Outdoor Learning Environment
Melissa Carroll and Chandler Oliphant – MEMS (grade 7)
$750 awarded

The grant will be used to buy raised garden beds for the courtyard. The Garden club will help fill them with soil and compost and the students will decide how to use the beds to grow food and flowers. Melissa Carroll and Chandler Oliphant aim to provide hands-on opportunities for students to learn about growing different types of food. Gardening fosters creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills. It also builds environmental awareness and a sense of community. Carroll and Oliphant have started an outdoor learning environment for students interested in growing vegetables and flowers. They want to add larger garden beds to grow other edible plants such as carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini, and more.

Carnevale di Venezia Mask for Italian Class
Linda Schiano – MEMS (Grade 8)
$1,424 awarded

This grant will be used to purchase authentic imported "Colombina Grezza" Venetian Masks. The art of creating these masks is a tradition unique to Venice, Italy. For the past 11 years, students have been creating their Venetian masks in Italian class, which is an activity they look forward to every year. It is a fun, educational and creative activity for the students.

During this annual activity, the students get to create their own unique and extravagant mask using markers, glitter, ribbons, gems, feathers and more. The Carnevale di Venezia is one of the most famous celebrations in the world, and thousands of tourists visit Venice during this time to admire the extravagant masks and costumes worn by those parading through the city. As part of this activity, students learn about the meaning and history attached to the different masks and costumes.

EVO Ozobots for the Makerspace library
Sharon Reed – Milford Brook (grades K-5)
$2,050 awarded

The Ozobot is a user-friendly coding robot that offers countless ways to engage students in learning. By using the EVO Ozobot, students can learn coding through robotics and participate in project-based challenges that are both fun and educational. This experience helps develop real-world skills such as collaboration, creativity, computational thinking, and a growth mindset. Students will be presented with coding and robotic problems, which they will solve through trial-and-error applications, thus becoming motivated to succeed and experiment with new ideas. Furthermore, coding reinforces essential concepts found in the K-5 curriculum, such as logical sequences, patterns, creativity, and storytelling. It is crucial to prepare students for the future by teaching coding, as it will help them to either use or create technology.