The $500,000 grants were distributed this year to public schools in Portsmouth and Middletown, and last year the grant was awarded to Newport Public Schools, which has spent the past year developing its program and has started to implement it.
Middletown schools were awarded the grant previously and used the funding, which is earmarked for military-connected students, to build a lab. This current allotment will be used to boost the school's new biomedical program that began last year.
The Portsmouth School Department will use the money to expand its AgInnovation Farm, and Newport is using its funds to enhance technology around the science curriculum.
Across the nation, Margie Brennan, science coordinator for the Portsmouth School Department, said there were 75 applicants who applied for grants in 2021. Only two of those applicants, including the Portsmouth, were first-time applicants, and just 32 were awarded the funds.
The lone district in New England outside of Newport County to receive funds was Groton, Connecticut.
Newport schools worked with Kathy Eller, director of the East Bay Educational Collaborative last year, to write the grant. When it won, Brennan was asked to write a science grant for Portsmouth, so she asked Eller for assistance.
"We ended up collaborating, so we co-wrote the grant, which was extremely helpful because it is a very tedious grant application," Brennan said. "There's a lot of checkpoints you have to do, so Kathy and I became co-writers of the grant and through that we're collaborating, Portsmouth School Department and East Bay Educational Collaborative. We're merging the two together so that her organization and my organization will be working together even more."
SPROUTING SUCCESS IN SCIENCE
The Portsmouth grant, called Sprouting Success in Science, is a K-8 grant with a primary goal to increase the department's academic achievement in science through academic trainings, as well as collaboration with community organizations, such as Save the Bay and the National Audubon Society.
"It's an educational-type grant that we're hoping to align with our NGSS, which is our Next Generation Science Standards," Brennan said. "And through that, we plan to hopefully increase our test score and even better provide pathways to careers in science, which is something that I feel, with COVID, was placed in the back because obviously reading and math are primary concerns right now."
Science, Brennan said, is our future, and Aquidneck Island has problems that can be solved by authentic learning examples. Engineering, science and design is always something kids need to learn through connections, not through a text book or a video.
"They need to understand what's going on in our own community so that they then can apply those science practices to the real world and understand that (the Department of) Public Works is science, our Water Department (is science)," she said. "Looking at any type of transportation, that's science. So giving them opportunities to see that there are pathways out there that we can help them get into in their high school careers and beyond."
These educational opportunities for students on Aquidneck Island will be invaluable because they will help solidify their career goals by the end of high school. Brennan said currently she doesn't believe many students know what they want to do with their lives when they graduate from high school, and these science programs will help to inspire.
In order for students to become experts in their given field, Brennan said they need to start understanding concepts earlier and the importance of their education in middle school, high school and beyond.
In Portsmouth, funds will be used to focus on agriculture and sustainability, and will be utilized in connection with the middle school's AgInnovation Farm.
"The hope is to bring the kids to the farm to learn about sustainable agriculture, soil health, water quality," Brennan said. "Through this grant, we are then able to look at the elementary grades and incorporate 4H programs, school gardens. Things that they can then take at a younger grade and understand the importance, so when they get to the middle school, they are more excited about sciences."
Currently, they're working with the high school on building solar-powered rain catchment systems at the farm.
"The engineering class at the high school has taken on a problem we have at our middle school farm, and again, that connection," Brennan said. "They're seeing that engineering just isn't in an office. They're getting out there, they're doing field work, they're seeing a problem, they're researching it, they're trying a problem, they're coming up with a solution. And if it doesn't work, they're going back to the drawing board."
The grant also allows for the professional development of teachers.
MOVING SOLAR SYSTEMS WITH THEIR HANDS
The Newport program, Eller said, is based at the elementary school and focuses on teaching students what science and engineering is so they can develop a STEM identity and see themselves having a future in STEM fields.
"Because, really, STEM fields are among the highest paid fields in America at this moment — science and engineering — and would be a wonderful future for the students," she said.
The East Bay Educational Collaborative provided training to educators at Pell Elementary School on the Next Generation Science Standards, uplifting the pre-existing science program at Pell.
"We also provide amazing technology," Eller said. "Augmented virtual reality, where the students are not wearing a box over their head. They're looking at a computer and manipulating things with their hands, so they can look at things that are too small, like an atom, or look at things for pollination.
"They look at things that are too big, like a solar system, and actually turn them around in their hands and can develop a better concept for more abstract science ideas."
The second goal in Newport is to get students outside more.
"Just as a healthy way to connect students with nature and to show them how you can find since by measuring plants, and looking at the sun, and looking at shadows, and knowing your sense of directions by looking at where the sun is located, and gardening," Eller said.
Newport students also will have access to unmanned aerial vehicles and other types of technologies. "It's more technologically based in combination with getting outside," she said.
PROVIDING PROSTHETIC LIMBS
Middletown High School Principal Jefferey Heath said his school is looking forward to using the funds to enhance the school's biomedical and technology curriculum.
"Right now, we use Project Lead the Way curriculum, and we're kind of working off of the baseline of what they recommend for students to be involved with, whether it be technology or some of the classroom resources in that nature," he said. "What we're really excited about with the grant is to be able to really use it as a catalyst to expand that programming, not only just with the baseline the POPW has on their website requirements, but really to make a biomed program that's all our own and have some pretty unique and cool experiences for students who might be interested."
The school hopes the purchase of 3D printers will foster collaboration between the biomedical program and engineering pathways. Heath said students will work together to engineer 3D printed prosthetic limbs, using open source designs, for kids and military veterans in the community.
"We've started preliminary conversations about what that looks like, but (with) some of this grant money, we're hoping to get that kind of entrepreneurial program up and running so our students can give back to the community," Heath said. "So that's kind of my passion with the grant, but obviously it expands much farther than that over the course of five years."
Middletown also will use the funds to upgrade its labs, because these classes are still being taught in science classrooms.
"The hope is we would make it more of a biomedical specific space," Heath said. "A little bit more open, a little bit more flexible seating. Opportunities for students to collaborate and move their furniture around. Also to kind of upgrade our technology with laptop computers, desktop computers.
"Those types of devices, electrophoresis, some of the forensics and crime scene investigation type stuff that also ties into the biomed program."
By creating a unique biomedical learning space, Heath said his team hopes to inspire learning.
The biomedical program at Middletown High School isn't currently a pathway toward graduation, but is in its first four years, which is a precursor to integrating it into pathway status. Heath said the school is using the grant to enhance years two, three and four to get it there.
CULTIVATING FUTURE SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS
All of the grants have the theme of increasing the diversity in fields of STEAM — science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics.
"Traditionally, as we all know, it's mainly a white, male field in America, and we are making huge strides in more women being involved in STEM fields," Eller said. "But in areas like computer sciences, for example, there are very few women, relatively, and of course minorities continue to be underrepresented in STEAM. So the Navy and the Department of Defense are really dedicated to increasing the diversity among adults who are in STEAM."
Eller said what people really don't understand is that in order to do that, students need to be nurtured in those areas starting from elementary school on. One way that can be done is by exposing students to roll models in these fields.
She said introducing elementary school students to science can be difficult for teachers because their time is limited, and society believes the emphasis should be on math and reading, because those are the foundations on which science is built.
"That's really a misconception, because yes, you need to understand science and math in high school in order to do science, but really, understanding science at a young age is about making connections with nature and appreciating nature and getting outside and being exposed to those careers and, like I said, really developing that STEAM identity," Eller said. "But most of all is having hands-on experience, having realistic connections that will really cultivate our scientists and engineers of the future."
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