The Virginia Beach Education Foundation (VBEF) has awarded $150,000 in grant funding this school year to support innovative projects and learning programs in Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS). The foundation hosts the annual event to recognize the VBCPS teachers and staff who are receiving VBEF grants to support innovative projects and learning programs in their schools and classrooms.
Also announced at the event was the winning work of art for the foundation’s 2019 Commemorative Print. “Angels above the Sea” by Tamara Seraph, VBCPS network administrator, was selected through an online voting process that closed Nov. 24.
Grants for 2018-2019 projects were awarded to 40 different schools and included 16 schoolwide grants and 55 innovative learning grants. Through its Adopt A+ Grants program, the VBEF awards both innovative learning grants and schoolwide grants that support classroom instruction and improve student learning and achievement.
“From Easi-Scopes and Bloxels to Google expeditions and library makerspaces, your support has provided outstanding educational opportunities for our children,” said VBCPS Superintendent Aaron Spence during his speech at the event. “I thank our amazing Virginia Beach Education Foundation and, of course, our generous grant underwriters. You are allowing our teachers and students to pursue the wondrous possibilities that come with big ideas.”
Innovative learning grants provide teachers with up to $2,000 for materials, supplies and expenses related to activities, experiments and inventive learning opportunities for children. Up to $5,000 is awarded for schoolwide grants, which are designed to support activities and programs that will benefit the entire school community.
All grants are funded through corporate underwriters and personal donations made directly to the foundation as well as proceeds from two annual fundraising events: The Pearls of Wisdom Oyster Roast scheduled for April 6, 2019, and a golf tournament scheduled for June 27, 2019 at Heron Ridge Golf Club.
Congratulations to the schools and grant directors listed below for their award-winning 2018-2019 VBEF grant projects.
To read more about VBEF grants and special events, to donate to the foundation’s Adopt A+ Grants program, or to purchase commemorative prints, visit www.vbef.org or contact VBEF coordinator Debbie Griffey at 757-263-1069.
Schoolwide Grants
CHRISTOPHER FARMS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
One School, One Book, One War
Patricia Csenar
Underwriter: Lifetouch
Kindergarten through fifth-grade students will receive a copy of the book, The Lemonade War, a story of two siblings whose personal conflict becomes a professional challenge to outsell one another at their lemonade stands. As teachers read aloud a chapter a day, classes will discuss and analyze the book.
CREEDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Little Hands, Big Observations
Kristina DeMoss
Underwriter: Youth Services Club of Virginia Beach
Using Easi-Scopes, new digital microscopes, kindergarten through first-grade students will have the opportunity to make detailed observations of the physical world around them to help foster curiosity and the development of questions.
CREEDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Empowering Girls through Coding
Kristina DeMoss
Female students will participate in computer science and programming projects to become creators, critical thinkers and collaborators. These skills will translate to other learning experiences as computer programming ties into many aspects of the curriculum.
HERMITAGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Creating a Community of Curious Citizens—Brain Café
Theresa Dyson-Roby
Underwriter: Verizon Foundation
The Brain Café will turn 15 minutes of idle time after eating lunch into an opportunity for students to explore, engage and examine the world through play. This project will spur on the students’ curiosity, help them grow as citizens and allow them to learn from and with their community.
HERMITAGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Hermitage Rads
Karen Shiley
Students, their families and the community will engage in literacy events that encourage discussion and collaboration through a common novel read by all participants. Other school disciplines will also be integrated into the project.
LANDSTOWN HIGH SCHOOL
Leadership Workshop
Chelsea Brechtel
Underwriter: MassMutual Commonwealth
Leadership Workshops have the ability to reach all students by recruiting a wide variety of delegates who are representative of all facets of our population. The goal is for these students to take the skills and dispositions they acquire at the workshop and apply them in school, extracurriculars and all areas of their lives.
LYNNHAVEN MIDDLE SCHOOL
Health Education Transformation: Building Wealth through Health
Loren Dragon
Underwriter: Optima Health
A traditional health education classroom will be transformed into a multipurpose wellness room to blend health-based content concepts through active movement and inquiry-based learning. Quality individualized learning experiences will be offered to meet students’ need for increased moderate to vigorous physical activity time.
LYNNHAVEN MIDDLE SCHOOL
Makerspace: iMove, iMake, iMagine
Michelle Kovacs
Underwriter: HBA Architecture & Interior Design
The Makerspace environment fosters personalized learning, collaboration, creativity and STEM experiences to inspire students to engage in art, crafts, science, technology and fitness. This Makerspace will foster hands-on learning and build an environment for problemsolving, critical thinking and interactive learning through projects using fitness equipment, video production tools, building materials and craft jewelry.
OLD DONATION SCHOOL
B.E.E. – Bridging Ecology & Economics
Christina Troxell
Underwriter: RRMM Architects
B.E.E. is a problem-based learning experience for students to act and think as apiologists. Students will use Google Expeditions virtual reality tours, web-based resources, experts in the community and a real bee colony to conduct scientific inquiry into pollinators in the area. Through the integration of economics and math standards, students will apply their knowledge of supply and demand, scarcity, producers and consumers and market their honey business within the school community.
PEMBROKE MEADOWS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Immersive Learning with Virtual and Augmented Reality through Google Expeditions
Lauren Pate
Underwriter: Kiwanis Club of Norfolk Foundation
Using Google Expeditions, software that allows viewers to see 360-degree scenes and 3D objects, students will attend virtual and augmented reality field trips to various locations or to observe the world around them in detail. Through this grant, students will see Rome, explore the Colosseum and dive inside a plant cell to see how its parts function.
POINT O’ VIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Hands-On Literacy: Creating Innovators of the Future
Ashlee Williams
Through the use of Cubelets, Bloxels, Kindle Fires and various additional mediums, students will work in a collaborative environment to foster their creativity, critical thinking, citizenship and communication skills. Students will bridge their perceived gaps between literacy and STEAM as they complete authentic real-world tasks, becoming innovators of the future.
RENAISSANCE ACADEMY
Renaissance Wind Project
Brent Horner
Underwriter: Beach Municipal Federal Credit Union
Students will design, experiment and build a working scale model wind turbine. They will use this design to plan, prepare and implement a full-scale wind turbine on school grounds in order to provide power to the school’s cafeteria area and charge students’ electronic devices.
ROSEMONT FOREST ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Taking Art to a New Dimension
Pamela Thompson
Underwriter: Beach Windows & Siding
In a traditional art class, students are taught to represent 3D objects on a 2D surface such as paper and make it look like a 3D object with shading, gradation, texture and proportional elements. The virtual reality program, Tilt Brush, and the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset allow students to paint and represent 3D objects in a 3D virtual world, converting STEM into STEAM.
SHELTON PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
To Infinity and Beyond – Using Reality in the Classroom
Deana Hubbell
Using various virtual reality applications on mobile devices, students will be engaged in their learning and transported all over the world without ever leaving the school building. By simulating learning experiences and enhancing instructional connections through virtual reality, students will view locations such as the Amazon, Egypt and China.
TRANTWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
One Book, One School, One World
Janet Roewer
Underwriter: MassMutual Commonwealth
The entire school will participate in reading aloud the book, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, an adventure story about following one’s dreams. Students and teachers will communicate, collaborate and share creative thinking through discussion and writing assignments across all grade levels.
VIRGINIA BEACH MIDDLE SCHOOL
3D Printing for a Cause
Bianca Zaldivar
Underwriter: S.B. Ballard Construction Company
Students will use the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and
Evaluation) Thinking Model to conduct this three-part project. In the first part, students will learn what 3D printers do and how to write code for them. The students will then work collaboratively in small teams to design a toy. In the final step, the students will code the printer and manufacture their toys that will be donated to the patients of the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters.
Innovative Learning Grants
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY CENTER
Safety Safari
Katharine Sargent and James Barger
Through a student-created, theme-based program using technology, skits and games, high school students will teach second and third graders vital online safety skills. Through these lessons, younger students will learn how to protect themselves from online predators, cyberbullying and inappropriate content.
ARROWHEAD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Full STEAM Ahead in Pre-K
Kathryn O’Brien and Catherine Malley
Young learners will observe basic concepts such as motion, force and gravity, then collaborate to use STEAM manipulatives to create a real-world object such as a vehicle or building.
BAYSIDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Girls with Gadgets
Mary Anne Decker and Amy Stratton
Female students in grades three to five will work in teams to learn ranges of engineering and computer programming concepts in order to complete a final project that solves a real-world problem of helping an elderly or disabled person with fine motor skills.
BAYSIDE HIGH SCHOOL
Overnight Student Leadership Workshop Retreat
Ashley Williamson and Lisa Corprew
Underwriter: PACE Collaborative
The Overnight Student Leadership Workshop involves students, staff and school alumni to engage students to become more involved in their families, schools and communities. Students will be taught lifelong skills such as how to work in groups, how to plan and implement events and how to serve as role models.
BRANDON MIDDLE SCHOOL
littleBits for Learning
Amy Ricks and Krisha Loftus
Students will use the library makerspace to engage with littleBits, modules that snap together like magnets in different combinations and provide various functions. Students will explore circuitry and design their own circuits using the littleBits Workshop Kit that includes motors, fans, sensors, displays and other hands-on items.
BRANDON MIDDLE SCHOOL
Cultural Learning Library
Amy Ricks and Krisha Loftus
Underwriter: Sheila & Steve Magula
Global awareness will increase through a Cultural Literacy Library, which will expose the entire student population to other languages and cultures. Print materials will facilitate students experiencing and becoming fluent in a variety of languages. English as a Second Language students also will benefit from resources in their language as they are immersed into a different culture.
CHRISTOPHER FARMS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Animal Expert Expo
Bevin Reinen and Whitney Sinnen
After engaging in a Virginia Aquarium animal encounter, live Safari question-and-answer broadcast called WildEarth, and 3D printer activity, kindergarten students will conduct collaborative research about an animal of their choice using library resources and an online database called PebbleGo. They will then visit the school’s Innovation Lab to design a habitat for their animal. Afterward, students will share their learning with parents via a digital portfolio called Seesaw and conduct face-to-face presentations to older peers during a culminating Animal Expert Expo.
COLLEGE PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Tiggly Education Packages for Early Education Literacy Development
Christopher Moss
First-grade classrooms will implement the Tiggly Education Package that is designed to bring fundamental tactile play with traditional manipulatives into students’ digital learning. Tiggly’s connected manipulatives concretize abstract concepts and provide kinesthetic learning experiences while software provides an engaging environment with guided activities, scaffolding and feedback. The combination of connected manipulatives and interactive apps creates a powerful learning environment for students that cannot be replicated with toys or apps alone.
COLLEGE PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Tiny Blocks of Innovation: Building with Bloxels
Brian Smith
Students will use Bloxels, tiny plastic blocks, to create characters and storyboards, which will then be loaded into the Bloxels EDU app to create an authentic video game. Bloxels allow students to unleash their creativity by encouraging them to become authentic video game designers. The created video games will be shared with peers.
COOKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Building Bilingual Students
Wendy Sue Silvernail
Underwriter: Jake’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que
English as a Second Language (ESL) students will be viewed as emerging bilingual students during this grant project. Spanish speakers will work with non-ESL students to practice new language skills using picture dictionaries, classroom labels and electronic books. While serving in a teacher role, ESL students improve their own English skills.
COOKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Stop Motion and Start Learning! Green Screen and Stop Motion Production
Amy Rille and Kaitlin Jensen
Students will use green screen and stop motion animation apps to create their own YouTube videos and TED Talks to demonstrate their learning. This project will introduce them to every step of the moviemaking process from planning to storyboard to publishing videos. Students’ videos will be hosted on a school YouTube channel, which will provide an authentic audience to share their work beyond the walls of the school.
COOKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
What’s All the Buzz about Coding
Kaitlin Jensen and Amy Rille
Underwriter: Design Systems & Services Corp.
Bee-Bot robots allow young students to understand, control and manipulate technology.
The directional coding of Bee-Bots enables reinforcement of curriculum topics in virtually all subject areas. Bee-Bots also provide students with the opportunity to develop collaboration, communication and citizenship skills by coding together in small groups.
CREEDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Ozo-Ography
Beth Smith and Kristina DeMoss
Students in grades two through five will learn about geography by using Ozobots, which incorporate high-interest coding and technology learning through play. Students will be more enthusiastic about and have greater retention of geography lessons when technology is included in their class time.
CREEDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Learning on a Roll
Kristina DeMoss and Beth Smith
Using Sphero, which combines physical robotic toys, digital apps and entertainment experiences, students will better navigate curriculum. Spheros can be used across all content areas as well as in art, music and physical education, and they offer more engagement opportunities and critical thinking exercises to the classroom.
DEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Lights, Camera, Literacy
Julie Paine
Creating a space for a recording booth with high quality devices, including microphones and cameras, will give students additional opportunities to respond to reading, practice fluency and respond to each other. Students will post videos, including book reviews, discussion questions for literature circles and responses to independent reading for all their classmates to view on either a class blog or classroom YouTube channel.
DEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Stop Motion Video Production
Edgar Jumper and Pam Cohen
Underwriter: Quality Stone Concepts
Stop motion video production allows students to express their ideas through the use of nontraditional materials. Students will create videos using photos of different materials, such as clay, paper and wood.
FAIRFIELD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Civil War Traveling Trunk
Kristin Berry
The Civil War Traveling Trunk, a program offered by the American Battlefield Trust, provides students with an opportunity to interact with Civil War artifacts. The trunk will be filled with replicas of Union and Confederate uniforms, currency, posters, maps and Civil War documents that students may use to complete activities while learning about life in the 1860s.
GREEN RUN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
3Doodler: Build a City
Contessa Magee
Underwriter: The Breeden Company
The Build a City art project will be completed using the 3Doodler printing pen, which disperses heated plastic instead of ink. In this collaborative project, each student will construct several simple 2D shapes that will then be assembled and welded into a 3D form to create a building structure in the city.
GREEN RUN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Next Stop: The Discovery Zone
Eric Baar and Rebecca Atkins
Underwriter: Thompson Consulting Engineers
The school computer lab will be transformed into a launch pad for student imagination and discovery by adding flexible furniture for collaborative activities. Curriculum-focused centers in the room will include a life process area to observe chick hatching, tadpole stations and flowering and fruit bearing plants and a weather station to observe changes in temperature, rainfall and other climate features.
KELLAM HIGH SCHOOL
Geometry-Construction Technology Integration
Thomas DeAtley
Underwriter: The Breeden Company
Geo-tech students study geometry with construction technology to design, budget for and build an outdoor playhouse. Each group will determine a charity or organization to which they will donate the playhouse. This blend of math and technology in a real-world project will benefit students’ understanding of how their learning can be applied in their futures.
KELLAM HIGH SCHOOL
Second Life Sustainable Outdoor Power Equipment Project
Timothy Kennedy
Underwriter: PACE Collaborative
All students participating in this activity will be registered as technicians with Briggs & Stratton and STIHL. In their role as technicians, students will perform an engine diagnostic and then repair the equipment using industry standards. Using a computer workstation, they will write-up work orders, keep track of work hours and supplies used and use online sources to identify engine specifications, parts and pricing.
KEMPSVILLE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Island Song: Ukulele Instruction for Elementary Students
Jennifer Nannery
The ukulele has become one of the most popular instruments for children due to its small size and ease of use. In addition to helping students master music concepts such as rhythm, melody, harmony and tempo, the ukulele also develops hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. When students participate in musical activities such as playing instruments, they work cooperatively, think creatively, develop literacy skills and mathematical pattern recognition and gain a deeper understanding of other cultures.
KEMPSVILLE MIDDLE SCHOOL
Literacy + Numeracy = A Plan for Middle School Math Book Clubs
Heidi Yeager and Mary Sutterluety
Underwriter: Speight, Marshall & Francis
Math Book Clubs combine literacy and numeracy to reveal how mathematics can be applied in settings outside the classroom. This project will provide sets of books to all middle school math strands. By reading books (other than textbooks), students will learn to refine problemsolving strategies mirrored in character development, explore subjects not necessarily covered in school, build a foundation for other mathematics-based occupations, solidify complex concepts through interesting conflicts and develop their own problem-solving skills.
KING’S GRANT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Closing Achievement Gaps with Nearpod
Mercedes Rivera
Underwriter: MacDonald & Ingram Wealth Management Group of Wells Fargo Advisors
Nearpod is a computer application that makes it easier for educators to create an environment for all students to learn on a level playing field and achieve high levels of success. With a Nearpod Gold subscription, teachers and students will have access to premium features such as virtual field trips, 3D diagrams, extensive differentiated assessment options and the ability to upload web resources. Students will record their observations within the computer application so that teachers can monitor their understanding and address misconceptions.
LANDSTOWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Explore the World in 20 Minutes
Nicole Cabral and Terri Troia
With a class set of virtual reality headsets utilizing Google apps, second-grade students will learn about and virtually visit the Great Wall of China and third graders will virtually visit Ancient Greece and Rome. Fourth-grade students, who learn about the importance of clean oceans, will virtually explore sea and ocean life to understand why conservation is so important.
LANDSTOWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Learning’s Alive
Nicole Cabral and Terri Troia
Underwriter: Cherry Bekaert
Merge Cubes and augmented reality goggles allow students to step into different worlds to experience abstract concepts that they learn about in school. Using smartphones that fit into augmented reality goggles, students can fly a spaceship, build their own roller coaster or swim with sharks, among other activities. Small student groups will experience the same types of simulations that allow for communication and collaboration about what is learned during augmented reality sessions.
LANDSTOWN HIGH SCHOOL
Rocketing through School
Kelli Bradshaw
Rocketbook Reusable Smart Notebooks look like regular, spiral-bound notebooks, but they
allow users to scan and send the information written on them to various cloud-sharing programs such as Google Drive, Evernote, Dropbox or email accounts. After uploading information to an e-account, the page content may be wiped with a damp rag for the student to reuse. Using the Rocketbook marries the best practice of students taking notes via pen and paper and students’ love of technology and desire to access and search through their information online.
LANDSTOWN HIGH SCHOOL
Making with 3D Pens
Bruce Sundberg and Michelle Dowdy
This project will provide students with a tool to explore and create in different areas of the curriculum. Each 3D pen pack contains a 3D pen with supplies and challenge/project cards to guide students. While learning-by-doing, students will hold and manipulate technology without the constraints of the coding required with 3D printers to create and transfer their ideas into physical objects.
LARKSPUR MIDDLE SCHOOL
Middle School Coding in the Library
Lisa Castellano and Patricia Babbit
A variety of coding resources will be available to students in the school library to allow them to experience coding, robotics and inventing in a sandbox environment. Library media specialists will provide initial training, then students will access the coding stations to collaborate with others and work independent of adults.
OLD DONATION SCHOOL
Small Wonders: The Art of Insects
Leigh Drake and Sarah Allard
Underwriter: Kimley-Horn
Gifted visual arts and fifth-grade science students will collaborate to develop a personal 3D art creation through a series of Steampunk-inspired insects. Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Gifted visual arts students will demonstrate their mastery of media usage and concept development by teaching these skills to fifth-grade science classes during their unit on electricity. Science students will share their mastery of knowledge and understanding of the ecology of insects while guiding gifted visual arts students in their research.
OLD DONATION SCHOOL
The Future of Greens: A Hydroponics System
Melissa Follin and Caroline Morin
Underwriter: Virginia Beach Garden Club
Students across grades two through eight will partner with Neighborhood Harvest to install a hydroponic system in the school’s greenhouse. This community partnership will provide mentoring for students and educators, while also allowing students to step into the role of practitioner as farmers, engineers and entrepreneurs. Students will not only learn about the science of plants, but will also apply creative and critical-thinking skills to solve real-world problems, such as how to sustainably grow food.
PEMBROKE MEADOWS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Global Compassion, Collaboration and Computational Thinking through LUV
Lauren Pate and Dianne Saal
Underwriter: Thompson Consulting Engineers
The Level Up Village offers a program titled Global Inventors that facilitates students collaborating with global partners. Students learn about energy issues by sharing their own local problems. For example, global partners may lack reliable access to electricity in their homes. Students will learn about the power of 3D printing and use that to engineer solutions for real-world issues and collaboratively design and build solar-powered flashlights. Students and partners will exchange video messages, chat and use video conferencing throughout the project.
PLAZA MIDDLE SCHOOL
BrainSTEM Collective
Catherine Taylor and Kathryn Schweers
The Library STEM Lab will provide a gathering space for students to collaborate on a multitude of projects using materials such as robots, circuitry and creative manipulatives to activate their creativity. By participating in hands-on STEM activities, students will use critical-thinking and problem-solving skills and hone their globally competitive skills. The lab will also provide creative time and space for students and their teachers to build prototypes, explore questions, fail and retry, bounce ideas off one another and construct collaborate projects.
PLAZA MIDDLE SCHOOL
Little Free Library Literacy Warriors
Meghan Schweers and Kathryn Schweers
Underwriter: Sheila & Steve Magula
Middle school students will assume the role of Literacy Warriors, refilling the Little Free Library at Brookwood Elementary School. In order to provide engaging books, the Literacy Warriors will interview elementary students to gauge their reading habits and interests. Based on the information learned during these interviews, the Literacy Warriors will research books and present a persuasive speech to convince their classmates of their selection’s merit.
POINT O’ VIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Going Green and Giving Back
Mercedes Rivera and Amanda Tatum
Underwriter: Speight, Marshall & Francis
Students on the Green Team, an after-school environmental club, will explore an environmental issue, create a campaign to raise awareness in the community and discover how human involvement affects life cycles in plants and animals. This project will provide students with hands-on learning and the experience of witnessing how their hard work and involvement positively affect the environment and community.
PRINCESS ANNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Bot Building
Jody Carroll and Leslie Allman
Fifth-grade students will code robots using micro:bit and JavaScript block coding to program their robot to complete different geometric shapes. This project will promote innovative learning because it immerses students in the world of robotics and programming.
PRINCESS ANNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Creating a Passion for Caching
Leslie Allman and Jody Carroll
Underwriter: Waller Todd & Sadler Architects
Geocaching, the hunt for a hidden cache in an environment, promotes participants’ knowledge of global positioning system (GPS) techniques and their appreciation of the great outdoors. With this project, students will begin by reading fiction and nonfiction resources about geocaching. A study of latitude and longitude as well as mapping skills will follow and finally, with handheld GPS technology, students will locate hidden caches created by teachers on school property, record their findings in cache logs and swap appropriate mementos with previous visitors to that cache per geocaching tradition.
PRINCESS ANNE MIDDLE SCHOOL
The Great Escape
Amanda Booth and Daniel Lavallee
Math 8 and Algebra 1 Honors students will create a school-based escape room, which will provide an interactive environment that requires multiple skills such as spatial reasoning and kinetic learning to be successful. Students will create puzzles and content that make connections between multiple content areas and the real world such as incorporating Braille and Egyptian Ciphers, making change with money and using the periodic table.
RED MILL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Think Outside the Box
Jennifer Marshall
The Cardboard Creation Challenge will motivate and engage second- through fifth-grade students to use cardboard, other recycled materials and their imaginations to create. Each class will receive materials and instructions for learning-by-doing experimentation, which help children analyze and solve practical problems.
ROSEMONT FOREST ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Kids Baking Championships: Sweet Science Edition the Final Season
Julianna Pawlowski
Underwriter: Catherine’s Catering
This third and final season of the Kids Baking Championship will introduce students to the relevancy of what they are learning in science and math by applying formulas to baking with the help of senior culinary arts students from the Virginia Beach Technical and Career Education Center.
SALEM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Launching Tech-Infused Discovery
Heather Wren and Lindsey Olinda
The Launching Tech-Infused Discovery project provides an array of tools that allow students of all ages and varying technological levels of experience to learn-by-doing in the school’s Discovery Zone. Kindergarten through fifth-grade students will explore coding with kid-friendly robots, such as Dash, Blue-bot, Cubelets and Raspberry Pi, to perform student-designed tasks. Students will write about their experiences and discoveries on KidBlog that can be shared with teachers and other classes.
SALEM HIGH SCHOOL
Lights, Camera, Action: Social Skills at Play
Victoria Sachar-Milosevich
Ninth- through twelfth-grade students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and emotional disabilities will be taught skills in the classroom that they can apply in the community. In addition to receiving classroom instruction, students will visit a local theater and artist’s studio.
SHELTON PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
We Are Global Learners
Deana Hubbell and Danielle Devereaux
Underwriter: Virginia Beach Education Association
Level Up Village facilitates global STEAM collaboration between students around the world. Second-grade students will connect to students in another country to collaborate and communicate through the same curriculum—The Global Storybook Engineers—that introduces students to careers in engineering. Students will participate in design challenges related to storybook characters and will work through the design process during different challenges each week that relate to a storybook.
STRAWBRIDGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Eye Spy with My Little Eye
Leslie Wildman and Deb Liddon
This project will incorporate technology-enhanced exploration with hands-on learning experiences using Easi-Scope Digital Microscopes. These microscopes allow students to take videos or still shots of grade-level specimens—even in 3D. This real-life experience will awaken young scientists and promote further inquiry, investigation and deeper learning.
TALLWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Coding Robots in our Library Learning Commons
Autumn Bartlett
The purchase of an iPad and Wonder Workshop Dash Robot will enhance all subject curriculum through the use of technology. Coding and robotics teach students to persist through failure, to collaboratively solve problems and to evaluate and revise minute details to achieve different outcomes.
TRANTWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Launching Music with Dash
Gina Lane and Brooke Martinette
The Wonder Workshop Dash Robot and one of its optional attachments, a launcher, help teach students to code. During this project, students will launch balls into buckets with various music notes displayed to create an eight-beat rhythm pattern. They will individually transfer their rhythm pattern into Wixie, an online authoring platform. The culminating activity will include collaborative groups coming back together and presenting their rhythm pattern using the classroom instrument of their choice.
TRANTWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Tiny Bots for Tiny Hands
Brooke Martinette and Sarah Gannon
Underwriter: The Breeden Company
The Tiny Bots for Tiny Hands project will introduce computer science, coding and robotics to kindergarteners in a completely screen-free environment. Using colored markers and white paper, kindergarteners will be able to program an Ozobot, a small, spherical robot, and, once comfortable with its basics, use it for activities that help demonstrate their learning.
TRANTWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Green Screen a Gogo
Brooke Martinette and Tania Vadala
Through Green Screen a Gogo, fifth-grade students will create, edit and produce videos to demonstrate their knowledge of curricular subject matter with the aid of green screen technology. With ready access to multiple green screens and iPad stands, students will take
on various roles found in the film industry, such as scriptwriter, set designer, director, videographer and actor.
TRANTWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Mini Meteorologists
Catie Bartczak and Brooke Martinette
Underwriter: Virginia Beach Education Association
Using weather tools placed throughout school grounds, students will become mini meteorologists, gathering data daily, analyzing and interpreting their findings and forming a weather report that they will record and play during school morning announcements.
TRANTWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Sketch with Dash
Megan Bailey and Brooke Martinette
The Wonder Workshop Dash Robot and one of its attachments, the Sketch Kit, help teach students to code. As their knowledge of Dash, coding and drawing with the Sketch Kit increases, students can program more advanced drawings. As digital artists, students will make original artwork through the use of technology. Students will also make connections to graphic design, animation and architecture, as all of these careers utilize coding in their creations.
VIRGINIA BEACH MIDDLE SCHOOL
The Living Museum
Anne Baker and Jessica Provow
Underwriter: Quality Stone Concepts
Students will work collaboratively to research an artist and identify (through student generated criteria) one of the artist’s pieces to be included in a museum exhibit. Students will then recreate the artwork in wearable form. Wearing the artwork they created, students will write, rehearse and memorize a script to participate in a living museum for students in other classes to visit.
WILLIAMS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Sphero BOLT – Coding and Beyond
Haylie Heard and Sarah Donnelly
This program will increase students’ knowledge and abilities in STEM by giving students access to Sphero BOLT app-controlled robots. Students will model, test and experiment with various science and math concepts using the Sphere BOLT robots.
WOODSTOCK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Bolting through the School While Wedo littleBits of Inventing
Stephanie Wyman
Project activities will include circuit-building littleBits to function and do a job (run a motor, make a sensor, etc.) and coding Lego Wedos and Sphero to teach math, run experiments and design curriculum-based games.