2013 - 2014 Grant Awards

Overlook Middle School
Extension of the Early Man Interdisciplinary Unit
Dayna Mongelli, Donna Crowley, Brett Duncan, Karsa Hirons
This grant extends the original Early Man Interdisciplinary unit submitted last year and will include all sixth graders at Overlook Middle School. The interdisciplinary unit has been successful with both regular and special education students in helping them understand the life and times of Cro-Magnon Man. This grant will double the number of books on hand and purchase additional supplemental related non-fiction reading materials to enrich the sixth grade experience for all students.

Overlook Middle School
Stereo-microscopes: A Window into the Microscopic World
JoAnn Mossman
This grant funds the purchase of 7 stereo-microscopes to support the seventh grade Life Science curriculum. The microscopes are portable, which enables the students to use them outdoors as well as indoors. They will be used to study the school gardens, the microbes in the garden soil and the compost as well as the microscopic world of the reservoirs and ponds around the school campus.

Overlook Middle School
Our Past: A Hands-On Archeological Simulation
Brett Duncan
This grant provides the materials to build a permanent archeological dig structure at Overlook Middle School. Understanding the stratification of soil levels, identifying fossils, stone materials and completing lab report documentation will be skills taught and used with the site. It allows students to "get their hands dirty" and fully experience the process, patience level and excitement in discovering fossils and artifacts to learn about their past. It also serves as a way to make the material learned in class become real to them as they become archeologists.

Overlook Middle School
Mathematical Lessons with the Wii
Jean Girouard
Purchasing a Nintendo Wii will enable this teacher to actively engage her students in learning data analysis and statistics by having them participate in Wii sports and then collect and analyze the data gathered from their performances. She will purchase and use the text, Investigating Middle School Mathematics: Classroom Lessons Using Wii Sports.

Oakmont Regional High School
Student Expression on Stage: Fostering Creative Responses to Teen Social Issues
Jeffrey Aubuchon
This grant supplement funding already granted to the Drama Club by the Ashburnham and Westminster Cultural Committees. The money funds a one day visit to Oakmont by Dr. Ken Urban, a playwright from Harvard University, who will help students adapt their creative ideas to the stage around social issues such as bullying and substance abuse. Each student will produce a written scene by the end of the workshop and then produce written plays for the inter-class play competition in the fall of 2013.

Oakmont Regional High School
Oakmont Alma Mater
Kris DeMoura
This grant will enable Oakmont music students to research historical facts about the school and the school district, create lyrics and work with a professional composer to create an original piece of music for Oakmont's school song. Upon completion of the alma mater, music students will spend time rehearsing it. Then a performance and recording of the school song will be done in December, 2013. The grant money will be used for materials and the hiring of a composer to work with the students.

J.R. Briggs Elementary School
Implementing the Common Core Reading Standards in Grade 3
Mary Gagnon
This grant application is requesting four online subscriptions to Reading A-Z. The program offers printable books that cover third grade Science and Social Studies topics that provide resources to teach content area reading skills. The books in the program are multi-level which allow the teaching of key skills with the whole class while still differentiating instruction. They will provide valuable examples of informational text.

2012 - 2013 Grant Awards

Meetinghouse School
Enhancing Number Sense in the Kindergarten Classroom
Beth Foster and Sandy Fowke
Inspired by a recent Math workshop by leading expert Mahesh Sharma on teaching numeracy, these teachers will purchase math manipulatives to help kindergarten students better understand number sense through both concrete and abstract applications. These manipulatives include Cuisenaire rods, Base Ten Blocks and Visual Cluster Cards, important tools used in Sharma's teaching strategies.

This grant provides for the purchase of a classroom set of Cuisenaire rods, numberless cards and invicta balances for grades 1, 2 and 3. Sufficient materials, in combination with dedicated teachers, will provide us with the opportunity to measurably increase the math skills of our elementary students in a permanent way.

J.R. Briggs Elementary School
Seeing the Big Picture: Cameras for Exploring Patterns in Nature
Tiffany Davis and Katie Bennett

This grant is for the purchase of two cameras to enhance the science curriculum for students in grades two through five: a time-lapse camera and an infrared motion detection camera. The cameras allow students to make observations of natural events that occur over long periods of time and/or take place at a time and place when the students cannot be present. Too often nature's grandest spectacles unfold so slowly or distantly that students cannot make the connections needed to see the "big picture". How did the monarch caterpillar emerge from its cocoon? When did the wood frogs arrive at the vernal pool? Time lapse and infrared motion detection technology offer students a view of these and other events which are otherwise difficult to experience.

Overlook Middle School
Overlook on the Grow
JoAnn Mossman

The purpose of this project is to provide Overlook students and staff with the funding to build three raised bed gardens. These gardens will be used in the science, social studies, math, physical education and life skills classes in the years to come. All Overlook students will be involved with hands-on experiences in the gardens at some point in every grade level. There are nine other teachers who are working together on this proposal and project. The grant allows this group to buy the necessary building materials and a rotating composter for the gardens.

Overlook Middle School
Digital Cameras in the Classroom
Ryan Lambert

Photographs serve as visual aids to enhance student understanding. Using digital photography helps the student become more involved with the subject. This grant will allow for the purchase of two digital cameras to be used in the classroom for a wide variety of interactive and innovative purposes; for example students will better understand and visualize the five themes of geography as they apply to the towns of Ashburnham and Westminster and to enhance our 21st Century Pen Pals by turning letters into post cards to be sent to middle school students around the world.

Overlook Middle School
Early Man Interdisciplinary Unit
Dayna Mongelli and Donna Crowley

With the awarding of this grant, sixth graders will take part in an interdisciplinary study of human origins across the curriculum. As students investigate the Paleolithic and Neolithic era in Social Studies, they will read a fictional account of a twelve year old Cro-Magnon (early homosapien) boy named Tao in the novel, Boy of the Painted Cave. Students will differentiate between hominid groups while becoming acquainted with the arts, culture and civilization of early man. The grant will allow teachers to purchase copies of that novel, Lascaux Cave Books for each classroom and cave painting art supplies.

Oakmont Regional High School
Video Equipment and Curricular Materials for Teaching Social Skills
Robin Peirce and Kathy Carlin

The Adjustment Counselor and the Speech/Language Pathologist at Oakmont will purchase a digital video camera, tripod, workbooks and student materials for use in service delivery of social/emotional skill training within the weekly social skills group called Reader's Theater. This project fosters academic excellence by going beyond the rules that pertain to expected and unexpected social behavior used throughout the day by giving the students the ability to see how they interact with others and recognize that their actions have consequences in conversations and social settings. Videotaping allows the students to analyze their own behaviors, develop their awareness and metacognitive skills. This awareness is essential for students to internalize and self-regulate behaviors in order to independently interact with peers and teachers, and it increases their ability to more successfully access the curriculum.

Oakmont Regional High School
The Bone Collection
Laurie Rheault

A multi-grade, multiple course project designed to enhance the student learning experience through hands-on models and replicas versus traditional use of diagrams and pictures. Students are more engaged and are able to develop deeper understandings when model are available allowing for hands-on interactions. The purpose of this project is to acquire a collection of human bone replicas, including articulated and disarticulated skeletons, so that students will have the opportunity to build stronger understandings of the skeletal system, human anthropology, and bone development through hands-on interactions.

Oakmont Regional High School
Spartan Bakery
Wendy LeBlanc

By creating a real life, authentic learning project, students will establish a working bakery (restaurant name, logo design), determine the food, bake the food, market and sell the food. Students will learn to do a cost analysis of their items, determine what the mark up will be on each item, as well as go through ServSafe training before they cook their food in one of the kitchens at the school. The goal of this project is to make the bakery self-sustaining, and operate it as a real business.

2011 - 2012 Grant Awards

Meetinghouse School and Westminster Elementary School
Tumble Into Reading
Pamela Terry

Tumble Books are digital, animated, talking picture books. Tumble Books create electronic picture books using existing picture books and adding narration, sound, music and animation. These books come in a variety reading levels that children can read along with the computer, listen to as the computer reads, or read independently. A subscription to Tumble Books provides twelve months of unlimited access to the Tumble Books website. A link to Tumble Books can be placed on both schools’ websites giving the students, teachers, and families of Meetinghouse and Westminster Elementary Schools unlimited access to the Tumble Book website. The stories, games, puzzles, and lesson plans, can be viewed on any computer with internet access, iPad, iPhone, or Android phone.Tumble Books would allow students to practice reading skills using high quality literature, reread stories used during class time, and extend learning through writing in the digital format that they enjoy. This additional practice will not only improve each student’s reading performance it will enhance each child’s love for reading.

Overlook Middle School
Video Equipment and Curricular Materials for Teaching Social Skills
Kathy Carlin & Katherine Mariani

This grant funds the purchase of a digital video camera, workbooks and student material for use in the service delivery in the area of social/emotional skills training.Social thinking is required throughout the school day in academic classes (routines, expectations, interactions and relationships (adult/child, child/adult, child/child), transitioning in the hallways (situational awareness, verbal and non-verbal interactions, self-control, etc.), cafeteria and recess (following expected routines, rules and procedures, socializing with peers, negotiating the rapid exchange of ideas and people, etc.) This project fosters academic excellence by going beyond teaching rules that pertain to expected and unexpected social behavior used throughout the day by giving the students the ability to see how they interact with others and recognize that their actions have consequences in conversations and social settings. Videotaping allows the students to analyze their own behaviors and develop their awareness and metacognitive skills. This awareness is essential for students to internalize and self- regulate behaviors in order to independently interact with peers and teachers, and it increases their ability to more successfully access the curriculum.

Oakmont Regional High School
Oakmont Robotics Engineering
David Lantry & Greg Secino

The project is to continue the expansion of robotics engineering at Oakmont. We are one week away from our sixth robotics competition, and our second VEX Challenge. Next week, 150 students representing 24 robot teams from over a dozen different schools will come to Oakmont to witness the results of their engineering endeavors in a head to head competition. Our mission all along has been to support the idea of engineering education at the high school level. The study of robotics, as it is set up at Oakmont, is not an after school activity, it is an essential part of the Technology Engineering Design curriculum. Robotics and Mechatronics is the weaving of math, science, technology and engineering into one amazing package. To be successful at a robotics endeavor, the machine that one witnesses on the court is the result of skills in critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and the application of their entire education. This year’s request is for a Competition Field Perimeter Kit ($799.99) and a VEXnet Field Controller Kit and a Competition Field Tile Kit.

Oakmont Regional High School
Oakmont’s Next Great Restaurant
Wendy LeBlanc

The purpose of Oakmont’s Introduction to Business course is to introduce students to the principles and functions of business. The various functional areas of business will be discussed: economic systems, forms of business ownership, small business, management, human relations, marketing, accounting, finance, and stock market.By creating a real-life, authentic learning project, students will establish small restaurant-themed businesses from creating a restaurant concept (name and logo design), determining the cuisine, choosing a target market, and restaurant atmosphere (fast casual, casual, quick service, etc.).After students have learned the steps to writing a business plan, they will put their actions into place. Once students have determined the name of their restaurant and designed their logo, they will create a signature dish to be served. Students will have to do a cost analysis of their item, determine what the markup would be on the item, as well as go through SafeServ training before they cook their food in one of the kitchens at the school.As the semester progresses, students will expand their restaurant menu and design. They will work with the Tech Ed Architecture students to have their restaurants designed and work with Computer Art students to make their logo a reality.

J. R. Briggs Elementary School
Social Intervention and Recess Program
Lauren Badolato

The Social Intervention Recess Program has been created to address the social needs of students receiving services through the B.E.S.T. ABA program as well as other students who are identified as appropriate participants. One to one support staff is responsible for facilitating this two part program which includes a weekly individual or small group social skill training session (aka social intervention session) as well as a weekly structured recess activity where skills will be reinforced and applied throughout the school day. This model allows staff members to support the student(s) they are assigned to while reaching other students within the school community who may benefit as well. Unexpected transitions and unstructured events can be particularly daunting for students who struggle with social challenges. Given that, school recess is a logical setting to provide organized activities which create feelings of safety and security while incorporating skills necessary for them to thrive socially. The project promotes awareness, understanding and practice of appropriate social-communication skills by encouraging the use of social thinking skills, team work, and problem solving. The activities are designed to enhance communication, connection to self and others, confidence, and cooperation. In addition, students are encouraged to participate in the process of planning and goal setting as an individual and/or group member, which are skills essential to achieving academic success.

J. R. Briggs Elementary School
NXT Temperature Sensors
Tiffany Davis, Kellie Robichaud, Gretchen Smith, Katie Bennett

Through its partnerships with Harvard Forest and the Nashua River Watershed Association, J.R. Briggs Elementary School has a strong environmental science program in place. The NXT Temperature Sensors project would allow us to combine environmental education with the school’s growing robotics program, thus creating opportunities for students to grapple with real-world scientific questions and engage in high-level critical thinking. The NXT comes with data logging capabilities and a light sensor that we have already used to create fifth grade lessons where students compare habitats on our school nature trail. Purchasing a classroom set of temperature sensors would allow us to expand the types of data students can collect, graph and analyze. Fourth grade students will use the LEGO Mindstorms NXT, data logging software, and temperature sensors to collect temperature data in different seasons around the schoolyard and on the nature trail. Fifth grade students will use the LEGO Mindstorms NXT, data logging software, and temperature sensors to collect temperature data in different habitats around the schoolyard and on the nature trail. Fourth and fifth grade students will use the data logging software to graph and analyze their data. Fourth and fifth grade students will use presentation and publishing software to share their results and conclusions. Fifth grade students will design and program a rover that includes sensors for navigating and collecting science data on the surface of Mars.

Overlook Middle School
I-Touch to Enhance Positive Behaviors and Curriculum Access
Lauren Jones

This project fosters academic excellence by improving behavior modification systems, which would allow students with Autism Spectrum Disorders learn to the best of their ability in the least restrictive environment. Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders often have difficulty organizing their thoughts or materials, regulating their moods and behaviors as well as operating these things independently. To successfully be included in the regular education, environment these students largely rely on the assistance of Applied Behavior Analysis trained paraprofessionals to cue, prompt, and record their behavior data. Though this system has been proven effective in increasing appropriate strategies and behaviors by data collection, this type of system can hinder independence in students. The implementation of the I-Touches and appropriate applications could remove the dependency on the paraprofessionals and foster independence of children with ASD as well as increase interest in behavior modification through technology. This independence could allow students with ASD to work in inclusion classes with less disruption, therefore allowing them to fully concentrate on the subject being taught. Further benefit will come from available time management tools built in. Students can access the calendar to record assignments and due dates. Reminders can be provided using voice, picture, visual or alarm cues. For students who have difficulty taking notes by hand, there are note taking and speech to text applications. Books can be downloaded and read for required reading, research, or pleasure. Math applications can reinforce learning number facts. Social communication, a specific difficulty for most students with ASD, will be enhanced through shared\activities and age appropriate technology interests.

Meetinghouse School
Character Classics
Debi Fleck

Character Classics is a comprehensive character education program that uses fun character songs set to classical music. The twelve core ethical virtues include: attentiveness, truthfulness, thankfulness, contentment, respect, kindness, patience, obedience, dependability, self-control, perseverance, and goodness. The kit also includes activities, coloring pages, and meaningful discussion topics. Many children are not equipped with fundamental social and coping skills, but through a program like this, they can be taught these skills and how to apply them. It will also provide a better understanding for all children on how to interact with others in a positive social manner. This is a program that can be taught and revisited throughout the year and then used again the next year to reinforce the character traits at a higher level.

J. R. Briggs Elementary School
Education in Your Hand, Utilizing iPad Technology
Joy Weiss

Kids are motivated by technology, and taking advantage of motivation is a great way to assure educational success. This grant brings an increasingly familiar piece of technology, the touch screen iPad, into the newly created Language Program housed at the J.R. Briggs Elementary School. With the creation of this new program, designed to meet the needs of some of our most academically challenged students, it is the perfect time to integrate as many multi-media, multi-sensory approaches as possible as a seamless part of this program. The iPad would be used for guided practice and independent practice in language arts and math, as an additional computer for keyboarding, a source of text to speech applications, as well as a source of internet access for email letters home from students to parents. Over the year, teachers will expand the use of the iPad throughout the academic day. Academic excellence can be defined in many ways. This program encourages people to take another look at academic excellence. Taking a broader view, academic excellence is bringing a student to a higher level of academic success than they ever dreamed possible. This proposal would help students learn of their own academic excellence. Students within this Language Program have experienced severe struggles in school, not only with learning to read, but also with needing to rely on others to be successful. The text to speech and practice activities on the iPad allow these students to independently access curriculum. For many, the gift of academic independence is the greatest step towards academic excellence we can provide. If students see themselves as independently able to learn, then we will have created lifelong learners and there is nothing more academically excellent than that.

Westminster Elementary School
Words to Live By
Leeann Lamsa

This grant funds the purchase of historical quotes to create thought-provoking and inspirational moments for all the students, faculty and parents at Westminster Elementary School, with the quotes permanently affixed to the walls of the school. These quotations will be displaybeing ed in all areas of the school—the hallways, library, lobbies, cafeteria, teacher’s room and gymnasium. The quotations will be representative of various authors in history, some unknown, many of them well known historical figures from diverse cultures and across time. As an outcome of this project, faculty, students and parents will be in a physical environment that will be inspirational, encouraging, supportive, and more aesthetically pleasing as they move throughout the building during every day. Students will have an increased knowledge of historical figures and their accomplishments. Most importantly, students will have the gift of words that can have special meaning to them as they grow and mature at WES and on to the rest of their lives. Teachers will be able to use the quotes with students to enrich and supplement the curriculum during specific times of the year (President’s Day, Martin Luther King Day, Read Across America Day) and throughout the school year as well. Some activities would include: reading the quotes in the hall; responding to the quotes and writing their responses, which can be posted in the halls; using thought provoking quotes to increase student’s critical thinking skills; and using the quotes to foster discussions surrounding how we perceive and treat others. We intend that our school should be a welcoming place where children, parents and teachers feel safe, and the quotes will help us communicate that mission and vision to the community. Though many specific activities may be completed, the impact of the quotes is intended to be continual and ongoing. In this time of significant budgetary constraints it is important to keep a positive environment for teachers and students and to continue in keeping the community apprised of our mission. In essence, the ultimate activity of this project---to keep inspiring people---will never be complete.

2010 - 2011 Grant Awards

Oakmont Regional High School
Meet SAM (Skills Assessment Manager)
Wendy LeBlanc

SAM is a proficiency-based assessment and training environment for Microsoft Office. It combines dependable web- based software along with an engaging user interface which provides maximum teaching and learning flexibility. SAM builds students’ skills and confidence with a variety of real-life simulations. In addition, SAM provides projects that educate students for today’s workplace. SAM benefits students by improving and testing their proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite as well as other computer concepts. SAM combines assessment, training, and projects for a thorough lab and testing solution.

J.R. Briggs Elementary School
We Both Read
Robin Murphy

We Both Read books are books that offer a unique shared reading format. These books are designed specifically to help foster and encourage parental involvement in reading. Each book offers an interactive format, in which a child takes turns reading aloud with a parent. The books invite the parent to read the left-hand pages. Then, for their turn, children are encouraged to read the right-hand pages, which feature less complex text and storyline, specifically leveled to their ability. The series presents a text format that includes modeling of fluent reading, repetition of key vocabulary on the child’s page, and shared and repeated reading. Students can check out books on a weekly basis to share and read with their parents.

Oakmont Regional High School
Oakmont Robotics Engineering
David Lantry and Greg Secino, Technology Engineering Teachers, Oakmont

The project is to continue the expansion of robotics engineering at Oakmont. We are leaping from 4 robotics teams competing in previous challenges to 22 robotics teams this year and counting. The number of engineering courses for next year has doubled. Plain and simple, we do not have enough vex components to provision the amount of students involved in this endeavor.
The study of robotics, as it is set up at Oakmont, is not an after school activity, it is an essential part of the Technology Engineering Design curriculum. Robotics and Mechatronics is the weaving of math, science, technology and engineering into one amazing package. To be successful at a robotics endeavor, the machine that one witnesses on the court is the result of skills in critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and the application of their entire education.

Westminster Elementary School
Listening Centers
Grade 4 Teachers

Our grade level would like to develop literacy stations during language arts centers through the use of MP3 players and audio books. Our team would like to purchase 5 MP3 players per classroom ($21.64 per player). In addition, we would like purchase audio books through downloads of leading books and series (ex. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief) ranging in price from $10-$20 per download. Audio books provide essentials to literacy tools for students who struggle with language arts, have auditory and attention issues, or for students who want to experience literature in a multi-sensory way. Audio books and literacy centers provide all the researched benefits of reading aloud to students in an independent way.

Overlook Middle School
Reading and Writing Strategies through Literature Circles
Kristin Belkin and Lori Shattuck

The purpose of this proposal is to purchase thematically linked sets of books and audio that are appropriate for the ability of each individual student. These books will be used to differentiate within the classroom and engage students in high interest reading while still teaching common reading strategies and language skills throughout the year. Multiple copies of trade books will allow for a literature circle approach encouraging students to read, discuss, and respond at their individualized reading level and pace. Co-teaching to these book groups will help students and teachers create building blocks to effective reading comprehension while teaching and applying basic skill sets in vocabulary, grammar, and reading conventions.

Westminster Elementary School
Interactive White Board Collaboration
Cori Litalien and Kate Romano

The use of interactive white boards expands the walls of the traditional classroom and introduces students to a new level of technology. Lessons in all academic areas will be enhanced through pod casts, online presentations, and interactive white board use which allow children to respond, and interact immediately with the information being presented. Studies have found that the use of interactive white boards with individual student question responder technology increases student engagement during lessons.Teachers who used interactive white boards were found to monitor student learning by asking questions more frequently that their match classroom (without the technology). Teachers were also able to simultaneously monitor the learning of all students more frequently than their match teacher. Teachers were able to incorporate 21st century skills in the area of communication, problem solving, and collaboration more often than their match teachers.

2009 – 2010 Grant Awards

J.R. Briggs Elementary School
Interactive Bright Board System
Tiffany Davis, Lynne Pinsoneault, Joy Weiss, Julie Fredette, Katie Bennett

This group of teachers will use money from the Foundation to create a mobile, Interactive Bright Board System to support language arts instruction in grades 3-5 at John R. Briggs Elementary School. Many elementary students approach the task of revising their writing with disinterest. An interactive bright board system can help teachers make the revision process more visible and motivating for students. Teachers can display a piece of writing on a big screen, using the computer and projector. Teachers and students can then interact with the text from anywhere in the room using wireless tablets. For example, the teacher could focus on word choice by displaying a three paragraph essay and asking small groups of students to identify and underline the “tired” words that need to be replaced. In researching the purchase of equipment required to implement this innovative idea, teachers at Briggs intentionally selected a system that can be moved from classroom to classroom. As a result, one classroom at each of the upper grades (3-5) will initially benefit from the technology (approximately 80 students), with the goal of purchasing 2 addition systems after this pilot program has proven successful. These teachers also intend to use additional funding sources to achieve their goal of bringing this innovative technology into their classrooms. This includes $940 raised by recycling printer cartridges and PTO basket raffles, as well as a 2009 Award for Excellence in Energy and Environmental Education in the amount of $200. With this grant from the Ashburnham Westminster Foundation for Academic Excellence in the amount of $500, teachers at Briggs are bringing a new level of technology to their school.

Westminster Elementary School
Words Their Way Word Study
Kate Romano, Cori Litalien, Cindy Robbins, Diane Roumbakis Davolio

The Fourth Grade teaching team at Westminster Elementary School has been awarded a grant to enhance spelling and strengthen literacy learning. Grade 4 is piloting a new spelling program known as Word Study, using the text Words Their Way. During Word Study, students are actively engaged in studying and using the rules of phonics and spelling. The focus of Word Study is placing words into categories known as word sorts. In putting words into categories, children can make associations and connections between words. Children are given time to discriminate and make judgments about sounds, word structures, spelling patterns and meanings. Word Study involves the entire fourth grade and resources can also be shared with third grade. Instruction is differentiated for each student based on errors made and each student is taught at their instructional level. Students are actively engaged in studying and using the rules of phonics and spelling. Grant money awarded to this team of teachers also funds the purchase of magnetic letters to supplement this program. The Foundation chose to fund this grant request in the amount of $310.95 because Words Their Way is a creative way to address the need for differentiated instruction, the teachers involved researched the most economical way to purchase the materials they needed, and the program can be used by both grades three and four at WES.

Westminster Elementary School
Around the World Interactive Maps
Jane Leamy, Lynne Courtemanche, Pattie Mitchell, Nancy Morgan

Second Grade teachers at Westminster Elementary School submitted a Founders’ Grant request to purchase four Around the World Interactive Maps to support approximately 100 second grade students. After completing a year-long project entitled How Boys and Girls Learn in the Classroom, much insight was gained as to how differently each gender's brain learns. Despite some of their learning differences, it is strongly evident that both boys and girls benefit from similar approaches to learning. Specifically, both boys and girls benefit from the use of manipulatives and visuals to maintain their interest and strengthen learning. This dynamic tool supports Massachusetts Geography Curriculum Frameworks, which includes identifying cardinal directions and applying them to maps, locating all continents, locating present boundaries of the United States, Mexico and Canada, locating major oceans, locating the five major rivers in the world, locating the major mountains or mountain ranges in the world, locating the five Great Lakes and more.

Overlook Middle School
George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt Interdisciplinary Project
Tony Gleason and Kristi DiSalle

Overlook Middle School sixth-grade teachers and Tony Gleason and Kristi DiSalle submitted a proposal to the Foundation for a project called George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt, an interdisciplinary project including language arts and science. Their goal in applying for this grant is to purchase a copy of Stephen Hawking's children's book George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt for each sixth-grade student on Team Blue. Students will complete research on our solar system in Science class. They will be using a nonfiction source (their textbooks) to conduct research on each planet in our solar system. While this research is being conducted in science class, students will be reading George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt, a hunt that takes place on various planets in our solar system, in English class. This book is a realistic fiction story with all of the story elements for a fiction book, yet it includes a plethora of factual information on many objects in our solar system.

There are many benefits to students by purchasing this book and conducting the interdisciplinary project. This project meets Massachusetts State Curriculum Frameworks for both Science and English. Stephen Hawking, regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Albert Einstein, wrote George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt. Students will experience an interdisciplinary approach to learning. Finally, and perhaps the best benefit to the students is that students get to learn factual cosmic information while reading a fun story George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt.

Oakmont Regional High School
Robotics Competition Equipment
David Lantry and Greg Secino

For the past four years Oakmont’s Technology Education Department has held its own regional robotics competition. In order to grow our competition and involve more students and schools, Oakmont teachers David Landry and Greg Secino have teamed up with Vex Robotics and will now host a regional Vex Robotics competition at Oakmont at the end of the school year. In the past, Rowing Robots and Lobster Catch were held at Westminster Crocker Pond Recreation Area, and last year's competition, Robotic Mini Golf, was held at Oakmont Regional High School. This new competition will be open to all schools in the mid-Wachusett area.

By receiving a Founders’ Grant in the amount of $500, these teachers will be able to purchase additional robotics parts not only for this year’s competition, but for future competitions and robotics engineering courses. Our Robotics and Engineering classes at Oakmont will be able to design, construct and enter multiple robots into our own competition. Students benefit from this by way of introduction to robotics design, engineering, construction and programming, as well as the exposure to a regional robotics competition. This direction of education reflects a national trend in preparing the next generation, which is why the Ashburnham Westminster Foundation for Academic Excellence is proud to assist their efforts.

J.R. Briggs Elementary School
Lego Mindstorms Robotics Kits
Nancy Gera

The LEGO Mindstorms robotics kits promote science, technology, engineering and math education in the District. Students work together to build, program, and test their robots. They develop skills in working cooperatively, a highly sought after 21st century skill especially important in the technology field. Students will receive explicit instruction in working as teams in the context of robot projects. The robots are great for some of the boys who need more hands on experience in school. Young girls who may not have LEGO experience also benefit by generating interest in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Meetinghouse School
Seussical the Musical
Debi Fleck

The MHS Preschool class received a $500 grant to help defray the costs for tickets and transportation to the play, “Seussical”. This would be a culminating activity for students who have been learning about Dr. Seuss, a children’s’ author. In addition to enjoying a performance of familiar Dr. Seuss characters, students would have an opportunity to improve their attending skills as they would sit for the duration of the play. Students would gain exposure to rhyming and music and would work on comprehension for the beginning, middle, and the end of the performance.