Fund for Academic Excellence awards five M-P projects

Posted 12/5/19

Five Mid-Prairie projects received grant awards totaling $4,100 from the Fund for Academic Excellence, an alumni-funded educational endowment of Mid-Prairie Foundation.

Now in its fourth year of …

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Fund for Academic Excellence awards five M-P projects

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Five Mid-Prairie projects received grant awards totaling $4,100 from the Fund for Academic Excellence, an alumni-funded educational endowment of Mid-Prairie Foundation.

Now in its fourth year of operation, the grants program has been expanded to all classroom teachers in the district, including East and West Elementary Schools.

Eight proposals by elementary, middle and high school teachers were submitted for projects in technology, community projects, mentoring, reading and special education.

The five awarded projects are:

• $850 to the Book-a-Day project to acquire books and a webcam for West Elementary fourth-grade classroom.

Mo Gingerich and Kristan Hunter will read aloud one book each day to their classes.

Research indicates that reading aloud to children creates a sense of community, promotes a love of reading, and models fluent reading skills.

Follow-up conversations help students listen to and learn from each other.

Students also develop their own “book talks” that, using a webcam, allows them to connect to other classrooms and authors around the country.

• $1,000 to Mid-Prairie Beyond, a new special education program focused on developing the life/work skills of recent Mid-Prairie graduates.

Traci Zahradnek proposed to acquire a washer, dryer and freezer to outfit an apartment-classroom where students are taught skills to increase their independence and job opportunities, and help students transition to their post-secondary lives more successfully.

• $725 to acquire robotic equipment for students in the middle school’s 2020 technology fair.

Terra Huber has signed up 62 students in sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grades to participate in the fair, but needs additional equipment for them to design and create robotic projects.

The new hummingbird kits will allow students to learn about sensors, motors, microcontrollers, and how to build, program and test their designs.

Projects will be presented at the middle school technology fair and the Eastern Iowa technology fair in spring, 2020.

• $725 will allow teacher Lisa Doser to acquire kettlebells for the middle school’s physical education program.

Teaching students different ways to stay physically active and to build strength and endurance is vital to overall health.

Kettlebells can be used for full body workouts and fit well into the limited space for exercise equipment.

Although initially targeted to eighth-graders, the bells will eventually be used by all middle school students.

• $800 for outdoor early childhood innovative play space for Mid-Prairie pre-schoolers, ages 3-6.

The Mid-Prairie West early childhood teacher team (Erika TeBockhorst, DiAnna Geiger, Stacia Danner, Lori Miller, Melody Black, Paula Buckwalter with support from Glenda Seward, learning design leader) proposed to dedicate a portion of West Elementary playground to unstructured, free play space.

This space will use naturalistic materials (logs, sand, dirt, water) for children to build such things as forts, castles, ships and rockets either large scale or in miniature.

Unstructured play areas are believed to promote more creative, constructive, socio-dramatic play that develops early childhood communication, problem-solving and other skills.

Accessories to the space, such as pots and pans, are being solicited from family and community members.

The grants program receives requests far exceeding what it is able to fund. This year, steering committee member Nicole Lee is reaching out to Mid-Prairie alumni, family, and friends for contributions for two projects – the Big Hawks/Little Hawks mentoring program and the hummingbird robotics kits request -- that could not be fully funded.

The Fund for Academic Excellence was initiated in 2016 to give grants to teachers and student organizations for new and expanded educational opportunities in Mid-Prairie’s classrooms.

After an initial pilot program in the high school, the program was expanded in 2017 to include middle school teachers.

Fundraising efforts have increased the endowment to approximately $140,000, generating sufficient funds to again expand the grants program to elementary and pre-school.

Contributions may be made to Mid-Prairie Foundation / Fund for Academic Excellence, P.O. Box 389, Kalona, IA 52247.