FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE N.R. #194, 4/20/98

Date: April 20, 1998

Contact: Irene Cromer

703/791-8720

EDUCATION FOUNDATION INNOVATION GRANTS AWARDED

The Prince William County Public Schools Education Foundation has awarded Innovation Grants for nine projects designed by individual teachers and groups of teachers. A total of $3,548 will be awarded in grants ranging from $209 to $500. This is the second round of Innovation Grants awarded by the Foundation during the 1997-98 school year, for a total of $8,967. In December, $5,419 was granted to twelve projects. The Education Foundation has awarded nearly $33,500 in teacher grants since the 1992-93 school year. Grant recipients will be recognized by the School Board at its meeting on April 22.

The Prince William County Public Schools Education Foundation was organized to promote, aid and encourage educational and charitable purposes in the Prince William County Public Schools and serves as a link between the school division and the business community. For more information on the Education Foundation, contact Robert Boardman, executive director of the Education Foundation, at 791-7215. For more information on any of these innovative programs, contact the teachers at their individual schools.

###

Addendum to News Release of April 20, 1998

Education Foundation Innovation Grants

Brentsville District Middle/High School

Brentsville District Middle/High School received a grant of $209 to fund its project "Parents Equal Success." Parent volunteers will be recruited and trained to assist sixth grade students in using school library resources to prepare a required research assignment. The parents will be trained in the characteristics and uses of various library databases and research procedures. The grant funds will be used to provide each student with a pocket folder, a zipper lock bag, index cards and thank you notes to send to parent volunteers. This project was submitted by Jerilynn Stiles and Brenda Ross, librarians; Pam Magee, and Linda Poteat, English teachers; and Paula Kreib, math and English teacher.

Dumfries Elementary School

An Innovation Grant of $312 awarded for "Opening Young Minds to Science" will be used to purchase primary level science books for first grade students. The science books will cover eleven science content levels addressed by the first grade science curriculum and will be used in reading instruction groups. The reading level of first grade students at this school, which has a high mobility rate, ranges from pre-reading to the third grade level. An audio cassette of each book, recorded by one of the first grade teachers, will be included in a listening center to help guarantee comprehension for students with lesser reading abilities. The grant was submitted by Linda Simpson, first grade teacher.

Lake Ridge Elementary School

Fourth grade students will strengthen their physical science skills through participation in "Physical Science for Everyone," which earned a grant of $497 for Lake Ridge Elementary School. The project will provide hands-on instruction in physical science with a focus on magnetism and electricity, and will include a visit from a guest speaker who will speak on career

Addendum, page two

opportunities in the field of electricity. Among other tasks, the students will create and demonstrate a functioning parallel and series circuit and construct a functional electroboard with a continuity tester to make matching games. They will also create a poster or collage portraying themselves in a career related to electricity and write an essay on the subject. The grant funds will be used to purchase materials needed to complete the activities. The grant was submitted by Sue Moore, fourth grade teacher.

Mountain View Elementary School

A $500 grant awarded to Mountain View Elementary School will cover the costs of publishing a student-created literary magazine. Fourth and fifth grade students enrolled in a Gifted Education Language Arts Enrichment program at Mountain View will serve as staff members for the magazine, including editor, artists and lay-out persons. A guest speaker will share public-speaking tips with the students, who will then use what they have learned to make presentations to fellow students, describing the purpose of the magazine and its submission requirements. The magazine staff will select articles which will be typed by parent volunteers. After layout and editing by the students, the finished product will be printed and distributed to the entire school. The grant funds will pay for the printing. "Exploring All Aspects of Language Arts Through a Student-Run Literary Magazine" was submitted by Barbara Mangum, gifted education teacher.

Osbourn Park High School

The "Earth Science & Visual Arts Mountain Relief Model" project, which earned a grant of $500 for Osbourn Park, will integrate earth science and visual arts. During art and earth science class time, students will design and build a major ecological tableau of an alpine mountain terrain. Built on a scale similar to a table top train model display, the student-constructed paper mache model will include a series of mountains, a glacier, several rivers and streams, a high alpine valley and a wetland. After construction, the model will be used by the Geoscience Department as a teaching aid in such topics as mountain building, erosion, weathering, glaciers, river and wetland formations and as a demonstration of what a merger of the visual arts and science can provide the educational system. The grant will partially fund the cost of materials for the project, which was submitted by Frank M. Gregorio, earth science teacher; and Trina Sheckels-McFarland, art teacher.

Rockledge Elementary School

A grant of $490 awarded to Rockledge will be used to support a school objective that all students will read on grade level before year's end. Book segments will be recorded on tapes to allow at risk readers in grades one through three to read along. Students will practice reading with the recordings repeatedly until they feel confident enough to try the reading independently. The grant funds will be used to purchase pre-recorded books and blank tapes. The school will match the grant funds to double the number of books and tapes purchased. "Hear to Read to Learn" was submitted by Betty Story, reading specialist.

Springwoods Elementary School

A grant of $300 awarded to Springwoods Elementary School will partially fund an evening tutoring program. Springwoods' Evening Tutoring Program is an extension of a daytime tutoring program currently in place through Superintendent of Schools Edward Kelly's initiative with the Prince William Ministerial Association. The students will meet for fifty minutes each Tuesday evening with a tutor who has received a lesson plan and materials from the child's teacher. The grant funds will provide supplies, including calculators and math manipulatives. "At Risk Tutoring Program" was submitted by Elizabeth Spoth, speech teacher; and Paulette Popovich, guidance counselor.

Stonewall Jackson High School

Students enrolled in Work and Family Studies classes will benefit from a $240 grant awarded to the "Interactive Nutrition for All Learners" project. The purpose of the project is to teach and reinforce nutrition concepts. The printed and audiovisual materials purchased with the grant funds will be used in Child Development classes, where the emphasis is on the importance of prenatal care and early childhood nutrition; in Wellness and Nutrition classes that focus on food selection for personal and family health; in Career and Life Planning classes, which deal with economical ways to meet nutritional needs; and in the GRADS program for teen mothers that reinforces the importance of modeling correct food selection and eating practices for the benefit of children. The grant application was submitted by Elizabeth Orndoff-Sayers, Gretchen T. Almstead, and Suzanne Weatherholt-Parker, Work and Family Studies teachers.

Woodbridge Middle School

"Reading and Learning: A Family Affair" earned an Innovation Grant of $500 for Woodbridge Middle School. The grant funds will be used to purchase books from the school's Summer Reading List which will be distributed to at-risk students in a workshop setting. The students and their parents will attend a series of three workshops which will provide them with helpful strategies for completing the required follow-up assignments. The project was submitted by Marie Wolson, sixth grade teacher; Skyles Calhoun, Susan Conklin, and Sharon Payne, language arts teachers; Charlotte Yow, L.D. teacher; Merlyn Edwards, librarian; and Jane Dodson Perry, administrative assistant.

###