Many children learn by interacting with objects or manipulatives. Touching, seeing and moving things around is crucial to their learning. That’s where Legos will come into play.
The Social Emotional Learning project helped online students close the gap of non-peer interaction. Each student had their own set of 25 books to follow along with topics that covered being respectful, kind, patient, honest, fair, not giving up, and dealing with your feelings. The Scribble book dealt with a gray rock that was turned into a purposeful, beautiful, and colorful rock. Each student painted their own rock. Once the in-person students came on campus, the topics were covered in real life situations.
The purpose of the Relaying Ratios Project was to offer students an innovative mathematical and scientific activity that challenges English Language Learners to describe the process of finding a ratio using academic vocabulary. Students gained the abillity to communicate like a mathematician, use hands-on learning to acquire mathematical language and encourage sharing of one’s own cultural identity with others of a different culture.
Special Education Teacher, Crystal Aguilar, was able to purchase materials for high school ATP students that focused on all areas of transitioning, including vocational training, life skills, and employability skills. A Transition Assessment Package was also incorporated and it has proven to be very successful at targeting students’ interests for person-centered transition planning.
21st Century Skills Through Arts and Engineering was a project designed to help TK and Kindergarten students develop their ability to create, communicate, think critically, and collaborate.
Students constructed, installed, and maintained a dozen food skyscrapers to date on the campus of Roosevelt High School. Students could collaboratively work outside while learning with these hands-on vertical gardens to harvest their own strawberries while learning important lessons about nutrition, photosynthesis, soil health, and pollination. While the original scope of the project needed to be adjusted due to safety measures and in-person limits, the outcomes of students communicating the joy of science and gardening to their friends, campus and commun
CTE/ROP Business Management students researched protective headwear and facemasks to assist in their development for a survey assessment. The assessment was designed to generate results for preferred garments by student agriculture laborers. Heat press machinery was utilized to create hats and facemasks. Student agriculture laborers that completed the survey assessment received a hat and facemask.
The goal of the Community Garden project was to establish a tradition of a seasonal vegetable and plant sale and help bring fresh produce and plants to the local community. Students created pots for growing the plants and they used potting benches to safely display them for the plant sale. Students sold vegetable seedlings, water wise California Natives and annual flowers, and they were able to fill all the planter boxes with vegetables for the community to purchase.
The West Coast Grand Prix motivates students to learn more about tools and how they can be used to build a race vehicle. Students were challenged to expand their knowledge in math, engineering, physics, drafting, design, sequencing, and creativity. A number of students from elementary school, junior high and high school were able to participate in a national event that would not have been possible without the Innovation Grant. The event inspired students and they are excited for future opportunities.
Students were very excited to use iPads and Osmo kits in their everyday learning. Some of them had seen them on television, but had never had a hands-on experience with the kits. The delight on their faces was priceless! Their favorite was the coding kit and they diligently worked to figure out how to adjust the code to successfully navigate through the maze. Although the number of students able to utilize the iPads and Osmo kits this year was limited due to distance learning, future classes will gleefully enjoy them for years to come!
Robots and Coding II was an expansion project of CUE Robots funded previously. Students at San Joaquin Elementary had an opporutnity to work collaboratively in groups, with COVID-19 safety measures in place, to perform tasks or create projects using Cue robots. They used the Blocky app as an introduction to coding using pre-written lines of code that provides rigor in their logical thinking and problem solving abilities.
Students at Rafer Johnson Jr. High have an opportunity to enhance their skills with the use of technology to create media content to reflect their learning, knowledge, and personal creativity. With the use of a green screen, students will video record school announcements for the school broadcast and personal narrative projects for ELA class. The portable nature of the green screens allows students to use them while practicing social distancing using a camera or Chromebook webcam.
This project allowed for students at Parlier Jr. High School to learn about Mindfulness and the impact that it can have on social/emotional needs. The books that were purchased through this grant generated open discussions about how practicing mindfulness and using different techniques are helpful and easy to practice on a daily basis. Because of the various conversations that took place, students were also able to identify the techniques that serve them best.
Project Attendance Matters was aimed at educating families about the importance of attendance and the impact it has in their child’s academic progress. Students and parents were invited to attendance workshops in conjunction with school sites in Sanger Unified. The workshops covered topics such as creating routines, setting goals, understanding parent discipline procedures, partnerships with schools, reaching out for resources, and understanding the impact it has on their child’s education.
Fifteen Kindle Fire tablets and cases were purchased for students to use at home and in the classroom to access online applications that will enhance math and reading skills. The addition of these tablets to the technology resources already available, allowed students to access online curriculum used during instruction in a fun alternative manner other than their daily laptop use. The goal of the project was to encourage and foster growth in individual student reading and math skills.
Students in Kingsburg High School's AP Environmental Science classes took a break from being cooped up in the classroom and used their new PocketLab Air devices to collect Ozone and Particulate Matter readings throughout a typical day in February. They made observations of the weather conditions, number of vehicles passing by, and other factors that might affect their readings, and then completed a full lab report on their findings using the PocketLab Notebook Pro software.