| 1/23/2010 8:55:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Carroll County Middle School science teacher Brenda Cole, above, peeks from behind one of her classroom’s new terrariums. She purchased the terrariums with funds from a $500 “MAC Grant” from McDonald’s Restaurants. Left, Shawe Memorial Junior High School teachers Elizabeth Applegate and Jane Riehle each received a $500 “MAC Grant.” (Staff photos by Ken Ritchie) |
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Teachers rewarded with project grants
Shawe, Carroll County and Trimble County teachers recognized
Pat Whitney
Courier Staff Writer
Two teachers at Shawe Memorial Junior High School, one from Carroll County, Ky., and one from Trimble County, Ky. are among 28 winners recently named in a Kentuckiana regional contest sponsored by McDonald's Restaurants.
From Shawe Memorial, Elizabeth Applegate, a physics and science instructor, and Jane Riehle, a math instructor, were each awarded a $500 "MAC Grant" for future classroom projects.
It was Shawe's first opportunity to compete for the award.
For the seventh consecutive year, Kentuckiana-area middle school teachers were given the opportunity to "Make Activities Count" in the classroom through McDonald's MAC Grant program. The program rewards teachers for innovation and creativity in the classroom by providing funding for hands-on classroom activities. All activities funded by the grants must take place on school property.
This year more than 150 applicants representing 96 stores in the Louisville market battled limited school funding and joined a growing number of teachers competing. This year's applicant pool was nearly triple the number that has applied in past years, said Holly Weyler, who handles public relations for McDonald's Restaurants of Kentuckiana.
"I think that the higher numbers reflect the economy and education budgets being cut this year," Weyler said. "In addition, this year we opened up the competition to include more private schools like Shawe."
Teachers were judged on their written essays and budget proposals for class projects. Weyler said the program rates teachers by the originality of their projects, the number of students their project will reach, what students will learn across disciplines and the time frame of the project so students can benefit from a project with a clear beginning and end.
Since its inception, the MAC grant program has awarded more than $13,000 to teachers.
Applegate plans to implement her class project this month.
"My seventh- and eighth-graders will be learning about DNA and blood typing by doing a series of labs that will simulate a CSI fictitious crime using a safe blood typing simulation," she said. "While I may have been able to do one of the labs without the grant, the grant allows for the students to experience all of them, tied together in an interesting way."
Reihle will wait until spring to launch her project.
"I will be looking for a time in which the weather will cooperate with the concept of flying kites," said Reihle, who has been teaching at Shawe for 14 years. "My algebra I students will be applying the concepts of area and many aspects of linear equations as they design two kites - one diamond-shaped and the other hexagon-shaped."
Her students will design the kites on graph paper and construct the kites using various materials. Her trigonometry/pre-calculus students will join the algebra I students on a kite-flying adventure, helping them determine how high the kites are flying using trigonometric ratios.
"The portable transits and measuring wheels will help the students find more accurate measurements," she said. "Without the grant, the students would have to use basic protractors and measuring tapes to measure the angles and distance. The grant allows me to purchase the transits, measuring wheels and materials for constructing the kites that will give the project a more professional approach. Hopefully, with the trigonometry students working with the algebra I students in this project, the younger students will see that the algebra they are learning now will benefit them in future courses and in future careers."
Two other Courier-area teachers also received MAC grants.
Brenda Cole, a Carrollton County, Ky., Middle School science teacher for 11 years, has purchased terrariums, lizards, frogs and plants to help students differentiate between biotics and abiotics.
"I'll introduce the terrarium project to illustrate how both the living and the non-living affect the ecosystem," she said.
In April, she'll use the remaining funds to purchase frogs for her students to dissect.
"It will be a hands-on way to help students review systems in the body and give them a lesson that most students never forget," she said.
Trimble County, Ky., Middle School art teacher Bonnie Peugeot expressed excitement over winning her share of this year's awards. Peugeot is a Madison resident in her 28th year of teaching, eight of them at Trimble County.
Her project, which she will launch in February, entails the study of artist Jackson Pollock, an influential American painter and major figure in the abstract expressionist movement.
"I'm buying 8-by-10-inch canvases for the students and giving them an opportunity to do an abstract project of their own to better understand abstract art," she said. "There will be three stages: one, where students cut out geometric shapes and apply them to the canvas with masking tape; two, where they will sponge color onto the canvas; and three, they'll then apply leaves, tree branches, ketchup bottles, whatever material they want to disperse the paint. Finally, they'll peel off the tape and have their own individual example of abstract art."
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