintained by our students and their best buddies during and after school hours. Classroom staff will assist with planting and maintaining the gardens. The portable greenhouse will be utilized earlier in mid to late to winter to germinate seeds and grow seedlings to be planted in the gardens. Life skills students will use the gardens as part of a plant life cycle unit. Additionally, they will enhance their cooking and prevocational education.
3-D Water Modeling – Clear Spring High School
Teacher: Chastity Gloyd
Award: $450
The purpose of this grant is to obtain Magnetic Water Molecule models for the Chemistry students of Clear Spring High School. The NGSS Standard I wish to address is HS-PS 1-3: Plan and conduct an investigation to gather evidence to compare the structure of substances at the bulk scale to infer the strength of electrical forces between particles. The Science and Engineering Practice is developing and using models. The Cross Cutting Concept is patterns. The molecular models allow for students to compare forces between particles of different molecules, water, ethane, and ethanol. The water molecules in the model kit contain magnets to simulate their polarity. Students will investigate how the difference in the electrical forces between particles in these substances causes differences in their properties. The exploration with the water models could be extended to include wet lab work designed to compare the surface tension properties of water to other substances in the liquid state. This would help students connect the investigation with observations of a wider range of bulk scale properties, not just water. Students investigate surface tension (or other properties) with these molecule kits to emphasize differences in magnetic forces between the molecule models and electrical forces between actual molecules. It should be noted that the Magnetic Water Molecule kits can be used with all science classes at Clear Spring High School.
Anatomy & Physiology Muscle Models Part 2 – Smithsburg High School
Teacher: Angela Stouffer
Award: $1,000
We have an ever-growing Anatomy & Physiology program at Smithsburg. Our classes are expanding and I am anticipating 70 students signing up for the class next year. The class is now offered as an Essence program; the students can receive college credit through HCC while taking the class in the high school. Many students that take the class go on to major in the Health Sciences in college and this is their introduction to the human body. We are in need of more muscle models to help students visualize the musculature of the body which is essential for their comprehension.
Cricut in the Classroom – Northern Middle School
Teacher: Marisa Kenney
Award: $983.29
Students in my classes currently explore photography, photo editing, and graphic design. The focus is based on finding creative visual solutions to communication problems. Students learn to utilize the elements and principles of design and design process as they apply it to practical visual solutions for print, logo design, poster design, and other real world graphic design applications using the Cricut Design Space software program. Having the Cricut Maker will allow the students to create real examples of professional graphics and produce logos for brand identity. The Cricut Maker will also engage students in the advancement of STEAM education.
Music Super Readers! – Fountaindale Elementary School
Teacher: Jennifer Roberts
Award: $989.42
Music and books are a way to inspire children to follow their hopes and dreams! Students learn about themselves and others as they read books they love which teach the strengths of a super reader: belonging, curiosity, friendship, kindness, confidence, courage, and hope (Every Child a Super Reader by Allyn and Morrell). Music books with these themes create a bridge between the student, reading, and the arts. The purchase of quality music texts with strong musical characters, lessons, and messages will enhance my classroom instruction and put more quality music texts in the hands of children, further creating lifelong “super readers.”
Boonsboro High School Writing Center – Boonsboro High School
Teacher: Judy Spence
Award: $836.67
Boonsboro High Scool has just begun a chapter of the National English Honor Society, and our main goal is to create a writing center to benefit all students in the school. Our members will train at the writing center at Towson University on September 25, 2019. Before that time, tutors will train with me over the summer in order to sharpen their writing skills and practice their writing center role by tutoring each other. They will then tutor students before or after school.
Innovative Education with Cricut Maker – Lincolnshire Elementary School
Teacher: Ashley Mason
Award: $789.66
The Cricut is a machine that is able to draw as well as cut out endless creations designed through a computer on various types of materials from paper to wood. With this technology there are infinite possibilities for students, staff, and the community to work together to meet a wide range of goals; from literacy, STEM, college and career readiness, to supporting at-risk students, the arts and digital learning. With this innovative technology, new methods can be brought to Lincolnshire Elementary to support and help meet the needs of our school community.
Specdrums: A Musical Classroom Technology – Marshall Street Center and the Job Development Program
Teacher: Meagan Gaff
Award: $436.92
Specdrums will allow my classroom to become a playable musical instrument. Students can create music using colorful spaces in the classroom – a bulletin board with panels of colors, rainbow colored wall dots, a foam mat, and even their own drawings can become playable musical instruments
Hallway Sensory Path – Clear Spring Elementary School
Teacher: Teresa Jordan
Award: $589.74
My proposed project aims to use our school’s Cricut to create a “sensory path” of vinyl cut-outs. Students will be able to hop, walk, skip, press, do wall push-ups or even be still and breathe. The path will incorporate academic aspects, such as letter recognition, sight words, and math facts to reinforce learning. The path may be used by all students at times, however, the specific purpose is to decrease time spent redirecting students requiring sensory input while minimizing the disruptions to instruction and learning.
Music Literacy in a Beginning Orchestral Program – Clear Spring Middle School
Teacher: Kristin Hiser
Award: $790.82
Sheet music is the music classroom version of a textbook. These essential pieces of music contain music vocabulary, dynamic, and articulation markings. The difficulty of these rudiments increase with the skill level of students. However, music teachers must have access to repertoire at all skill levels since student’s needs vary year to year. The string program at my school is only three years old. I do not own any leveled solo books and the full ensemble pieces do not match my student’s playing ability. Money from this grant will allow me to purchase appropriately skilled music for my student’s needs.
Diversity and Multicultural Awareness, Equity and Inclusion: We Are All Unique, We All Have a Gift to Share – Boonsboro High School
Teacher: Starlene Hamilton
Award: $247.55
Create a plan to celebrate the Nationally recognized History and Heritage Months. Plan, coordinate, and ensure their projects are ethically and educationally creative, opens up positive dialogue, and encourages individual and group participation. The students will learn resources in which to order diverse posters, materials, and other items related to learning about respectful ways to honor cultural holidays, languages, beliefs, etc. other than, and to include their own. They will be making baseball card type informative documents, posters and displays to help other student’s gain knowledge outside of their class and share in the learning experience, as well.
Teacher: Jamie Snyder
Award: $2,638.62 (Maxi-Grant)
Students will construct a hydroponic fodder system for micro greens to be used primarily for the aquaponics and poultry programs as feed for both the fish and chickens. The system will allow for fodder, or sprouts from grain seed, to be harvested daily. This creates a product that is more digestible for animals and contains higher amounts of protein and fiber than the grain alone. This will be used to supplement units including germination, hydroponics, nutrition, digestion, vertical integration and agribusiness- just to name a few!
South High Recording Studio – South Hagerstown High School
Teacher: Christy Hagerty
Award: $600
A recording studio located in the Media Center would allow students to create video and audio projects that are assigned through classes. It would also provide opportunities for independent projects and students seeking an extra credit opportunity. Students will be able to create videos, vlogs and podcasts. All equipment will be adaptive to current iPads used by students. Equipment would include microphones, both boom and lapel mics. Also backgrounds, lights, sound amplifier foam, and USB adapters. The equipment would be portable so it could be relocated easily around the media center or school.
The Gerrymandering Game – Boonsboro High School
Teacher: Ashley Vascik
Award: $350
This is the Game Description from the creators (which are high school students in Texas): You belong to a political party: Red Elephants, Blue Donkeys, Yellow Porcupines, or Green Leaves. Your only job? Make sure your party wins the next election. You get to redraw the districts. But so do the other map makers.Everyone starts with the same number of voters, spread across counties. Players each place four district borders per turn. When a district gets closed off, whoever has the most voters inside claims it. At the end of the game, the entire board will be sectioned into districts. The party with the most districts wins. If there’s a tie, the party with the most swing counties wins. You must scramble to draw the best lines first. Can you crack and pack voters? Can you scheme and strategize? Can you create unfair, lopsided, strangely shaped districts that will guarantee your party’s victory? It’s a hands-on way to try out gerrymandering yourself.
Farm to Table Through Hydroponics – Boonsboro High School
Teacher: Quinn Martin
Award: $1,000
This project will turn the existing greenhouse into a hydroponics greenhouse. Students will design and assemble an NFT hydroponic system to grow lettuce and herbs and a bucket system to grow tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. The variation will not only provide a variety of crops for students to experience, but will also allow them to compare the effectiveness of each system. This provides students an opportunity to experience cutting edge, sustainable technology in the greenhouse industry. Once built, all students (current and future) enrolled in the Horticulture Completer within the Agriculture Program at Boonsboro High School will be involved.
How Do Computers Think? The Turing Tumble – Pangborn Elementary School
Teacher: Benjamin Hurley
Award: $574.95
Imagine being able to see how a computer thinks! The Turing Tumble allows students the opportunity to construct a mechanical marble machine that performs an input and a variety of outputs to learn how computers work. 4th and 5th graders in my Coding and Stem Encore class would be researching Alan Turing, called the “father of computer science and artificial intelligence” and then using this tool to see Turing’s ideas and developments first-hand. With the big push in our county to use research skills to learn about Alan Turing, then apply that research using computational thinking and problem solving skills to explore how computers work.
Hydroponics: Year-Round Indoor Gardening for the Green School – Fountaindale Elementary School
Teacher: Karen Kirby
Award: $984.65
Teachers from all grade levels will be able to incorporate hydroponics into their life science units. From the needs of living things in preschool to solving real-world problems in fifth grade. It fits the curriculum of virtually every teacher in our school. Furthermore, it has numerous cross curriculum applications including seed counting, plant measurement and graphing. We look forward to brainstorming the new applications in the classroom to enrich our curriculum. Inspiration came from a Washington County Home Show vendor, Tower Garden, where I was introduced to The Bronx Green Machine sparking a new level of excitement and possibilities.
Hydroponic Farm – South Hagerstown High School
Teacher: Corey Weitzel
Award: $909.80
A Hydroponic Farm will allow students in the Culinary Arts program to grow fresh vegetables and herbs and utilize these items in class. Once students begin to grow products consistently, we plan on starting a Farmers Market to sell produce to faculty and staff at South Hagerstown High School. Funds will go directly back into Culinary Arts program and provide students with field trip assistance, transportation to job interviews and small equipment for the class.
NMS Family Garden – Northern Middle School
Teacher: Mary Zielinksi
Award: $704.68
Life skills students and Best Buddies plus classroom and other school staff will build 2 raised-bed vegetable gardens (8′x4′ each) with a paver walking path between them. These raised-bed gardens will add to the two existing beds built last year. The vegetable gardens will be located outside of the life skills classroom and will be planted and maintained by our students and their best buddies during and after school hours. Classroom staff will assist with planting and maintaining the gardens. The portable greenhouse will be utilized earlier in mid to late to winter to germinate seeds and grow seedlings to be planted in the gardens. Life skills students will use the gardens as part of a plant life cycle unit. Additionally, they will enhance their cooking and prevocational education.
3-D Water Modeling – Clear Spring High School
Teacher: Chastity Gloyd
Award: $450
The purpose of this grant is to obtain Magnetic Water Molecule models for the Chemistry students of Clear Spring High School. The NGSS Standard I wish to address is HS-PS 1-3: Plan and conduct an investigation to gather evidence to compare the structure of substances at the bulk scale to infer the strength of electrical forces between particles. The Science and Engineering Practice is developing and using models. The Cross Cutting Concept is patterns. The molecular models allow for students to compare forces between particles of different molecules, water, ethane, and ethanol. The water molecules in the model kit contain magnets to simulate their polarity. Students will investigate how the difference in the electrical forces between particles in these substances causes differences in their properties. The exploration with the water models could be extended to include wet lab work designed to compare the surface tension properties of water to other substances in the liquid state. This would help students connect the investigation with observations of a wider range of bulk scale properties, not just water. Students investigate surface tension (or other properties) with these molecule kits to emphasize differences in magnetic forces between the molecule models and electrical forces between actual molecules. It should be noted that the Magnetic Water Molecule kits can be used with all science classes at Clear Spring High School.
Anatomy & Physiology Muscle Models Part 2 – Smithsburg High School
Teacher: Angela Stouffer
Award: $1,000
We have an ever-growing Anatomy & Physiology program at Smithsburg. Our classes are expanding and I am anticipating 70 students signing up for the class next year. The class is now offered as an Essence program; the students can receive college credit through HCC while taking the class in the high school. Many students that take the class go on to major in the Health Sciences in college and this is their introduction to the human body. We are in need of more muscle models to help students visualize the musculature of the body which is essential for their comprehension.
Cricut in the Classroom – Northern Middle School
Teacher: Marisa Kenney
Award: $983.29
Students in my classes currently explore photography, photo editing, and graphic design. The focus is based on finding creative visual solutions to communication problems. Students learn to utilize the elements and principles of design and design process as they apply it to practical visual solutions for print, logo design, poster design, and other real world graphic design applications using the Cricut Design Space software program. Having the Cricut Maker will allow the students to create real examples of professional graphics and produce logos for brand identity. The Cricut Maker will also engage students in the advancement of STEAM education.
Music Super Readers! – Fountaindale Elementary School
Teacher: Jennifer Roberts
Award: $989.42
Music and books are a way to inspire children to follow their hopes and dreams! Students learn about themselves and others as they read books they love which teach the strengths of a super reader: belonging, curiosity, friendship, kindness, confidence, courage, and hope (Every Child a Super Reader by Allyn and Morrell). Music books with these themes create a bridge between the student, reading, and the arts. The purchase of quality music texts with strong musical characters, lessons, and messages will enhance my classroom instruction and put more quality music texts in the hands of children, further creating lifelong “super readers.”
Boonsboro High School Writing Center – Boonsboro High School
Teacher: Judy Spence
Award: $836.67
Boonsboro High Scool has just begun a chapter of the National English Honor Society, and our main goal is to create a writing center to benefit all students in the school. Our members will train at the writing center at Towson University on September 25, 2019. Before that time, tutors will train with me over the summer in order to sharpen their writing skills and practice their writing center role by tutoring each other. They will then tutor students before or after school.
Innovative Education with Cricut Maker – Lincolnshire Elementary School
Teacher: Ashley Mason
Award: $789.66
The Cricut is a machine that is able to draw as well as cut out endless creations designed through a computer on various types of materials from paper to wood. With this technology there are infinite possibilities for students, staff, and the community to work together to meet a wide range of goals; from literacy, STEM, college and career readiness, to supporting at-risk students, the arts and digital learning. With this innovative technology, new methods can be brought to Lincolnshire Elementary to support and help meet the needs of our school community.
Specdrums: A Musical Classroom Technology – Marshall Street Center and the Job Development Program
Teacher: Meagan Gaff
Award: $436.92
Specdrums will allow my classroom to become a playable musical instrument. Students can create music using colorful spaces in the classroom – a bulletin board with panels of colors, rainbow colored wall dots, a foam mat, and even their own drawings can become playable musical instruments
Hallway Sensory Path – Clear Spring Elementary School
Teacher: Teresa Jordan
Award: $589.74
My proposed project aims to use our school’s Cricut to create a “sensory path” of vinyl cut-outs. Students will be able to hop, walk, skip, press, do wall push-ups or even be still and breathe. The path will incorporate academic aspects, such as letter recognition, sight words, and math facts to reinforce learning. The path may be used by all students at times, however, the specific purpose is to decrease time spent redirecting students requiring sensory input while minimizing the disruptions to instruction and learning.
Music Literacy in a Beginning Orchestral Program – Clear Spring Middle School
Teacher: Kristin Hiser
Award: $790.82
Sheet music is the music classroom version of a textbook. These essential pieces of music contain music vocabulary, dynamic, and articulation markings. The difficulty of these rudiments increase with the skill level of students. However, music teachers must have access to repertoire at all skill levels since student’s needs vary year to year. The string program at my school is only three years old. I do not own any leveled solo books and the full ensemble pieces do not match my student’s playing ability. Money from this grant will allow me to purchase appropriately skilled music for my student’s needs.
Diversity and Multicultural Awareness, Equity and Inclusion: We Are All Unique, We All Have a Gift to Share – Boonsboro High School
Teacher: Starlene Hamilton
Award: $247.55
Create a plan to celebrate the Nationally recognized History and Heritage Months. Plan, coordinate, and ensure their projects are ethically and educationally creative, opens up positive dialogue, and encourages individual and group participation. The students will learn resources in which to order diverse posters, materials, and other items related to learning about respectful ways to honor cultural holidays, languages, beliefs, etc. other than, and to include their own. They will be making baseball card type informative documents, posters and displays to help other student’s gain knowledge outside of their class and share in the learning experience, as well.
