Education Foundation awards $500 mini-grants to teachers

CURRITUCK — The Currituck Education Foundation last month awarded $500 mini-grants to four different classroom projects in the Currituck County Schools.

The recipients included teachers Chavaleh Nophsker of Dr. WT Griggs Elementary School; Amanda Lowman of Currituck County High School; Kelsey McCluster of Central Elementary School and Knotts Island Elementary School; and Winter Turner and Katrina Costello of Moyock Elementary School.

Nophsker’s mini-grant will fund her “The Walking Classroom” project which includes the purchase of individual wearable devices loaded with over 150 podcasts on concepts taught in grades 3-5. The Walking Classroom is a science and social studies-aligned curriculum delivered through 15-20 minute podcasts. Topics will range from the Revolutionary War to the circulatory system, and are narrated by Nophsker and a group of her students.

Lowman’s mini-grant is for her “Foreign Language Communication on Familiar Platforms” project which includes the purchase of supplies for a student communications lab and green screen room. The lab can be used throughout the semester to make smaller projects such as Spanish news reports, book reviews, commercials for Spanish products, weather forecasts and other such speaking projects. Rather than having a final exam, students will participate in a comprehensive and collaborative final project that incorporates “four key skill sets”: interpretive reading, interpretive listening, presentational speaking and presentational writing.

McCluster’s mini-grant will fund supplies for her “Family Connection Summer Series” that will include a Family Bingo Day, an ice cream social and Family Open House Day during the summer months. The project will help school officials check in with students and their families over the summer. The check-ins will help educators “assess students’ social-emotional well-being, maintain trust with families and create a school-family community partnership,” the project description states. The engagement during the summer months is designed to lead to improved student achievement, decreased disciplinary issues, and improved student-educator/parent-educator relationships when students return in the fall.

Turner and Costello’s mini-grant will pay to purchase supplies for their “Engaging with Animal Adaptations” project. Students will learn about science in the real world through the creation of three different labs: a Bird Beaks Lab, Blubber Lab, and Owl Pellets Lab.

During the Bird Beaks Lab, students will be presented with a variety of materials that represent different soil types, insects and beak types of birds. Groups of students will complete the Blubber Lab by creating a layer of blubber to protect their hands from iced water and discuss adaptations for surviving in a frigid environment. During the Owl Pellets Lab, students will research owls and how they have adapted to digest their prey.