2020 Teacher Grants

2020 CROSSROADS FORD OF APEX APSF TEACHER GRANT RECIPIENT

AFHS Media Center Makerspace

The AFHS Makerspace seeks to serve all core classes (Math, Science, English, Social Studies) and the elective courses (World Languages, Career & Technical Education, the Arts, the P.E.), and Special Education. The media specialists partner with teachers to support what is happening in the classroom. In doing so, media specialists are able to develop critical thinking skills, technology and literacy skills. Collaboration is the key to making this partnership successful for teachers and students. By designing project-based learning lessons that incorporate the makerspace, students have the opportunity to collaborate and use their creativity to solve real-world problems.  This grant will provide technology that increases opportunities for all students to make and invent purposefully through hands on creative lessons (green screen projects, basic robotics, coding, design theory, 3D printing, STEAM projects and more). 

Amount Awarded
$2375.19

School
Apex Friendship High School

Applicants
Angel Smith (Media), Rebecca Ashley (Media)

2020 APSF TEACHER GRANT RECIPIENT

Augmented and Virtual Reality

Media, STEM and Art classes will offer opportunities for students to create and print 3D environments and enable students to explore augmented and virtual reality. This grant will provide Chromebooks on which students will be creating 3D environments using Tinkercad (digital resource) and showing it on the Merge Cube (physical resource). 

Amount Awarded
$2,500

School
Laurel Park Elementary School

Applicants
Tiffany Trent (STEM), Laura Benner (Art), Alison LeSueur (Media)

2020 APSF TEACHER GRANT RECIPIENT

Breakout EDU Bundles

Breakout EDU is a physical game kit and platform where students work together to solve various puzzles to open a locked box, similar to an escape room.  Breakout EDU currently has over 600 curriculum aligned games. The innovative Breakout EDU games are designed to challenge, enhance learning, and be inclusive, all elements of WCPSS’s strategic plan.  This grant provides a 6 kit bundle of Breakout EDU. 

Amount Awarded
$800

School
West Lake Middle School

Applicants
Michael Meehan (Social Studies), Kathy Goodson (IF), Angelina Jennings (ELA), Tara McCarthy (ELA)

2020 APSF TEACHER GRANT RECIPIENT

Starter Kit for ProjectLIT

ProjectLIT is a national program that provides books with underrepresented characters to underrepresented student populations. This grant provides 20 copies of three ProjectLIT titles to SMS.   Ghost, Ghost Boys, and The Crossover all address obstacles and challenges faced by many of our students and illustrate, through careful character development, the ability to face discrimination and injustice with perseverance, positivity, and grit. 

Amount Awarded
$500

School
Salem Middle School

Applicants
Jennifer Howland (AIG), Peter Caggia (Media), Shannon Cruse (Spec. Ed), Molly Dibble (AP)

2020 APSF TEACHER GRANT RECIPIENT

Farm to Table Courtyard Garden

The Agriculture, Food Science, and Culinary Arts Program at AHS is committed to having our students understand the food chain, from farm to fork. As our Career and Technical Education programs have developed, our vision has grown to include a new farm to fork collaborative program, where agriculture students will grow the food that the culinary students will prepare, and food science students will study the food supply and think critically at stages in between. This grant will provide the growing space and supplies needed to begin this new adventure at our school.

Amount Awarded
$965.50

School
Apex High School

Applicants
Erica Hoskins (Culinary), John Clark (Agriculture), Rebecca O'Brien (Food Science)

2020 APSF TEACHER GRANT RECIPIENT

STEAM Lab Challenge Materials

STEAM education is a focus on the impact of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math on a child’s education. At SMS, we have a designated “STEAM” challenge room for teachers, a space where they can execute innovative and interactive lessons that challenge students’ abilities to think critically and creatively, work in collaborative teams, and practice their communication skills.  This grant provides materials, currently missing from the room, that are essential to the engineering design process. 

Amount Awarded
$366.29

School
Salem Middle School

Applicants
Jennifer Howland (AIG), Peter Caggia (Media), Molly Dibble (AP), Larisa Gilmore (7th ELA)