2020 Grant Recipients Updates
Checking in with some of our APSF Grant Recipients
In our very first grants cycle, the APSF awarded six grants to five different schools. While four of the grants implementations were postponed due to COVID-19, two of those recipients were able to move forward. We’re excited to share their stories with you!
Farm-to-Fork at Apex High School
APSF’s grant to Apex High School was awarded to a team of educators Erica Hoskins (Culinary), John Clark (Agriculture), Rebecca O'Brien (Food Science) for the school’s farm-to-fork collaborative. Funds were used to build raised planting beds that have been placed in AHS’s courtyard, which is centrally located to its classrooms. These raised beds are being used to grow a variety of vegetables and herbs.
Students work in the garden at Apex High School’s Farm-to-Fork program.
As the vegetables and herbs are harvested, students are using them as ingredients for culinary labs, food science experiments, and plant science labs. This project is allowing the program’s students to follow their food from their own ‘farm’ to fork. It is also exposing other students to the food chain while inspiring them to be more involved in producing and maintaining a high quality and abundant food supply for Apex High School.
A Makerspace at Apex Friendship High School
Media Coordinators Angel Smith and Becky Ashley working with circuits
The 2020 Crossroads Ford of Apex Teacher Grant was awarded to Angel Smith and Rebecca Ashley in the Media Center at Apex Friendship High School for their Makerspace program materials and tools. A “makerspace” is a collaborative workspace for students to invent, discover, play, and solve problems. This allows students to prepare themselves for a future that will include a variety of career fields including some that may not have not been developed yet.
The AFHS Makerspace program provides the following opportunities:
Student-Driven Learning Experiences: At these sessions, students are invited to have unrestricted access to the Makerspace with a media coordinator as a facilitator. All students are invited to use materials provided to create and explore, use their imagination, and solve problems using the equipment and tools on hand.
Collaboration Among Students: Providing students with a Makerspace offers them a chance to work in groups to solve problems, and meet curriculum needs through collaborative group work (completing tasks assigned by teachers who have worked with media coordinators). Also, through project-based learning, students can work in groups to find solutions to problems.
Communication Between Students: The Makerspace breeds an environment in which students must communicate and work together to solve problems they face as they create. This prepares them for real life scenarios.
Risk-Taking, Creativity and Critical Thinking: Students design a product that may not work or will fail. In those cases, they will have to go back to the drawing board and begin again. Students who fail in a supportive environment are more willing to try again, building resilience. Their multiple attempts in the creative process serve to strengthen their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Individual and Group Reflection: Makerspaces allow for authentic learning and self-assessment. Students see if what they created works to solve the problem they identified while being held accountable to teachers for the assessment of the curriculum.
The APSF is honored to have played a role in making these enriching programs possible for students in Apex. We look forward to sharing more of these inspirational stories with you as educators and students start implementing their grants.