Local schools awarded Foundation Innovation Grants

Ten lucky classrooms and departments in Canyons School District recently received a total of $50,000 in grants from the Canyons Education Foundation. Butler Middle's science department was one of the recipients, as were classrooms in Butler and Bella Vista Elementary Schools.

Representatives of the CEF and the school district surprised the winning educators during classes on Dec. 12 and 13. The Foundation Innovation Grants will fund cutting-edge classroom technology and other educational tools the schools could not likely have afforded otherwise; tools that will supplement existing curriculum and help prepare students for college and careers.

Butler Middle's science department has already ordered 10 new iPads and two Apple TVs with its $5,000 cut of the grant money. This technology will be shared among the department's four teachers.

"Right now, I'm tied to the back of my classroom," Department Head Terry Howell said. "I can't move among my students."

The iPads and Apple TVs will change that, she said. Howell will be able to carry one of the iPads with her as she moves through the room, while her students see everything she does with her iPad on their own, or on the TV screens.

There are also many educational apps Howell and her fellow science teachers can download--mostly for free--onto the iPads; that will give students more visual and interactive ways to learn their material. One particularly cool one Howell is looking forward to using allows students to manipulate sound waves on the iPad screens with their fingers, and then listen to the results, she said.

"It's centered around the idea of motivating kids that are struggling," Principal Marsha Morgan said.

The technology is a good incentive to the students because they enjoy using it, Howell said. It will also keep higher-level students challenged with more advanced apps. Students can access the Internet directly from their iPads.

Bella Vista's 1st grade teacher, Natasha Buckner, is also purchasing 10 iPads and two Apple TVs--as well as covers for the iPads and all the necessary cables, connectors and wireless access equipment--with her $5,200 grant.

"There's reading apps, there's math apps [students can use on the iPad]," Buckner said. "They can practice writing complete sentences."

As with the middle schoolers, having this technology for younger students is better than paper and pencils because it's interactive and motivating, and can give them more challenging material to work with, she said.

"Their ability to concentrate is very little," she said. "[The iPads] are more engaging."

The iPads will also make individualizing instruction easier because she can give them remedial or extra-challenging apps to work on, based on their own needs, Buckner said.

Butler Elementary is doing something completely different from the others. Fourth grade teacher Whitney Anderson has ordered Delta Science Module kits--one full new kit and five refill packets for old kits--with her $482 grant. Each kit has all the books and supplies she and her students need for several hands-on science projects.

"The kids always love to do anything science and hands-on," Anderson said. "It makes it so much more real, and they remember it longer."

The DSM kits alleviate the most common barrier teachers encounter that makes hands-on science difficult for them--the incredible amount of time it takes to get all the supplies together, she said.

The kits Butler is using include erosion, dinosaurs and fossils, the water cycle, weather, the environment, plants and animals, and rocks and minerals.