Brown School Gardens
Purchase and installation of raised flower beds for courtyard at Brown. Classrooms would participate in germinating, planting, caring for, and observing plant growth.
Aidan McCann
Brown School

Stempogo Science Bring Stempogo Science to 2nd grade classrooms at Brown 4x's during the year to demonstrate how to implement the scientific process in a variety of ways through multiple curriculum areas.
Justin Tourangeau
Brown School

Fulbright-Hays Seminar Abroad in Finland 2024
Travel and book costs if Fulbright-Hayes Seminar application is successful (TBD)Jenny SiegfriedKennedy Middle SchoolKennedy Middle School Mosaic ProjectBring an artist to Kennedy Middle School to complete a mosaic of handprints for the main entry area in the spring of 2024. Students will be involved in the creative process.
Beth Kassap
Kennedy Middle School

Get Your Teach On, National Conference, Summer 2025
Attend "Get Your Teach On" national conference. Includes registration fee and and some travel expenses. Samantha Rosenfield, Kimberly Araujo, Shayla Billian, Shannen Kelley
Memorial School

Memorial Third Grade Published Authors Celebration
Cost to publish final writing pieces generated by students. Allows for each student to recieve their own book of their writing piece without any cost incurred by students' families. Part of a student celebration of learning.
Kendra Weiler
Memorial School

Therapeutic Support Rabbit
Cover costs associated with acquisition of theraputic support rabbit (socialization work with breeder, hutch, bowls, leash, grooming supplies) for Wilson Compass program.
Stephanie Verrette
Memorial School

Center for Black Educator Development
Professional development for current Black male educators to assist with affinity spaces for current BIPOC educators and students by attending the Black Male Educator Convening conference in Philadelphia.
Theresa Carney and Rasheedah Clayton
Wilson Middle School

Creating Community & Fostering Learning Through Lego's
Creation of a Lego table for homeroom / math classroom including Lego bricks and materials to create the table. Used to incentivize students from leaving classroom due to behavioral needs and as manipulatives at various points in curriculum.
Heidi Porten
Wilson Middle School

Grant for Woodzilla Hand Lino Press
Purchase of printing press to facilitate print-making projects at Memorial. (An outcome from professional rejuvination work Mr. Davies participated in last summer).Richard DaviesWilson Middle SchoolMembership to the French Cultural Center of Boston2 Memberships to the French Cultural Center in Boston.
Allyson O'Connor & Valerie Cain
Wilson Middle School

Social Emotional Learning Through Board/Interactive Games
Board games for Grade 6 Wilson team classrooms to support SEL work throughout the year.
Kate Harrington
Wilson Middle School

The Art of Breathing for Change
Breath For Change virtual training.
Jessica Neel
Wilson Middle School

Updating book collection to support Social Sciences curriculum
Update / increase currently available book collection to support social sciences curriculum at Wilson Middle School.
Luke Steere, Cassie Lawton, Shivonne St. George
Wilson Middle School

Virtual Chill Zone
Chill space in classroom corner with bean bag chair; sand timers; sensory tools (fidgets); coloring supplies
Karen Ghilani, David Credon, Taylor Scannell
Bennett-Hemenway School

Teamwork through Artistic Expression
Create opportunity for students to paint 20 wooden bollards (protective structures near entrance); students were involved in the proposal; will provide collaborative experience and make the entrance more inviting.
Aiden McCann, Keri Crawford (parent)
Brown Elementary

Communications Community Outings
Provide funds for Communications Program students to practice life skills in community outings; purchase items for cooking classes.  Covers the school year.
Amy Magill
Kennedy Middle School

Cultural Supports for ELL Newcomers
Book collection that connects to newcomer students home countries
Marimartha Clark, Jaime Mussi
Kennedy Middle School

Updating KMS Library Collection
Update nonfiction collection; provide appropriate materials for ELL learners; provide adequate reading materials for struggling readers
Sarah Murphy
Kennedy Middle School

Enhancing a Midsummer Night's Dream
Enhance the existing Unit through purchase of costumes, props, and scenery to bring text to life.
Christine Dion, Mary Abplanalp
Kennedy Middle School, Wilson Middle School

World Language Collection Development
Enrollment of English Language Learners in Natick Public Schools has increased steadily over the last couple of decades, and this year alone 67 new EL students have joined us across Natick elementary schools. We can more fully include ELs in our academic curriculum and school communities by fostering a love of reading through access to engaging books in their native languages. Academic content, as well as independent reading, will be supported with current attractive, accessible print and digital materials for use both at school and at home. This Elementary World Language collection will be developed in collaboration with in-school and community partners. Initial target collections will be in Portuguese and Spanish. Additional collections will  be curated in Russian, Japanese, Chinese ,and Arabic, as available. We are seeking initial funding to develop this pilot elementary world language library collection, to be housed at Lilja and shared across the district through Interlibrary Loan (ILL). We additionally seek a small honorarium for community advisors to consult on non-English collection development.
Becky Moss
Lilja Elementary

Classroom Mental Health
Funding towards a certificate of Classroom Mental Health offered through William James College.
Kimberly Araujo
Memorial School

Sensory Tools
Memorial RTI team to purchase and provide a lending library of sensory tools for classroom use to support behavioral and emotional regulation to support learning
Sophie Prevost, Kelsi Hawkes, Elizabeth Brothers
Memorial School

Artist Rejuvenation
Artist Rejuvenation through MassArt New England MCLA Program
Richard Davies
Natick High School

Breath for Change
from the mat to math. Certification for teachers in SEL/Yoga for classrooms
Rebecca Tramontozzi
Natick High School

NHS Robotics Modernization
Replace the Lego NXT Mindstorm systems with TETRIX MAX robotics modernizes the NHS robotics program. TETRIX MAX is compatible with Chromebooks, could be expanded to use MATLAB software, and is one of the approved systems for the FIRST. We can support four students with the current system.  The grant will allow us to support a full class of 24 students.
Ray Salemi
Natick High School

Psychology Brains
Purchase 2-3D models of the human brain, made to scale, for our AP Psychology courses. This would provide our students a real, life size, anatomical model of the brain that we could reference when we learn/study the brain, neurology, disorders, etc. 
Kari-Ann Daley
Natick High School

Screen Printing at NHS
Provide photo-emulsion silkscreen printing to the NHS art curriculum
Linda Anderson
Natick High School

Natick Preschool Science Exploration
Partner with Mass. Science Center Corp to bring 5-6 monthly hands-on science activities to the preschool
Jill Ricardo
Preschool

Creating Trauma Sensitive Schools
Creating Trauma Sensitive Schools Conference3/31/2023 Attend The Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools Conference in 2024
Stephanie Verrette
Wilson Middle School

Health Curriculum/Library Collection
Build on collaboration between health teacher and librarian on media literacy/public health projects;  purchase updated materials
Luke Steere
Wilson Middle School

Nurturing Garden
Provide materials to establish a classroom garden to demonstrate for students the importance of caring for basic needs in emotional health; provide experience nurturing a longer-term project
Jamie Manfra
Manfra, Jamie Wilson Middle School

Lobby Mural
Provide opportunity for students to work alongside muralist to design/execute large Welcome Mural to Brown School. Project will happen over the course of several months; primary cost is artist ($4,000+), then materials.
Michelle Parven
Brown School

Robo Natick Team
Help defray costs of materials, competition fees. Team does demos/classes for younger students and community.
Donald Clements
Natick High School

Spin Bikes/Captain’s Chair Purchase
Purchase a new Captain’s Chair (exercise station) and 5 Spin Bikes to offer Spin Class to students.
Jillian Schiavo
Natick High School

Alternative Seating
Purchase a variety of non-traditional seating options (balls, balance seats, etc.).
Maureen Morrissey
Preschool

Project Sapling
Encourage students to be environmentally aware; purchase/plant/maintain trees.
Lily Wheeler, Jolee Flynn
Wilson Middle School

WMS Robotics Club
Purchase CUE robots to attract and maintain student interest. Current materials are old/outdated.
Craig Fulton
Wilson Middle School

Breaktime Ipads
The Break-time iPads project will use the NEF Grant funding to provide three iPads to guidance counselors at Kennedy Middle School. Students will have access to the iPads when they are feeling emotional distress or need a short break from class. Some of the apps that will be featured on the iPads include: mindfulness activities, art therapy, and guided meditation to name a few. Many students who struggle with ADHD, anxiety, depression, or trauma need breaks from their regular school day in order to regroup and carry on with their day.
Melisa MacDonald
Kennedy Middle School

Equity Rocks
The Equity Rock Garden will use NEF Grant funding to provide a summation of individual student voices and on display at the front of the high school as a permanent fixture. This is a closing activity after a day of complex conversations rooted in issues our school faces. The goal is to provide students an opportunity for expression through art.
Rebecca Tramontozzi
Natick High School

Microbit Programmable devices
The Microbit Programmable Devices project will use the NEF Grant funding to provide a classroom set of Microbit's for NHS programming courses. Each device has 25 LED's, 2 buttons, speaker, microphone, light and motion sensors, all of which are programmable and can give students a better understanding and spark creativity in the various applications of coding.
Alyce Burnell
Natick High School

The NHS Period Poverty Initiative
The NHS Period Poverty Initiative will use the NEF Grant funding, in partnership with Dignity Matters, to supply menstrual care items to NHS students. Menstrual care will be available for free in the girls' and unisex bathrooms, in containers custom-designed and built by NHS engineering students
Hannah Schwichtenberg
Natick High School

Preschool Light Table, Materials, and Storage
The Preschool Light Table, Materials and Storage project will use the NEF Grant funding to provide light tables and translucent materials for preschool students to explore numbers, letters and other sensory materials while investigating counting, sorting, building and engineering.
Rebecca McGhee
Preschool

Drug Story Theater - The Treatment on One, Becomes the Prevention for Many
The Drug Story Theater project will use the NEF Grant funding to deliver a powerful performance that provides an emotional connection which resonates with students and uses elements of the brain science that students can learn about throughout the performance. Students clearly understand what drugs do in the brain and what strategies can prevent substance abuse.
Noel Vigue
Wilson Middle School

Bennett-Hemenway Clay Studio
The focus of this project is to launch a new clay unit as part of the visual arts curriculum at Bennett Hemenway elementary school. Currently, this is not a material that is part of the curriculum. The school has a kiln but additional materials and equipment are necessary to create a fully equipped and functional clay studio. I am seeking additional funds from NEF to cover the initial start-up cost associated with these materials and resources.
Bree Curtis
Bennett-Hemenway School

Social Issues Book Clubs
Social Issues Book Clubs will help fourth graders learn perspective-taking skills that they will carry with them throughout their lives. Working in collaboration with their peers, the teachers want students to consider the following:
What am I learning from this book that is helping me to think about how to live my life?
What does this make me think about how we can make our classroom better? Our Home? Our Community?
The evaluation of the work done in reading will happen through the Grade 4 Calkins Literary Essay Unit of Study. In this unit, a literary essay will be written around the life lesson/theme students have inferred from the book read in their Social Issues Book Club.
Angelina Gagne
Brown School

The BookFix ProjectBookFix was inspired by a retail phenomenon called Stitch Fix. BookFix will promote the love of reading at Johnson. BookFix will be used as a way to keep classroom libraries current by adding newly released literature, in various genres, to encourage students to expand their exposure to new and different literature. The project requires students to offer feedback on the literature by encouraging students to talk, (v)blog, review, and promote books using specific discussion criteria that is in alignment with our Benchmark Assessment System's elements that students, by grade-level, that all students are expected to have mastered.
Jennifer Dannin
Johnson School

Culturally Responsive Library for the ELL Classrooms at KMS
We want to create a culturally responsive library which connects to our students’ home cultures to ensure that they see themselves in the curriculum at Kennedy Middle School. Additionally, we would like to expose them to other cultural experiences that acquaint them with other cultures and/or differences that they may become familiar with during their time here. As ELL teachers, we want to connect them to their school community to help break cultural barriers. Finally, we would like to foster their understanding of empathy and social justice to build collaboration and communication amongst the students and faculty.
Marimartha Clark
Kennedy Middle School

Literacy in Life Science
We are requesting a variety of science trade books to enhance literacy in science. Trade books will provide a new lively perspective for students to learn a life science topic in addition to the informational perspective of our science textbook. This will provide motivation for some students, encourage students' interest and provide a spark for some, and extend the topic for others. There are 6 life science teachers in Natick between Wilson and Kennedy. We will share these books between schools. Students will prepare ways to share what they learn or directly read the books or parts of the books with younger grades, within Kennedy and over at Brown Elementary.
Kirsten McDonough
Kennedy Middle School

Inspiring Writers With Diverse and Engaging Mentor Texts
Writing is essential to communication, learning and citizenship. Natick K-4 students study mentor texts to guide their writing during the daily Writing Workshop. Mentor texts are pieces of literature that students study and imitate throughout the course of a writing unit. Help us elevate our writing lessons with diverse, engaging and current mentor texts. This grant will give the opportunity to purchase mentor texts that will not only enhance writing instruction, but will provide quality, diverse literature into the minds of our learners.
Elizabeth Brothers
Memorial School

Read With Your Ears!
In today’s classroom, we celebrate and honor all learning styles. Every student deserves access to high quality, engaging literature. Through the use of audiobooks, we can support ALL readers, but especially our emergent, struggling, reluctant and ELL readers. Audiobooks help build a strong foundation for independent, engaged learners who are empowered to achieve socially, emotionally and academically, regardless of their learning difference. This grant will allow students in grades 2-4 (approximately 240 students, 12 classrooms total) to read grade level titles and build students’ healthy reading lives through the use of audiobooks in the Reading Workshop.
Elizabeth Brothers
Memorial School

Aluminum Cobblers Team 5436
We are one of the three First Tech Challenge teams at the Natick High School making up RoboNatick. Our team, Team 5436, seeks to inspire young people to become science and technology leaders, by engaging them in a hands-on challenge that builds science, engineering, and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership. Our team will use this money to be able to compete in the FTC competitions, as well as purchase for parts allowing our robot to work to the best of its ability.
James Drurey
Natick High School

RoboNatick Team 6032
This project would benefit other teachers, students, grade levels, and schools because FIRST Robotics will be promoted with this Grant. Our goals are to inspire high school students to become STEM leaders and innovators in their community, by engaging them in relevant robotics projects that build science, engineering, and technology skills, and foster life capabilities including self-confidence, leadership, and communication. The funding would primarily go toward purchase of robotic parts.
Allen Cheung
Natick High School

Flexible seating
A grant for flexible seating for the preschool classroom(s) would enrich academic, psychological, and sociological growth. Flexible seating will increase student engagement along with providing our students tools to best support their overall learning. The flexible seating options would provide students the ability to self-monitor and be aware of what works for them and helps them be successful within the classroom setting. This would be evaluated by monitoring students from their baseline with excessive movement prior to implementation of flexible seating and after flexible seating implementation in hopes that sensory input will allow students to focus without continued redirection from the teacher.
Sue Earner
Preschool

Natick Preschool Sensory Path
Our project is something that we have been excited about and looking to do for awhile now and entails creating an outdoor sensory path! We are requesting funding to purchase reusable stencils and paint supplies for use on the playgrounds at Natick Preschool to create a sensory path and gross motor play areas which will significantly increase the options for play on the playgrounds for all students at a relatively reasonable price point. For preschoolers, active play that uses the large muscles in their legs, arms, and trunk is important for good health and physical development. Learning to harness the power of those muscles to run, jump, throw, catch, and kick is key to the healthy growth of their bodies and brains.
Michele Toomey
Preschool

Generation Genius Subscription
The funds from this grant will be used to purchase a one-year subscription to Generation Genius . According to its website, "Generation Genius is a science teaching resource produced in partnership with the National Science Teachers Association. It brings school science standards to life through fun and educational videos paired with lesson plans, activities, quizzes, reading material, vocabulary, discussion questions and more." Generation Genius videos and materials can be used by all science teachers at Wilson Middle School and conform to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and MA state curriculum frameworks.
Rick Dumont/ now Don Brennan
Wilson Middle School

Grade 5 Mock Caldecott & Mock Sibert Award Analysis
All grade 5 students across the district will read and analyze current picture books using professional literary criteria for the Caldecott Medal and Sibert Medal for literature. They will write opinion essays on their top choices to win either award, and share the books and their opinion essays with 4th grade students. This project began in one classroom last year, and with NEF support will be expanded to all 5th graders in the Town of Natick -- 10 teams at Kennedy and Wilson, for approximately 500 students. We will share our work with 4th graders at Brown and Ben-Hem (approximately 500 additional students). By the end, this project will reach 1000 students district-wide.
Ilse O'Brien
Bennett-Hemenway School, Brown School, Kennedy Middle School, Wilson MIddle School

Johnson Student Led School Store
The goal of this project is to develop a hands-on project for 4th grade math students at Johnson Elementary School. First, Title One math students will take the lead, using their developing math skills to design, open and run a school store. This year-long project will give context and meaning to their math curriculum, and build agency and ownership for students who most need academic recognition. This project is based on a learning principle called Project Based Learning (PBL). PBL provides students opportunities to grapple with challenges and experiences. It creates relational learning where struggle is key and students take risks as they realize understanding for themselves. All 4th grade students will take part in related curriculum-based activities involving the store. This grant will act as seed funding for a math-based school store pilot program.
Jennifer Dannin
Johnson School

Coding, STEM and STEAM ExplorationStudents need more time with project-based units that are STEM/STEAM-focused. This grant will fund two sets of tools (Sphero and Littlebits) that will give students a variety of experiences related to coding, robotics and computer programming. Projects using these materials are aligned with the 2016 Digital Literacy and Computer Science Frameworks and address learning goals related to Computational Thinking (CT). Fifth and sixth grade students will conduct STEM and STEAM-based projects with these materials during their technology classes, learning to code and developing the skills they will need in high school and for the high-tech jobs of the future. These tools will also be used in a new after school coding club at Kennedy.
Karin Cloutier
Kennedy Middle School

Nature Nurtures
Claudia Price
Preschool

Wilson Mentor Program
One of Wilson's school improvement goals is to increase student connectivity with staff members. As such, Wilson staff members have been asked to volunteer to be partnered with a student in need of a mentor. Students are given one staff member who they meet with regularly throughout the school year in hopes of building a strong relationship. The program sponsors monthly mentor events with fun activities for mentor partnerships to attend like a cooking competition, fun science experiments, watching the dress rehearsal of the play, and a petting zoo at the end of the year. The goal is to give students who are having a difficult time making connections at least one staff member that they feel they can go to in a time of need. This grant will support Mentor Program activities throughout the year.
Daniel Hausermann
Wilson Middle School

Access Program Project Based Learning
Students in the Access Program at Wilson Middle School will use building materials, such at PVC pipes, to built small projects. These projects will be used to create items that are practical and useful, such as sensory tables, laptop stands and book holders. This project-based learning unit is designed to enhance the student’s understanding of how things are made, increase their math and writing skills, and encourage collaboration with their peers.
Steve Peck
Wilson Middle School

Analyzing, Evaluating & Publishing Opinions about Books for Caldecott & Sibert Awards
Students in fifth grade at Wilson Middle School will have the opportunity to participate in a Mock Caldecott/Mock Siebert Award activity. The students will read books published in 2017, and assess them based on the criteria used by the Caldecott and Siebert Committees. The students will then share their findings, in presentation form, with their peers at Wilson, as well as with elementary students Ben-Hem and Lilja.
Ilse Martin O’Brien
Wilson Middle School

Courtyard Chess Set
The grant will support the construction of a large-scale outdoor chessboard, as well as the chess pieces, to be installed in the Wilson Middle School courtyard. The set will be used by students as an alternative outdoor activity during lunch, after school, and at other free times. Teachers and students in the ASAP program will also have access to outdoor chess.
Wilson Middle School

Wilson Middle School Mentoring Program
The goal of the Mentoring Program at Wilson Middle School is to establish trusting relationships, with accountability and responsibility, between teacher mentors and students. This program aligns with the Wilson Middle School Improvement plan that has set a goal of connecting students with trusted adults in the building. This grant will allow the program to add new activities to the curriculum including science experiments, board games, sporting equipment, and team-building events.
Adam Gray, Teresa Carney
Wilson Middle School

Third Grade MakerSpace
This grant funds the creation of a makerspace in one of Ben-Hem’s third-grade classrooms. This space will provide students with technology (Little Bits, Makey Makey, Dash robots) and other materials necessary to solve real-world design challenges in creative and collaborative ways. Students from all of Ben-Hem’s third grade classrooms will have the opportunity to use the space during select science unit rotations.
Sarah Dahlheimer
Bennett-Hemenway School

TCAN Community Business Grant: Imagination Playground
This grant provides Johnson with a set of Imagination Playground blocks, with two accompanying storage carts and a storage shed. These large, lightweight and durable foam blocks can be combined for creative outdoor play, supplementing limited play space at the school. Teachers will have access to the blocks to enhance their engineering curriculum. In addition, after school students enrolled in the ASAP program will have access to these blocks that promote open-ended, free play.
Amanda Hsiao
Johnson School

BreakoutEDU: Escape Room Style Learning
This grant funds “escape room” style breakout boxes for Kennedy’s 6th grade Language and Literacy students. During their survival and immigration units, students will work collaboratively to solve challenges and open the box. This project will engage students with puzzles as they hone research and literary analysis skills while practicing close reading.
Christine Dion
Kennedy Middle School

Movement in a 1:1 World
This grant provides exercise bikes with attached desks to be used as alternate seating for students in the 7th and 8th grade resource room. These lightweight bikes allow students to safely work on curriculum with their laptops while still allowing them the ability to move. Regular opportunity for movement both promotes focus and improves mood.

Natick Extended Day Grant: Improving Fitness and Wellness Through Visual Displays
This grant provides Lilja with an official race clock to be used during gym class so that students can increase their cardiovascular health and chart their progress. Students will keep detailed records of their fitness gains over time. In addition, this clock will be used for community races, including an all-elementary school town-wide race scheduled for the fall
of 2017.
Gary DeMayo
Lilja Elementary

Digging to Deeper Learning: Memorial Garden Classroom
This grant will allow the Memorial school community to plan, plant and maintain a garden and outdoor classroom space. Included in this grant is professional development at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society at Elm Bank. The space will also be available to students enrolled in ASAP afterschool as well as for community programming.
Elizabeth Kenney
Memorial School

Nellie Mae Education Foundation Grant: Prioritize, Organize, and DigitizeBuilding a Literacy Collection for Our 21st Century Readers
This project will modernize the literacy room at Memorial by digitally cataloging of over 20,000 books making it easier to keep track of materials and lend them to teachers as needed. Parent volunteers will assist in this effort. This grant will provide teachers with an organized system so that they can more easily identify, select and reserve a rich variety of literary and expository texts, aligned with the Common Core standards.
Elizabeth Brothers
Memorial School

Cognex STEM Grant
A generous donation from Cognex will be used to set up the Natick High School Hydroponics Lab, using the aquaculture system to “feed” the hydroponic system to grow plants. Fish tanks, filtration systems, growing structures, and related materials will be purchased. The project will eventually use waste from the fish to produce garden vegetables. Students in engineering classes will design the system to hold and house the gardens. Future applications include conducting analysis of the fish, breeding the fish and examining DNA samples of fish for application in other areas of the biology curriculum. By fall 2017, multiple classes will be involved: Themes in Biology, Environmental Science, Green Engineering, Physics for Engineering, and Chemistry. As the project progresses, they will connect this project with some of the middle school teachers as an example of a high school project based learning model. Natick Public Schools intend to use this as a prototype system to design what they hope to build as a hydroponics lab for a future new middle school.
Natick High School

Leon Lowenstein Foundation Grant: STEM in the Preschool Block Corner
This project, STEM in the Block Corner: Building 21st Century Skills, will enhance Natick Preschool’s current block play areas by providing a complete set of architectural building blocks and storage system to meet expanding enrollment and the corresponding opening of an additional preschool site. Building blocks are at the heart of the preschool engineering curriculum.
Maureen Morrissey
Preschool

Leon Lowenstein Foundation, Inc. Grant : Interactive Weather Station
The goal of this project is to enhance math, science, geography, and technology education for Natick students by joining the WeatherBug Schools Program. The WeatherBug Schools program includes a commercial grade weather system as well as educational software that helps teachers easily incorporate the data collection into the existing curriculum. The WeatherBug Schools Program will make the weather topics in the curriculum more real and exciting for students in addition to providing a topic of interest for lessons across all areas of the Core curriculum. This grant includes teacher training for Lead Teachers on how to use the software along with example lessons. The target is that all schools in the district will have a Weather Bug expert. The system is designed to last for 30 years.
All Elementary, Bennett-Hemenway School

STRIVERS Running Club for Girls Grant: Yoga and Stress Reduction
This grant supports teaching yoga and stress-reduction as a means to increase emotional regulation, body control, and concentration. Research shows that yoga helps reduce barriers to learning, such as inattention, hyperactivity and sensory seeking behavior that often interfere with learning. The grant will provide training in “Stretch What Matters,” a yoga program designed for kids. Using the NEF grant, the related service team will integrate yoga into their therapeutic treatment of children with learning and developmental challenges such as ADD/ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, and anxiety disorders. The team will also use yoga and stress reduction strategies as school-wide preventive measures to help reduce testing anxiety and anxiety around academic stressors.
Melissa Crawford
Bennett-Hemenway School, Brown School, Johnson School, Lilja Elementary, Memorial School, Preschool

Digital Library for ELLs
The goal of this project is to provide students with limited English proficiency (ELLs) access to quality literature in the form of audiobooks. The ELE Department at Brown School will develop a Digital Library for students from kindergarten to grade 4. This will increase the amount of time students are listening to and/or reading texts that are at or above their current reading levels. By providing additional opportunities for ELLs to listen to and read along with high interest literature in English, reading fluency and overall reading comprehension will improve. This project includes the purchase of a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books that will be copied and downloaded to the MP3 players.
Christy Arnold
Brown School

Science by Mail
East School students will participate in a national, hands-on science program sponsored by the Boston Museum of Science. Students are paired with pen-pal scientists for one year. Curricular materials and experiments are provided in two activity packets and culminates with a "Big Challenge" in which students are encouraged to find creative solutions using the information they have learned from their partnership.East SchoolIntroductory Engineering: Build a Remote Control CarAs a component of our Earth Science curriculum in grade 8, we investigate attributes of other planets and astronomical bodies in our solar system, focusing on explorations both past and present. The objective of this project would be to expose students to the process of designing and building a remote controlled car using very simple motors, not unlike the Mars Rover. Students will be given the opportunity to tinker with motors and construct a small ROV (remotely operated vehicle). This sort of introductory engineering and robotics project will increase student understanding of the basic technology at work in designing a Rover to explore the surface of other planets. It will expose all children to the process of building an ROV, not just those who are self-selected into the Robotics Club.
Stacy Gauthier
Kennedy Middle School

Brainology
Brainology is a program which aims to teach children about the brain’s plasticity by providing children with videos, readings, and activities that help children understand the neuroscience of learning. Students will expand their knowledge on how the brain works and grows, and learn how to integrate new knowledge through effective effort and meaningful practice. Brainology is a research-based program that significantly impacts student motivation and achievement by explicitly teaching children about the growth mindset and how to approach learning tasks with the level of effort and practice that will lead to success.
Heather Kozin, Heather SmithLilja Elementary

Natick High Connections After School Program
Natick High Connections is a student group for participants in the ACCESS program who require specialized instruction in academics, social skills, and life skills. Due to their disabilities, students in this program typically are not able to access general after school activities available to their peers. The after school program we are proposing will provide a more structured environment that will allow these students to access recreation activities, including cooking, art, music, team building exercises, and social thinking activities.
Christine Michelson
Natick High School

New Printmaking Course
The Natick High School Art Department is piloting a new printmaking course this year. Equipment is provided so that enough tools for all students enrolled in the course. The curriculum, as currently designed, includes monotype/monoprint, collograph, lithography, and relief printing techniques. Relief printing is the only technique that students may have prior experience with, but this grant allows an extension into multi-layered reduction prints, and combining relief printing with other printmaking techniques.
Linda Anderson
Natick High School

Natick Extended Day Grant
Mr. Hill's ShedThe culminating project in 8th grade is building a garden shed. The 13-step project includes calculating surface area, volume, area, grade, slope, length, width, height and so on. Students work from photographs and measurements provided as needed. Additionally they have the opportunity to handle basic construction materials to guide their thinking. Students are free to work at their own pace which allows differentiation for varied skill levels. The hands-on format permits the students to move about while they connect math to real life situations. The culmination of the project comes when students use the data they have collected to calculate the cost of their project and analyze the critical "make or buy" decision, justifying their thinking.
Michael Hill
Wilson Middle School

Nellie Mae Education Foundation Grant: Kinetic Energy Marble Roller
This program will allow students to learn the concepts of potential and kinetic energy through the successful construction of a marble roller coaster. With funding from this grant, students will be able to construct roller coasters using a variety of PVC piping as the frame, and pipe insulation as the track. The roller coaster is successfully constructed when a marble can use kinetic and potential energy to roll the length of the track consisting of a number of required hills, turns, and loops. Students will then collect data about the speed and momentum of the marble. Finally, they will display the data on a line graph and present their conclusions in a written paragraph.
Craig Fulton, Ken Lovely, Rick Dumont
Wilson Middle School

Science & Society Nonfiction Book Project
The next-generation Science Standards require that middle school students gather, read, and synthesize information from multiple appropriate sources, assess the credibility, accuracy, and possible bias of each, and describe how they are supported or not supported by evidence. This grant pairs 8th grade readers/science students with science-based narrative nonfiction on a topic of their choice. Students are provided with a set of reflection questions to guide their reading, and are asked to critique the book through a written reflection and oral presentation in the form of a video. This program was successfully piloted last year, and this grant will support the rollout to all of the 8th grade this year.

Amy Bloom, Sheila PogarianWilson Middle SchoolScience World MagazinesThis grant underwrites the Scholastic Science World magazine, which will assist students in practicing their reading and analytical skills. The magazine includes high-interest science content written for 6-8th graders on all branches of science. The content included in each magazine is based on National Standards and helps to build the required content vocabulary. As we work to meet the new CORE Reading Standards for Literacy in Science, these magazines will support the Integration of Knowledge and Ideas standards for 6-8th grade students. In addition, the magazine includes links to online activities to even further extend the learning opportunity.
Craig FultonWilson Middle School

Audiobooks – Tales2
GoThis grant funds a subscription to Tales2Go, a streaming service for high-quality audiobooks for the elementary school level. This pilot study will assess the benefits to both teachers and students of access to thousands of online books, including familiar tales and trade books. Teachers will use Tales2Go in multiple ways, from supplementing primary curriculum for students who may have trouble accessing print books, to using it as a reward for other classroom successes.
Kristin Stoetzel
Bennett-Hemenway School

Forever Friends
This grant supports a reverse inclusion program in which general education students will spend time in the ACCESS classrooms, participating in specially designed activities driven by the ACCESS students. The program would run monthly, with the same students from the general education classrooms participating in all meetings and culminate with a special science presentation. The goal of the program is to break down social barriers, increase understanding and decrease bullying. The program also includes the use of adaptive technology and journaling, touching on a number of goals/standards in the elementary curriculum.
Mary Gavin
Bennett-Hemenway School

Seed to Harvest: Living Lab
This grant takes the Seed to Harvest program at Bennett-Hemenway School to the next level by creating an outdoor classroom. Over time, the previous NEF-funded Ben-Hem Garden has become very successful. Not only has it expanded in size, but also requests for classroom use and community programming have increased. In order to meet the needs of teachers, students and the plants that they are growing, a greenhouse with tables and seating for a complete classroom will be installed in the courtyard for year-round use.
Ian Kelly
Bennett-Hemenway School

Moveable
This grant funds the purchase of wearable “Moveable” technology that enables students to measure and monitor their physical activity. Third and fourth grade students will wear motion-sensing bracelets during PE classes. At the completion of each class, they will plug in their device, upload data and track their progress. The data gathered during these PE classes will be integrated into the data analysis and graphing math curriculum unit.
Rob Dombroskas
Brown School

Standing Up for Learning
This grants funds a small number of stand-up desks at Kennedy Middle School to be used specifically to study their benefit to students in special education classrooms. Data on the use of these desks will be collected and be reported back to NEF and the district. The evaluation of this project, as well as prior NEF-funded projects on alternate desks/classroom seating, will be used to inform the purchase of future classroom furnishings.
Noel Vigue
Kennedy Middle School

A Tour of Chinese Culture
This grant funds the addition of a hands-on artistic component to the current Chinese language classes given at the middle school level. Specifically, students will explore the calligraphy writing and painting, opera music, knot tying and paper cutting that are traditional components of many Chinese cultural celebrations.
Yu Lan (Nancy) Zhu
Kennedy Middle School, Wilson Middle School

Linking to Lilja’s Literary Lot
This grant supports the development of an improved system of organization for the 20,000+ books located in Lilja’s multiple literacy rooms. This project will catalogue the previously underutilized collection using the existing NPS computerized library system and organize the materials to increase accessibility and usability. Natick High School students with interest in literacy and library sciences will be engaged in the organization process and help introduce the new system to the Lilja community.
MaryLynne Gyster
Lilja Elementary

NHS Goes to Space
This grant, written by the Natick HS Space Team, funds the launch of a weather balloon into Earth’s atmosphere to conduct a variety of studies. The members of the NHS Space Team will design a payload that includes a camera, a GPS tracking device and other data collecting technology that will be transported up to approximately 10,000 feet. Students will monitor the flight, retrieve the balloon, analyze the data and report on results.
David Shairo & Jim Araujo, Kristie Loncich
Natick High School

Citizen Scientist with Loree Griffin Burns
This proposal funds a citizen science program presented to all Wilson 6th graders on the Asian Long Horned Beetle infestation. Loree Griffin Burns, author of Beetle Busters: A Rogue Insect and the People Who Track It, will discuss the ecological impact of the infestation in the US. This program, which makes a connection between literature and science, exposes students to a current, local environmental issue. Teachers will carry the content and lessons forward into future years and other science units as they prepare to meet the new science standards around ecology and ecosystems.
Amy Bloom
Wilson Middle School

Grade 5 Band Books
This grant provides a new series of band books to extend the breadth of music that students will play during this foundational year in band. With these new books, students coming into band at different skill levels will have the opportunity to learn a wider variety of music.
Scott Morill
Wilson Middle School

Ebooks for All
This grant would purchase library lending e-books for the middle schools and high schools. In an effort to meet students where they are, and to support classroom learning, Ms. Bloom is hoping to add ebook and audio book titles to the current libraries.
Amy Bloom
All Schools

Lending Library for Families
This grant would start a resource lending library for the families of Brown students. The teachers often have books they recommend to parents about difficult parenting topics and would like to be able to have these titles and videos on hand to lend out. They are willing to share these resources across Natick schools.
Kristen Carter, Maria Reardon
Brown School

Leon Lowenstein Foundation Honor Grant - OpenSource Open ROV
This grant request funding for a microprocessor so that students can learn how to program and embed it into their observable class ROV to make it a more complex submersible. Students will then be able to experience telemetry, on board sensors, HD imaging and a scalable vehicle. Ultimately, this submersible could be used in assistance of finding objects and wrecks in bodies of water. This work is done in conjunction with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
Doug Scott
Natick High School

Whitney Place Honor Grant - Diagnosis for Classroom Success
This grant would purchase classroom lab books so that students can experience in evaluating patient data from simulated patient charts and lab work as if they were a health care provider (doctor, nurse or PA). They will perform lab experiments using common chemicals at NHS and store bought materials. This activity enhances the current disease and medicine curriculum.
Eric Weiss
Natick High School

Natick High Orchard
The Greengineers and Ms. Haverstick are asking to buy 10 apple trees to serve as a living outdoor classroom inclusive to all preschoolers at the Natick Preschool, as well as science class students at NHS (and beyond). The Greengineers will maintain the trees and conduct fieldwork around nutrients in the soil, as well as other studies.
Susan Haverstick, The Greengineers
Natick High School, Preschool

Exploring with a Broadmoor Naturalist-in-Residence at Lilja School
This proposal plans to build on prior NEF funding by bringing a teacher-naturalist from Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary to the school, to help lead students in hands-on, outdoor experiences to better understand the science curriculum and to collaborate with teachers to build on knowledge and create lesson plans, so that the benefit of the visits can be sustained year after year. Students will contribute to the school blog about their discoveries, each grade will recount its experiences at an All-School Meeting, and activities will be shared across the district during a professional learning meeting at the end of the year.
Abbie Fox
All Elementary

Enhancing School Climate & Student Learning through Intergenerational ProgrammingThis proposal would utilize the Bridges Together Program, an award-winning program that creates opportunities for older adults and elementary school students to interact.  Small groups of students would be teamed with older volunteers for six weeks, and during one-hour sessions, cover a wide variety of topics including Ethnicities, Heirlooms and Traditions, Schools Then and Now, and Learning from Each Other. Notably, the “Bridges” program was selected after careful review of its offerings, and lessons will dovetail with current initiatives at Ben-Hem and in Natick. Finally, where possible, the senior volunteers would come from Natick Senior Center.
Ian Kelly
Bennett-Hemenway School

Digital Balances
This grant would help modernize the school’s science classrooms by purchasing 12 digital balances to measure the mass of objects. The school currently has 4 balances. The request would greatly facilitate simultaneous use of the equipment by two or more classes. The balances will help prepare students both for higher-level education and the working world. It is projected that roughly 300 students will benefit from the balances in the first year, and their use will extend for years to come.
Paul Power
Kennedy Middle School

Kennedy School Mosaic
The purpose of this grant serves two needs. First, students and others will learn the craft of mosaic making from a well-regarded instructor. The implementation period will straddle two semesters to involve the maximum number of students, and faculty and parents will also be invited to assist. Further, the project will involve a “train the teacher” philosophy, and all tools used will be left for reuse. The second benefit is that the finished mosaic mural will be placed over the school’s front door, both brightening the building and offering a long-lasting accomplishment for the students.
Beth Kassap
Kennedy Middle School

Exploring with a Broadmoor Naturalist-in-Residence at Lilja School
This proposal plans to build on prior NEF funding by bringing a teacher-naturalist from Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary to the school, to help lead students in hands-on, outdoor experiences to better understand the science curriculum and to collaborate with teachers to build on knowledge and create lesson plans, so that the benefit of the visits can be sustained year after year. Students will contribute to the school blog about their discoveries, each grade will recount its experiences at an All-School Meeting, and activities will be shared across the district during a professional learning meeting at the end of the year.
Abbie Fox
Lilja Elementary

“EmpeROV” Ice Search and Rescue ROV
This request supports the design and construction of an amphibious ROV that functions on ice for use by the Metrowest Regional Dive Team, led by the Natick Fire Department. The device would aid divers in the search for bodies and/or survivors and it would ultimately be donated to the town’s Dive Team. Potential benefits include speedier response time and greater safety for the divers, as the unit can be operated from shore and stirs up less silt. The request has already garnered other financial support and has a large group of mentors from the Fire Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic, NOAA, and the Natick Soldier Systems Lab, to name a few.
Doug Scott, Susan Haverstick
Natick High School

3D Rapid-Prototyping at Natick High School
This technology would allow students to create tangible products based on their CAD renderings and would be utilized in Physics, Engineering, and Robotics classes. The equipment is essentially a printer that uses plastic in lieu of ink for the construction of prototypes and models as an integral part of today’s engineering process. The only part needing replacement is the plastic spool. Accordingly, the machine has a long life span and could be utilized by many students.
Doug Scott
Natick High School

We’re Big “Fans” of Physics
This grant would purchase 24 constant-force Pasco Fans (two classroom sets; accessories to existing Pasco carts) to help students better comprehend the links between energy, motion, and forces. It would also build on an NEF grant given last year. The new equipment will further reinforce concepts found on the Physics MCAS exam and AP Physics test. The fans are able to be reused for several years.
James Araujo
Natick High School

Outdoor Classroom Project
This grant will  extend the academic program outside, encourage hands-on activities, and foster an appreciation of natural resources through the creation of garden plots for each grade level. The garden will help students learn about recycling, plant origins, and life cycles.  Project positives include differentiated programs by grade as well as collaboration with several Natick organizations including Food Pantry, Senior Center, and Natick Community Organic Farm.
Kathy Cappellano, Maureen McMahon
Bennett-Hemenway School

TEAM: Technology Engages All Minds
This grant is for 10 iPads that will be used to support all core subjects in fourth-grade instruction. The project provides classrooms with hands-on experience with the educational components of this technology, enhancing learning aligned to the curriculum and helping students become more technology-savvy. An additional group to benefit will be first graders, who will be introduced to the technology during Reading Buddy time with the older students.
Kristine Forzaglia
Brown School

Progressive Robotics
This project will build on the burgeoning interest in robotics and  provide a more continuous curriculum for students from grades 5 through 12 by standardizing equipment and updating materials, streamlining software, and expanding coursework.  The program will be comprehensive and a model for other school districts.
Doug Scott
Grades 5-12

Food to Flowers
This project entails a partnership with the Natick Community Organic Farm and is designed to teach students about the benefits of composting. The entire “cycle” of composting (from worms to flowers) will be explored, and students will be encouraged to eat nutritious foods so their leftovers can be fed to worms. The resulting rich soil will eventually be returned to the Farm, where students can assist in planting/fertilizing activities. The Farm has a long history in Natick with over 15,000 visitors per year. It is hoped that the program will be expanded to grades 1-4 at other schools.
Justin Tourangeau, Natick Farm;, Scott Harvey
Johnson School

iPads to Enhance the Content Literacy of ELL Students
Natick currently has a growing ELL population totaling over 70 children at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. At Kennedy, eight languages are represented in the program, which contributes to a diverse learning environment. This grant will enable the purchase of new technology – primarily 4 iPad units – to enhance students’ learning experiences and improve social relations. Math, language, and vocabulary studies will be impacted primarily.
Marimartha Clark
Kennedy Middle School

Recycling Project
This grant provides the final amount needed for recycling bins for a student-led project to increase recycling efforts at Kennedy. Students will report back on what they learned from the project.
Paul Power
Kennedy Middle School

Reading in the 21st Century
This grant supports both middle school libraries through the purchase of 12 e-readers, screen savers and covers as well as 20 requested e-books.
Amy Bloom, Katherine Rotkiewicz
Kennedy Middle School, Wilson Middle School

Lilja School Field & Forest Lab
This project will create an outdoor lab to assist Lilja students in exploring field and forest habitats. Included in the lab are six iPod Touches, to allow the students to both access and record information on their trips. The program will be effectively differentiated across grade levels, and a school nature blog will be created. Equipment is reusable and a valuable addition to existing nature walks.
Abbie Fox
Lilja Elementary

In TOUCH with Reading
This grant supports the purchase of 6 iPads that will be used to engage young readers and strengthen literacy skills by incorporating the interactive technology into first-grade literacy instruction. Students will access a wide range of interactive literature, participate in independent literacy learning, and use the technology to improve phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary using engaging games and multimedia activities.
Emily Dandurand, Marisa Talarico
Memorial School

Anatomy in Clay
This grant funds 6 clay models for use in Anatomy and Physiology classes. The use of clay will address many potentially problematic issues, such as students’ objections to dissection, sensitivity to chemicals, hazardous waste, etc.
Linda Weber
Natick High School

Energizing Roller Coaster
This grant provides funding for K’Nex kits to build roller coasters. The reusable kits will then teach students engineering design process and physics measurements and calculations.
David Shapiro
Natick High School

Multi-Screen Publishing
Student technology projects in the web design program, video production program, yearbook club, and digital media group are supported by this grant, which provides funding for 2 iPads. The technology will provide up-to-date tools for use in developing, testing, and designing content, including for real-world clients in the community.
Lori Cullen
Natick High School

Physical Waves
Providing funds for Vernier Microphones and smoked lenses, this grant will give students tools to present a visual representation of sound and light waves.  This will build on previously funded materials and is compatible with new technology in the new high school.
Joel Bradford
Natick High School

Podcasting and Imovie  Audio
This grant funds portable sound booths and 2 microphones for use in recording audio for projects across all classes and curricula.
Marjorie Roberson
Natick High School

RNA Interference
This grant provides funding for lab materials to teach students about RNAi technology, culminating in tangible results showing both a change in genotype and phenotype of a common nematode. The lab will help students make connections between the classroom and the field of drug discovery/drug delivery.
Dan Hinnenkamp
Natick High School

Supporting Speech & Language Teachers in iPad Implementation
This grant is designed to assist school speech and language therapists in working with children with a wide range of disabilities, including social language disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and cerebral palsy, through the purchase of related iPad apps. A wide range of applications have already been tested in school with positive results. Funding would allow therapists to test additional applications.
Anna Nolin
Preschool

Percussion Ensemble
This grant partially funds many percussion instruments in order to create a new performing ensemble.  The creativity in this proposal was impressive.
Mr. McGettrick
Wilson Middle School

Student Generated Tutorials
Classes at Wilson Middle School will have greater access to iPad technology through this grant, which provides funding for 6 additional devices. In particular, the free ShowMe app will be used by students and teachers across disciplines to easily create tutorials that help explain assignments and support students in mastering content.
Jeanne Watts
Wilson Middle School

Color for All: Printers Work for Kids
This grant helps strengthen the elementary-level visual art program by enabling the purchase of a color printer for each art classroom (5 total). Previously, the art teachers have needed to print at home or bring in their own printer. The printers will support student learning by providing available access to prints of exemplars, such as fine art images, historical and cultural images, and portraits of artists; showcase various artistic techniques in ways that will heighten students’ understanding of the visual art objectives set by the teachers; and provide tactile references when needed to create a more personal connection to an artist and his/her work.
Steve Miller
All Elementary

The Bennett-Hemenway Outdoor Learning Center
This grant helps fund the creation of an outdoor learning center — including a pond, greenhouse, and outdoor workspace — at Ben-Hem.
Ian Kelly
Bennett-Hemenway School

Celebrate the Art We Create!
The goal for this project is to create a painted mural in the Johnson School gym that celebrates students’ artwork, reinforcing student pride in their work while enhancing the appearance of the school gym and engaging students, staff, parents, and other community members in meaningful conversation and reflection about art and its connection to the curriculum.
Jennifer Sunday
Johnson School

Nellie Mae Education Foundation Honor Grant: Work Hard, Play Hard: Climbing Toward a Healthier Tomorrow
This grant helps fund the purchase and installation of a climbing wall at Johnson Elementary School with the goal of enhancing the phys ed program to engage the entire student population, provide new opportunities for students to become excited about physical fitness, and expand their exposure to ways to be fit.
Karen Ghilani
Johnson School

Orff Instruments
This grant funds four xylophones, two metallophones, and six Djembe drums for use by all students at Johnson Elementary over numerous years. The instruments will allow students to create, listen, and perform different musical patterns and add accompaniments to songs performed in class.
Mark Jodice
Johnson School

Cognex Honor Grant: iKids for Tomorrow
Through this grant, a set of five iPads were purchased for use in a fifth-grade classroom at Kennedy Middle School. The project seeks to extend the classroom around the globe and support the preparation of students as 21st century learners, using the many tools and applications of the iPad across subject areas, for students at all levels.
Sandy Lemon
Kennedy Middle School

Lab Probes
This grant enables the Kennedy science department to purchase Venier probe technology for seventh- and eighth-grade students that will enhance their study of physics, chemistry, and earth-science concepts. The probes will assist the students in reducing the time it takes to collect data, while also supporting their ability to view data graphically.
Paul Power
Kennedy Middle School

Spectroscopy
Using spectroscopes, simple instruments that measure the spectrum of different light sources, students can gain a greater understanding of the composition of stars and how light travels in space. This grant funds the purchase of 12 spectroscopes, to be used to help students at Kennedy Middle School grasp challenging concepts of astronomy.
Paul Power, Suzanne Smith
Kennedy Middle School

Technology
This grant funds the purchase of an LCD projector to be used at Kennedy Middle School for a variety of curriculum-specific applications in math and language and literacy classes, enhancing teacher demonstrations and replacing antiquated use of the overhead projector. The projector will also be used for department meetings, lesson sharing, and staff development.
Adrienne Norris
Kennedy Middle School

Think it. Speak it. Create it.
This grant will fund voice recognition software and benefit the special education teams at NHS and KMS. This may remove another barrier to academic achievement for some individuals.
Milly Cuiffo
Kennedy Middle School

Writing Success for All Students
This grant will fund 4 Asus Netbooks Dedicated to targeting the students with language disabilities and writing difficulties. Instruction in using the internet to do research will also be provided.
Susan Pittman
Kennedy Middle School

Café 129:
The 1-2 and 2nd grade teams at Lilja Elementary used this NEF grant to start a café to benefit both regular education and Access students. The café will provide a vehicle for hands-on study of economics, especially focusing on producers and consumers, while at the same time, provide an opportunity for students to work closely together across classrooms, promoting acceptance of differences and better integrating the student population.
Beth Altchek
Lilja Elementary

Lilja School Ornithology Lab
This grant will create an ornithology lab at Lilja—a bird sanctuary in the school courtyard with native plants, feeders, food, and water, monitored by motion-activated “bird cams.” This lab will support first-, second-, and third-grade scientists in studying birds as part of their units on animal habitats and Natick’s ecosystem.
Abbie Fox
Lilja Elementary

GATTACCA
This grant will fund the purchase of a thermocycler used in both biology and environmental science and will allow the science department to include experiments using Polymerase Chain Reaction in the curriculum. It will also be valuable in the study of DNA, RNA protein synthesis and genetics.
Jill Conroy
Natick High School

Mathworks Honor Grant Video Analysis
This grant will fund cutting edge motion analysis technology: Video Analysis. Using High Speed cameras, records of objects in motion will be captured. All freshman physics students will benefit from this program as will AP seniors.
Joel Bradford
Natick High School

Physics in Motion
This grant funds the purchase of five motion sensors to be used by special education students in lab groups that will predict, observe, and analyze the motion of objects.
Jennifer Rigdon
Natick High School

ROVER (ROV Environmental and Robotics)
Sixty to 80 robotics students will construct six ROVs which will collect data from Dug Pond for specific measurable characteristics on MIT’s Digital Ocean. Data will also be shared with Town Officials as indicated.
Doug Scott, Susan Haverstick
Natick High School

Seeing is Believing: Providing Immediate Feedback to Improve Student Writing
This grant will fund another document reader as requested by the Math Department. Similar benefits will be realized in the English Department when work can be more readily shared in class.
Camille Napier-Bernstein
Natick High School

Student Response Systems in the 21st Century Classroom
This grant provides funding for a Student Response System which will enable the teacher to immediately see if students are grasping the material being taught, enable more reticent students to participate more readily and engage all levels of learners. Technology is transferable to one of the middle schools once the new High School is built.
Linda Weber
Natick High School

Using Document Cameras to Raise Achievement in Math Classes
This grant will fund two document cameras for the High School Math Department, especially for geometry, which will be used to increase the ability of students to present their work to the class. Currently this is a laborious process of writing on a board in front of the entire class, preventing shier students from doing so, and taking an inordinate amount of time. As these are durable, many students will benefit over time.
Andrew Hollins
Natick High School

Utilizing Solar Energy
This proposal requests funding to enable the science department at the high school to purchase photovoltaic (solar) cell kits, for use in classes for many years to come. Each kit includes electric motors, voltaic cells, alligator clips, and cardboard sunshields. The kits will enable students to investigate renewable energies and participate in a variety of engineering projects, including the investigation of how solar energy can be converted into electrical energy.
David Shapiro
Natick High School

Wireless Tablet
This grant funds the purchase of a wireless tablet. The tablet will be used to create screencasts and podcasts, explaining and demonstrating methods that are often too cumbersome to type out using a standard keyboard and equation editor. Students can also work out problems on the tablet while it is being displayed via the computer on the front board and take turns solving problems.
Alyce Burnell
Natick High School

Barbara Cosseboom Honor Grant: Building Information Literacy Skills through the Library
With the goal of building the information literacy skills of all students at Wilson, this grant funds the purchase of Net book computers for the school library. Applications include using search engines for research and critically evaluating Web sites; writing and voice-over recording; creating presentations; completing moodle homework assignments; and accessing the district catalog.
Amy Bloom
Wilson Middle School

Electronic Music in the Classroom
This grant funds a classroom set of electronic keyboards, allowing students to create music by electronic means. Students will be able to explore keyboard theory, composing, editing, and recording music (using existing computers and software).
Heather Moretz
Wilson Middle School

Everyone Can Engineer
The fifth-grade classes at Wilson Middle School have received science kits called “Marvelous Machines: Making Work Easier” from the Museum of Science Engineering is Elementary program, along with teaching guides, four hours of district training on the kits, a class set of engineering storybooks, and two LCD projectors to be shared among 12 fifth-grade teachers. This grant funds the purchase of additional tools and equipment, plus two additional LCD projectors, for implementation of the program across all classes.
Kirsten McDonough
Wilson Middle School

Learner Response System
A set of ActivExpression learner response systems was purchased with this grant, with the goals of raising the level of student participation, teacher knowledge of student abilities, and ultimately classroom results across all grades and subjects at Wilson Middle School. The learner response systems allow each student to respond instantly to questions in class, and have their answers graphed, recorded or reviewed later by the teacher.
Tom Sallee
Wilson Middle School

On-line Subscription to Problem of the Week
This grant enables the purchase of an on-line subscription to the Math Forum (Swarthmore University) Problem of the Week service and two LCD projectors to allow use of the subscription in the classroom at Wilson Middle School. The goal of the project is to provide opportunities for students to strengthen/enhance their critical-thinking, problem-solving, and mathematical writing skills.
Mary Lou Randall
Wilson Middle School

The Oceans and Matter
This grant will fund non-fiction readers for use in the kindergarten classes as part of the Oceans and Matter curriculum unit.
Kathi Browne
All Kindergartens

Water, Water Everywhere: A Study of Oceans
This grant will fund the purchase of equipment and supplies for a hands-on study of oceans as part of the kindergarten science curriculum. Materials include sand, shells, magnifying glasses and inflatable globes.
Kathi Browne
All Kindergartens

Classroom Aquariums
This grant will provide for the installation of 20-gallon salt water, marine life tanks in two kindergarten classrooms for one month. The children will learn about a variety of ocean animals including echinoderms, crustaceans, mollusks and fish. Teachers will receive a comprehensive curriculum guide containing lesson plans, activities and fact sheets.
Kim Marzullo, Laura Muller
Bennett-Hemenway School

Outdoor Classroom
This grant will fund the creation of an edible garden with the Native American "Three Sisters" theme. The mixed perennial and shrub garden will be beneficial to birds and butterflies and will contain bird and bat houses.
Amy Bruns
Johnson School

Digital Microscope
This grant will purchase a digital microscope which provides the ability to project a slide, allowing the teacher to model what to look for to the class as a whole before the students attempt the process on their own.
Ellen Brenneman
Kennedy Middle School

Museum of Science Travel Programs
This grant will fund two traveling programs from the Boston Museum of Science: “Cryogenics: Heat and Temperature” and “Motion: Speed, Velocity & Acceleration.” For students in grades 7-8.
Paul Power
Kennedy Middle School

Odyssey of the Mind
This grant will help fund an “Odyssey of the Mind” after school club, in which teams of three to seven students select a problem and then present their solution either to their peers or at the regional competition. For students in grades 5-8.
Ellen Brenneman
Kennedy Middle School

Erica (“Ricky”) and Jay Ball Honor Grant: Navigating Cultural Diversity Curriculum Project
In collaboration with the Facing History and Ourselves teacher training and curriculum, the 7th grade geography and English language arts teachers at both middle schools will develop and deliver lessons connected to literature, history and social studies/geography to teach students the importance of understanding and sensitively managing the increasingly diverse schools, workplaces and country. Facing History’s work is based on the premise that educators must teach civic responsibility, tolerance, and social action to young people, as a way of fostering moral adulthood.
Anna Nolin, Rosemary Vickery
Kennedy Middle School, Wilson Middle School

Baldwin-Reyering Honor Grant: Orange Sky Meditation and Relaxation”
This grant will fund the creation of a meditation group for high school students which will offer students instruction and practice in stress reduction and prevention techniques. Focusing on meditation, breathing, and visualization techniques, Ms. Napier-Bernstein will run a weekly after-school meditation group to help students cope with the frenetic demands of their academic and social lives while increasing their attention, focus, and overall well-being. Grant funds will pay for mats, eye pillows, mat cleaner, music and books.
Camille Napier-Bernstein
Natick High School

Chemistry is Colorful
This grant will purchase colorimeter probes which will allow students to perform a variety of experiments using solutions which contain molecules or ions with a color.
Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Cognex Honor Grant: Digital Portfolio: Capturing the Classroom, Entering College, Training in a Marketable Medium
The primary objective of this grant is to provide student artists an experience of capturing and creating work in the digital medium so that they are prepared to pursue an education involving visual arts. More colleges are requiring digital submission of artistic work. The funds will purchase two high-end digital cameras, tripods, an EZ box light display case, and other camera equipment to be used by high school art students.
Steve Miller
Natick High School

Electricity and Communication Systems
This grant is designed to provide alternative education students with the opportunity to explore how electrical engineers design systems. Students will use Snap circuit kits to build and design projects such as a scoreboard and fan control system. The project has over 25 experiences that students can engage in after completing the electrical engineering challenges.
Margaux Parino
Natick High School

NHS Robotics Club
This grant is to help fund the NHS Robotics team's participation in the FIRST Robotics Challenge international robotics competition. The FIRST competition provides students with hands-on experience in engineering and opportunities to understand and implement real-world project management.
Seth Foster
Natick High School

Physics is Electric
This grant will fund voltage and current probes which will allow students to perform a variety of experiments related to their study of electricity and, more specifically, the study of series circuits, parallel circuits, and Ohm’s Law.
Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Science Club
This grant will provide materials for practice experiments and registration fees for the NHS Science Club to enter the Regional Science Bowl and Women in Science competitions.
Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Solution Chemistry
This grant will purchase pH and conductivity probes, allowing students to study properties of solutions in greater depth and to perform additional laboratory experiments.
Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Speed of Sound
This grant will fund equipment that will allow students to measure the speed of sound using walkie-talkies, timers and a GPS device.
Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Video Game Design
This grant will purchase five copies of video game design software, installable on ten computers. Video game design is a complicated process that includes writing, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, physics, psychology and mathematics.
Marjorie Roberson
Natick High School

Video Scope
This grant will be used to purchase a video scope, which is a camera attached to a microscope or focused on some small area of work. Samples or demonstrations that would be observed by only one student can be projected onto a screen or monitor allowing the whole class to make observations.
Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Virtual Dissection
The grant will fund virtual dissection software and videos. Students will also complete a bull frog and forensic pig dissection, modeling the protocols used by pathologists in human autopsies. Disabled students will engage in small hands-on dissection experiences as well as experiences seen through virtual dissection and dvds.
Margaux Parino
Natick High School

Waterwise
This grant will fund a project involving water quality. Students will apply chemical concepts such as pH, bonding and solution chemistry to analyze water samples of their choice. Students will present their findings in a manner similar to what scientists do: a poster session.
Chemistry Department
Natick High School

Bill Nye the Science Guy DVDs
This grant will fund the purchase of 20 different Bill Nye the Science Guy DVDs in a variety of topic to enhance current content units and provide science MCAS review for 5th graders at Wilson Middle School.
Tracy Militello
Wilson Middle School

Nellie Mae Education Foundation Honor Grant Wilson School Store and Philanthropy Board
This grant will provide funding to create a school store and philanthropy board at the Wilson Middle School. The project will include education for participating students in money management and business planning; use of appropriate supporting computer software; and research and analysis of both business trends and worthy charities who will receive profits from the store sales.
Anna Nolin
Wilson Middle School

The Sounds of Reading: An Audio Resource Center
This grant will be used to create an Audio Center for teachers and students at Wilson Middle School. The grant will purchase equipment - MP3 players, CD players, speakers and boom boxes - and materials - CDs, audio books, tapes and corresponding books for students who would benefit from auditory support.
Amy Bloom
Wilson Middle School

Middlesex Savings Honor Grant: Elementary Orff Instruments
This grant funds the purchase of a complete set of 15 individual Orff instruments for use in all Natick elementary schools. All of the elementary school music instructors have some exposure in Orff methodology which engages students in music through speech, singing, movement, dance, and the use of the specialized instruments included in each set.
Richard King
All Elementary

All About Animals
This grant will provide non-fiction readers for use in grade one classes for the study of animals and animal characteristics.
Kathi Browne
All Grade 1

Jordan's Furniture Honor Grant: Force & Motion
This grant will provide materials for use in first grade glasses for the study of motion of objects and how forces placed on those objects affect their motion. This grant would allow for the purchase of a variety of wind up toys.
Kathi Browne
All Grade 1

Boston Scientific Honor Grant: A Study of Ecosystems
This grant will provide nonfiction readers for use in grade 3 classrooms as students study ecosystems, in particular as they study the characteristics of the ecosystem found in Natick.
Kathi Browne
All Grade 3

Rocks and Minerals
This grant will provide materials for use in grade 4 classes as they study the earth and the matter that is found within the earth’s surface. Using the samples provided students will be able to compare and contrast the properties of various types of rocks and minerals including igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. Students will also perform a series of tests using the rock samples including testing for hardness and reactions with water and acid rain.
Kathi Browne
All Grade 4

What's the Matter?
The project, 'What's the Matter?' is designed to provide materials for use in Kindergarten classes to implement the newly aligned Kindergarten science curriculum. Three units of study were reviewed and aligned to the state frameworks, including a unit on the study of matter. Hands-on activities, which are important to the study of science, were developed which supported this curriculum.
Kathi Browne
All Kindergartens

Classroom Aquariums
The visiting aquarium project will supplement the existing kindergarten science curriculum which includes a springtime unit on oceans. The Biomes organization will set up two 20 gallon salt water, marine life tanks. Over the course of one month, the children will have a chance to learn about a variety of ocean animals and get to observe a microcosm of an actual ocean.
Kim Marzullo, Laura Muller
Bennett-Hemenway School

Math Perspectives
This grant will purchase manipulatives, such as snap cubes and pattern blocks, and organizational supplies to supplement instructional materials developed by Kathy Richardson of Math Perspectives, a well-known teacher development organization. These materials provide teachers with tools to assess students’ understanding of early numeracy concepts. They also link the assessments to differentiated activities that provide both remedial instruction and practice for students.
Karen Ghilani
Bennett-Hemenway School

Words to Live By
This grant will fund materials to produce signs highlighting famous quotes that represent the virtues shared through the Open Circle program, social studies and language arts curricula. Ben-Hem has a standing tradition of offering a Biography night to students that wish to study and explore the lives of someone meaningful in their lives or the world beyond. Students will incorporate the famous quotes from historical figures throughout the school as “Words to Live by,” signs that would be hung at different parts of the school.
Karen Ghilani
Bennett-Hemenway School

Boston College Education Seismology Project
The Kennedy Middle School Science Department has been approached by the Boston College Educational Seismology Project to become a school site as part of their efforts to promote scientific inquiry in the Massachusetts schools. This project has been established to address the growing concern that the quality of science education in the US is not adequate to provide students with the level of scientific inquiry they will need. This grant will partially cover operational expenses for the Project for 2008-2009.
Paul Power, Rosemary Vickery
Kennedy Middle School

Kennedy Robotics TeamThis grant will fund the competition-related operating expenses for the Kennedy After school Robotics team for the 2008-2009 school year. Expenses include First Lego League (FLL) enrollment fees, robot competition enrollment fees, and batteries.
John Stefanini
Kennedy Middle School

Step-by-Step Mapping in American History
The grant will provide each fifth grade student with a set of 3 16X20 inch desk top sized maps directly related to what is taught in the curriculum—pre-Columbian civilization, early explorers, and the thirteen colonies. Students will be labeling, discussing, comparing, and analyzing specific dates, locations, and other facts within the units. The maps will provide a unifying experience for the information and also provide a spatial context for the learning.
Kay Dopfel
Kennedy Middle School, Wilson Middle School

Fair & Yeager Honor Grant: Drum Circle
This is a collaboration between the Natick Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) and the Department of fine arts to introduce the teaching of traditional African drum rhythms at the High School by establishing an after school "Drum Circle". This drum circle would enhance the NHS music program by teaching percussion, and fostering creativity and teaching participants certain ancient culture specific musical traditions as well as serving as a community building tool. The circle will feature a processional musician who will function as Circle leader. This grant will provide funding to purchase a variety of professional quality drums.
Alexandria Pearson, METCO

Biotechnology I
This grant will allow biology teachers to bring into their classrooms a technique for staining gels produced from the process of electrophoresis using a UV light source, a technique currently used in the industry. Currently the methods used for staining gels are both time consuming and tedious, using valuable class time that would be better spent the analysis of the gels.
Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Biotechnology II
The grant will provide increased access to laboratory experiences related to biotechnology for all biology classes. The acquisition of additional SYBR Safe stain for use in electrophoresis experiments and microscopes with higher magnifications and resolutions will give students the opportunity to observe and analyze bacterial cells.
Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Cognex Honor Grant: Electronic Music Program
This grant funds the purchaseof software and equipment to expand the current Electronic Music Course offering, a course that has a long waiting list of students eager to enroll. The requested equipment will provide students with opportunities to compose, edit, and critique music. Students will also be able to use the equipment to develop projects for other courses.
Marjorie Roberson
Natick High School

Fair & Yeager Honor Grant: High School Printmaking Equipment
This grant will fund the purchase of a professional standard printing press to greatly expand the visual arts curriculum. The press will provide teachers with the necessary equipment and tools to challenge students with “sophisticated lesson units” at the high school level. In addition, the opportunity would exist for students to use their skills to print materials for community events.
Richard King
Natick High School

Mathworks Honor Grant: Television News Magazine Show - TV/Video Club
This grant will fund the purchase of professional-level equipment for video technology. Ms. Roberson is starting a TV/Video club as an afterschool program to meet the great student interest in video production. The club will produce a monthly magazine show which will deal with issues affecting teens. The purchased equipment will also be available to additional high school students (with appropriate training) who wish to use it for class projects.
Marjorie Roberson
Natick High School

Nosinki Returns
In 2007, NEF initiated the funding of a long term project named Nosinki (ROV). Students engaged in the design and construction of an underwater remote operated vehicle. Working with Dr. David Switzer of Plymouth State University, the Nosinki helped to locate a 1917 steam wreck of the Stella-Marion in Newfoundlake, New Hampshire.This year, the students have gained the assistance of Justin Manley of NOAA, who has been an ROV engineer project with Dr. Robert Ballard on Titanic expeditions.This grant will fund the contruction of a follow-on a submersible unit (SeaMoose) complete with video feed capabilities controlled by laptop computers. The goal of the project is to document the Stella-Marion wreck site with accurate and complete video documentation of the whole site.
Doug Scott
Natick High School

Comcast Honor Grant: Engineering is Elementary
This grant is across all elementary schools and integrates basic engineering principles into all fourth grade classrooms in the district. The lessons to be used were developed at the Museum of Science and are cross-disciplinary, synthesizing concepts from math, science and engineering. Fifteen teachers will be trained as trainers and provide training in the individual schools.
Kathi Browne
All Elementary

It’s A Fact
This grant will fund classroom materials to supplement and enhance math lessons on everyday math skills, including fluency in number facts. Materials include: number cards used to play games reinforcing math facts, manipulative coins to be used in development of money concepts and analog and digital clocks. Goals of this project are to enhance student conceptual understanding of time, money and math facts.
Karen LeDuc
All Elementary

Mastrangelo/Whelan Honor Grant: Connections Between Math and Music
This grant is designed to help students appreciate the connection between math and music. It uses Bose Corporation’s “In Harmony with Education.” Through the use of an oscilloscope, band instruments and handmade instruments, students will learn about the relationship between pitch and length. Mathematical skills include graphing, measurement and data collection. With the oscilloscope, students will be able to watch the visual representation of sound. Forth grade classes at two elementary schools will benefits from this program. It could be expanded across all elementary schools if successful.
Jane Weaver
Bennett-Hemenway School, Lilja Elementary

Boston Scientific Honor Grant: Science Club
This grant will help in the formation of a Science Club, giving students interested in science and math an opportunity to work as a team and compete in science competitions. Students sharpen their skills by practicing and responding to questions in the format of the competitions, competing with each other and learn to use the buzzer system. Funds will be used to purchase a Buzzer System and also materials for engineering challenges.
Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Cognex Honor Grant: Interactive Graphing Calculator
This grant will be used to purchase a TI-Navigator Classroom Learning System which links student calculators to the teacher’s computer, allowing the teacher to give instant feedback to individual students on his/her work and to project students’ work on a screen in front of the classroom. Insightful solutions to problems can be instantly shared, and students will be able to save data on their calculators. The committee liked the idea of quick assessment of student work, and, again, the integration of technology that will reach many students.
John Astill
Natick High School

Fair & Yeager Honor Grant: Groundwater Models
This grant will be used to purchase of two groundwater models for students in ecology classes to study the water cycle and the effects of contamination on the water supply using the scientific method. This equipment will allow students to design and perform experiments aimed at decreasing pollution of the water supply.
Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Fuel Cells
This grant will fund 7 fuel cell kits. Using the kits, students will construct a hydrogen fuel cell which can then be used in science classes to study a wide range of topics. These include, but are not limited to, the study of electrolysis of water, use of solar power to generate electricity and effects of direct and indirect radiation to power a fuel cell car.
Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Jordan's Furniture Honor Grant: Video Analysis
This grant will fund video equipment (software and camcorder) that will allow the capture of real-world phenomena on video and analysis on computer in the science classroom. This enables experiments that happen too quickly or have to much complexity to be analyzed by traditional methods and facilitates downloading some experiments as video files and their subsequent analysis on students' computers.
Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Longfellow Sports Club Honor Grant: Remote Operated Vehicle
This grant is for the equipment and supplies needed to build an underwater remote operated vehicle using computer hardware and software skills. This robot is being made from "scratch," from plans on the web, and will probably require some trial and error. It is expected that this project will be done partly in class and partly during free time.
Doug Scott
Natick High School

Middlesex Savings Bank Honor Grant: roboNatick Adds Life to Math
This project enhances a new and exciting program at the High School, roboNatick Team. A partnership of students, parents, corporate funding and NEF, this program will grow to 30 students from 14, encompassing curricular objectives in math, science and technology and offers an opportunity for students who are eager to be challenged in these academic areas. This is an expansion of a program that took first place in regional robotics competition and then went on to National competition.
Joel Bradford
Natick High School

Smartboard Presentation System
This grant funds a Promethean Activboard Pro Smartboard to be used in a shared computer lab. All math faculty have use of this computer lab and will be able to enhance the delivery of material via the smartboard which comes along with learning resources, on-line tutorials and lesson plans. Students will be able to "see mathematical models in action and be able to interact with those models." This grant allows for integration of the latest technology in the classroom to enhance teaching and learning for this new generation of students.
John Astill
Natick High School

Mathworks Honor Grant: Future Engineers
This grant will fund an expansion of resources for the Robotics and Engineering Club at Wilson Middle School. It is expected the club will double it’s numbers from 30 to 60 next year. The program integrates concepts from math, technology and science as students develop engineering designs using LEGO Mindstorm ROBO Technology Kits. There is a natural connection with the High School club.
Peter Souza
Wilson Middle School

Wilson Connections Mural Project
This grant will aid in the project’s completion of a mural depicting great mathematical thinkers of both Western and Eastern world cultures and illustrates the mathematical concepts related to worldwide decorative arts. The project involves interdisciplinary lessons in math, art, social sciences, history and technology. All Wilson students will be involved and the project has broad reach within the community.
Ruthanne Schill
Wilson Middle School

Item Cognex Honor Grant: Elementary Weather Stations
Kathi Browne, Science Department Chair at Natick High School, was awarded the Cognex Honor Grant to construct weather stations at each of Natick's elementary schools for use by the first grade classes. Students will reinforce their understanding of measurements and patterns in both numbers and nature by recording measurements of temperature, rainfall, snowfall, and wind throughout the school year.
Kathi Browne
All Elementary

Longfellow Sports Club Grant: Discovering the Past Through Archaeology Kit
Elizabeth Gittens, Grade 5 Social Studies teacher at Kennedy Middle School, was awarded the Longfellow Sports Club grant to purchase an archaeology kit that will engage students in an in-depth study of early America. Students will gain a solid understanding of the fundamental ideas surrounding colonial America.
Elizabeth Gittens
Kennedy Middle School

Elizabeth Baldwin Memorial Award for the Arts: The REAL Stuff - Extending Non-fiction Reading and Writing
The purpose of The REAL Stuff, is to enrich the literacy and learning of all students from kindergarten through grade four, by supplementing the curriculum with creative opportunities that will extend the reading and writing experiences in non-fiction and allow students to pursue individual passions, publish personal work and present to peers and parents.
Beverly McCloskey
Memorial School

Jones Drug Honor Grant: How Does My Garden Grow
Susan Haverstick, Ecology teacher at Natick High School, won the Jones Drug Honor grant to continue to maintain and utilize a courtyard garden as an ongoing outdoor classroom project. Working in the garden challenges and supports each student to acquire and apply new knowledge, skills, creativity, and a sense of personal and social responsibility.
Susan Haverstick
Natick High School

MathWorks Honor Grant: Science of Literature
Kathi Browne, Science Department Chair at Natick High School, was awarded The MathWorks Honor grant to provide selected fiction and non-fiction readers for use in high school science classes. Teachers will be able to draw from these readings to enhance the theoretical concepts introduced in science class. At the same time, these readings will personalize science, allowing students to learn about scientists' failures as well as their successes.
Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Wellesley Booksmith Honor Grant: Biography Project
Ken Doyle, World History Teacher at Wilson Middle School, was awarded the Wellesley Booksmith Honor grant to help all students gain a better understanding of the key figures and times of both the Medieval Period and the Age of Enlightenment. The biography project will assign each 8th grade student an individual central to the Medieval Period and another to the Age of Enlightenment. The students will create an assessment (essay, PowerPoint, song, poetry, or other) that reflects the significance of the assigned subjects in the context of his or her time.
Ken Doyle
Wilson Middle School

Pondering Poetry
Judy Coleman and Heather Bishop, middle school teachers, were awarded funding to provide exposure to, analysis of and appreciation of classical poetry for all students in Natick Middle Schools. Students will be become familiar with the works of classic poets in order to develop an appreciation for the craft of poetry as well as to develop the higher level thinking skills necessary to interpret poems.
Heather Bishop, Judy Coleman
Wilson Middle School, Kennedy Middle School

MathWorks Honor Grant: Math Wizards
Ilse Martin O’Brien, a teacher at Lilja, won the MathWorks Honor Grant for an inquiry-based math enrichment program for fourth graders. This after-school pilot program will stress both fun and the understanding of mathematical concepts.
Ilse Martin O’Brien
Lilja Elementary

Elizabeth Baldwin Memorial Award for the Arts: Plum Blossoms and Bamboo Shoots
Jordan Grow, 4 th grade teacher at the Memorial School, and Dr. Christy Slavik, Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator, received a grant for “Plum Blossoms and Bamboo Shoots,” a system-wide arts enrichment program for the understanding the literature, music and dramatic arts of ancient China. All elementary schools will participate in this program, which will complement the grade 4 study of ancient China.
Dr. Christy Slavik, Jordan Grow
Memorial School

Antique Map/Historic Newspaper Collections
Winston Blackburn, NHS history teacher, was awarded two separate grants for the purchase of antique maps, both actual and reproductions, and historic newspaper editions. These primary sources will be used to augment the social studies curriculum.
Winston Blackburn
Natick High School

Cognex Honor Grant: Professional Television/Video Production Equipment
Marjorie Roberson, NHS instructional technology specialist, was awarded the Cognex Honor Grant for the purchase of digital cameras and editing software for her television and video production courses.
Marjorie Roberson
Natick High School

Columbia American History Online Project
Kimberly McCollum, social studies teacher at NHS, was awarded funding for the use of the Columbia American History Online website, which offers students of American history access to in-depth treatment of topics through lectures, discussion, and research.
Kimberly McCollum
Natick High School

Gel electrophoresis
Dan Hinnenkamp, NHS science teacher, won a grant for the purchase of materials for use with the gel electrophoresis equipment purchased through a 2004 NEF grant.
Dan Hinnenkamp
Natick High School

Historical CD Collection
The NHS Social Studies Department (via Diane Langley, Department Head) was also awarded a grant for the development of a collection of recorded period music, to be used to expose students to the musical forms prevalent during various time periods.
Diane Langley
Natick High School

Janet Gillmore Memorial Honor Grant: Porcelain Phrenology Bust and Human Brain Model
Dr. Richard Cotter won the Janet Gilmore Memorial Award for Psychology for the purchase of a model of the human brain and a porcelain phrenology bust to be used in psychology classes at NHS.
Dr. Richard Cotter
Natick High School

Media Literacy in the Information Age
Elizabeth Ward, NHS social studies teacher, won a grant for the purchase of CD’s and books for a sociology class topic that examines socialization, media, and gender.
Elizabeth Ward
Natick High School

Park Street Ice Cream Honor Grant: Garden Habitat
Susan Haverstick, NHS ecology teacher, won the Park Street Ice Cream Honor Grant for the purchase of tools, plants, and paving materials for development of a courtyard garden at the high school.
Susan Haverstick
Natick High School

State-of-the-Art Media Presentation Room
The NHS Social Studies Department, via Department Head Diane Langley, was awarded funding for the purchase of digital projection equipment for permanent installation in a media presentation room. Additionally, she received a grant for a “Smart Board,” a computer-driven interactive writing surface that can be used with the project equipment.
Diane Langley
Natick High School

Stop & Shop Honor Grants: Digital Whiteboards
Linda Weber of the NHS Chemistry Department and Joel Bradford of the NHS Physics Department were awarded Stop & Shop Honor Grants to purchase digital whiteboards; this is technology that, by integrating network, computer, and projection, facilitates teaching and learning.
Joel Bradford, Linda Weber
Natick High School

Supplemental Fiction and Non Fiction Books in World and US History
The NHS Social Studies Department (via Diane Langley, Department Head) won a grant for the purchase of supplemental classroom collections of fiction and non-fiction titles, for use in social studies teaching.
Diane Langley
Natick High School

The Choices Program
The NHS Social Studies Department (via Diane Langley, Department Head) was awarded a grant for the purchase of the Choices Program, produced by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. This package offers students in-depth resources for the examinations of various topics in world history from multiple points of interpretation.
Diane Langley
Natick High School

Civilization III Software License
Matthew Miller, 8th grade Wilson Middle School teacher, won a grant to purchase multiple licenses for Civilization III, an interactive, historical simulation program.
Matthew Miller
Wilson Middle School

World’s Fair
Niall Carney, 7th grade social studies teacher at the Wilson Middle School, won a grant to develop a pilot program, “World’s Fair,” in which students research and display information about different nations, applying key areas of study from their geography class. If successful, the program may be repeated and extended to Kennedy Middle School.
Niall Carney
Wilson Middle School

Item desScience in a Box
Delta Science Modules and supporting texts for third and fourth graders will be purchased with this grant. The modules will comprise the basis of a new third and fourth grade science thread.
Dr. Dianne Keough
All Elementary

The Art of Hand Washing
This proposal is to promote hand washing as the single most effective intervention in preventing illness and promoting wellness. A product called “Glow Germ” will be used to illuminate proper hand washing technique.
Karen Rufo
All Grade 3

Science Through an Artistic Eye
Art books, prints and materials to enhance the science curriculum and create interdisciplinary connections will be purchased with this grant.
Katharine Furst
Bennett-Hemenway School, Brown School, Lilja Elementary

American History: “Traveling Back Packs”
Third graders at Brown will benefit from a hands-on study of American History, thanks to this grant. Mr. Stefanowitz will assemble items from historical sites and museums, and present them in a set of backpacks related to prominent figures in early American history.
Jed Stefanowitz
Brown School

Progress in Poetry: Poet in Residence
A poetry project for third and fourth graders at Johnson School will be made possible by this grant. Components of this ongoing project include direct classroom instruction by Mr. Green, poet, Lighthouse poetry books, teacher sessions and writing workshops.
Ben Gatto
Johnson School

Bringing Mendelian Genetics to Life
An eight week inquiry-based science program about Mendelian Genetics and heredity for sixth grade students will be made possible through this grant. The project integrates math and written expressive language skills and will enhance student mastery of scientific method through hands on, experiential learning.
Kennedy Middle School, Wilson Middle School

DNA Gel Electrophoresis
Gel electrophoresis equipment, which is used to show techniques of handling, separating and analyzing DNA, will be purchased with this grant.
Dan Hinnenkamp
Natick High School

International Cuisine
The foods curriculum will be enhanced and expanded with this grant. Students will be able to study diverse international cuisine and culture and share their traditions related to foods and family customs.
Linda Plachy
Natick High School

Molecular Modeling
Computer modeling software of the type that will be purchased with this grant allows students to build three dimensional models of compounds. The modeling software also allows students to visualize molecular geometry and demonstrate chemical properties exploring chemical concepts along the way.
Helen O'Keefe
Natick High School

Real Time Science
This grant is for the purchase of microcomputer based technology for data collection which will then be downloaded to classroom computers for analysis.
Linda Weber
Natick High School

Smart Board
This grant will help purchase a “Smart Board,” an interactive white board, for the PC computer lab. The Smart Board will be used in accounting classes and in adult education courses offered by the town.
Maureen Carney
Natick High School

Using an Incubator in Microbiology
This grant will purchase two incubators for a variety of science applications, primarily the study of microbiology, and will used by all science students.
Dan Hinnenkamp
Natick High School

Digital Probes for Science and Wellness
The equipment purchased through this grant will enhance the lab experiences of middle school science students, giving them the proper equipment with which to take a variety of subtle measurements in a range of experiments and projects.
Ken Henderson
Wilson Middle School

Mini-Grant: Read-Along/Listening Center
The Read-along/Listening Center funded by this grant is designed to provide a range of curriculum related materials (books and tapes) for Grade 3 readers to develop and enhance literacy skills. Fiction and non-fiction texts support the core curriculum across subject areas.
Lisa Hayes, Lois Hochberg, Nina LaPlante
Bennett-Hemenway School

Classroom Classics
This project has third graders at Brown Elementary School digitally recording and producing a CD of original songs that support materials used in the classroom Each student will receive a copy of CD that looks and sounds like a professional product and that will reinforce key concepts across all areas of the curriculum framework.
Bev Melchiorri, Denise Young, Jed Stefanowitz, Michael Albert
Brown School

Fostering Fluency: Second Grade Classroom Fluency Kits
Second grade teachers at Johnson Elementary School designed this project because research suggests fluency is one of several critical factors necessary for reading comprehension. The grant funded the purchase of Fluency Kits - resources and materials to promote and develop students' reading fluency – which are being used three times each to complement classroom reading instruction.
Anne LaPlace Zernicke, Karen Cotter, Kerry MacIsaac, Kristen Blake
Johnson School

Science Enrichment at Kennedy and Wilson Middle Schools
Thanks to this grant, students can now use balances of varying sensitivities to learn about the complexities of measurement.
James Brown, Kathi Browne, Ken Henderson
Kennedy Middle School, Wilson Middle School

Camerascope for Use in High School Life Science Classes
A camerascope for use in the life science classes at Natick High School was purchased through this grant. The camerascope projects, through the use of a monitor, cell samples that are under study to an entire class. It also allows instructors the option of demonstrating dissections as well as showing the action of live specimens to the entire class via the projection of the sample to a monitor.
Kathi Browne
Natick High School

DVDs In The Foreign Language Classroom
This grant is funding a equipment and DVDs for a new DVD library for foreign language students at Natick High School. Thanks to the library, students can listen to native speakers and colloquial language, be introduced to foreign cultures, be provided with material for structured exercises and discussion.
Sue Mandell
Natick High School

Using Digital Cameras with Microscopes
The digital cameras purchased through this grant are being used in conjunction with other technology to record microscope observations. Students can enhance resolution and magnification, expose details of cell structure impossible to see at the highest magnification power of the microscope, and take a micrographs of specimens.
Dan Hinnenkamp, Lisa Blomberg, V. Larkin
Natick High School

Computer Based Music Learning
The software purchased through this grant allows fifth and sixth grade students to experiment with musical notation, rhythm, melody, harmony, and composition. Students are able to work independently; and the multi-level software accommodates differing learning styles and speeds.
Heather Moretz, Marjorie Roberson
Wilson Middle School

Item Eastern Telephone Honor Grant: Kids on the Block
The Kids on the Block program is a series of interactive puppet performances designed to increase disability awareness. Puppeteers use life-sized puppets to act out various scenarios that teach children to accept and respect differences among them.
Barbara Singer
All Elementary, Kennedy Middle School, Wilson Middle School

A Second Grade Picture Book Workshop
This program will allow the applicants to purchase a variety of picture books for the second grade classrooms, to use them to teach the interdependence of text and illustration, and to encourage creativity as students write their own stories and create their own illustrations.
Ann Horton, Kathleen Montgomery, Kathleen Ryan, Meryl Waldman
Bennett-Hemenway School

Choral Concert Funding
This grant will allow the music teacher at Bennett-Hemenway to purchase a musical score that can be coordinated with other school projects.
Julie Miller
Bennett-Hemenway School

Foundation Grants: Exploring Chinese Civilization through the Arts
This program will allow students to learn about ancient and contemporary China through Chinese arts, stories, music and games.
Ann Horton, Kathy Furst
Bennett-Hemenway School, Brown School, Kennedy Middle School, Lilja Elementary

Building a Home/School Reading Connection
This grant will provide funds for the purchase of developmentally appropriate books for use in the classroom and at home.
Melissa Shields
Brown School

Olive Sharrow Memorial Grant: Interactive Pillars of Our Nation
The construction of a series of pillars in the hallways of Brown School will be funded by this grant. Each pillar will represent a particular region in the U.S and serve as a learning station for that region.
Bev Melchiorri, Denise Young, Jed Stefanowitz, Michael Albert
Brown School

Make-It-Take-It
Math and language arts games for use at home by Title One parents and students will be purchased with the funds from this grant. Playing these games will be a fun, interactive way to involve struggling readers and concerned parents.
Kerry MacIsaac, Lynnell Connolly
Johnson School

Measuring up to Math
A parent-led after-school math enrichment program will be made possible by this grant. Children from grades two, three, and four at Johnson Elementary School will learn to build solar cars and boats, make sundials, and cook breads and other yummy treats.
Christine Mclarnon, Jackson Patterson, Marianne Zogby
Johnson School

Whitney Place Honor Grant: Building Biographies
A collection of high-quality biographies for each of the five elementary schools will be purchased with funds from this grant. The books will be used in conjunction with the family Biography Celebration held at each school.
Betsy Mangan, Jodie Apeseche, Kristen Kupperschmidt, Linda Broderick
Johnson School, Memorial School

Curriculum Based Books on Tape
The purchase of books on tape for the Memorial School will be made possible by this grant. The tapes will be used to supplement the K - 2 science and social study curriculum.
Nell Harder
Memorial School

Grant for Calilfone Cardmaster
The Califone Cardmaster is a magnetic audio card reader which will be purchased for the Memorial School through this grant. It will be used by the learning-disabled students to reinforce reading skills through visual and auditory input.
Sheila M. Friswell
Memorial School

Learning Buddies
This grant will support a program for kindergarteners and third graders to interact and learn together once a month. The goal of the program is for these students to answer the question, “How can we make the world a better place?” The students will learn about historical figures and participate in hands-on projects.
Kristy Dandurand, Robyn Snyder
Memorial School

Rock and Roll
This grant will provide for the purchase of rocks and minerals, working models of a seismograph, a CD-rom, books, soil test kits, and a volcano study set for the geology unit of study for the fourth grade class at Memorial School.
Kathleen Anderson, Linda Broderick
Memorial School

“A Little Bit of Soul:” African-American Voices in the Natick Curriculum
A mini-course on African-American literature for 15 students will be funded through this grant. Five students designed this course, its goals, and its objectives. The class will be seminar-based, with each of the 15 students taking responsibility for leading the discussion at least once.
Camille Napier-Bernstein, Lincoln Ned, Lucien Henry, Mandy Mondesir, Nick Bernard, Perry Bonnett
Natick High School

Boston Scientific Honor Grant: Applications of a Computer-Based Lab in the High School Biology Classes
This grant is for the purchase of Lab-Pro or CBL units with graphing calculations for NHS biology classes. These hand-held portable monitors, linked to data-collecting sensors or probes, can transfer data to a computer for analysis via spreadsheets and graphs.
Kathi Browne, Lisa Blomberg, Ven Larkin
Natick High School

MathWorks Honor Grant: Capturing the Big Picture “the Art of Photography”
The funds from this grant will be used to renovate and stock the High School darkroom, and will make possible an elective course in photography.
Pamela LeBlanc
Natick High School

Banjos, Brushstrokes and The Way Things Were: “The Way West in America, 1800-1899”
The purchase of a set of classroom resources will be funded by this grant. The material will be shared by the eighth grade team at Wilson Middle School, and it will make possible an interdisciplinary study of America from 1800-1899.
Martha E. Curran
Wilson Middle School

Expanding Technology into the Curriculum
This grant is for the purchase of three additional licenses for web-authoring software (Dreamweaver, by Macromedia), so that more teachers will be able to integrate a Web site into their curriculum.
Amy Hawrylchak, Ken Doyle, Peter Alderman
Wilson Middle School

Freedom Flag
This program will allow students to learn about ancient and contemporary China through Chinese arts, stories, music and games.
Denise Girardini, Nancy Jennett, Ruth Evans
Wilson Middle School

Kids on the Block
The Kids on the Block is a puppeteer program, designed to increase disability awareness. Life sized puppets are used to act out various scenarios, teaching children to accept and respect differences among them.
Barbara Singer
All Schools

Baggie Books: A First Grade Read at Home Program
This grant will enhance opportunities for Ben-Hem first graders to improve their reading while participating in shared reading experiences with their families at home.
Kathleen Ryan, Laura Erwin, Lisa Char-Smith, Marcy Klay, Susan Getty
Bennett-Hemenway School

Un, Deux, Trois! Let’s Study France!
This grant will provide first grade teachers at Ben-hem with the materials needed to create a lively, high-interest unit on France filled with many exciting hands-on activities including a French “Culture Box.”
Laura Erwin, Lisa Char-Smith, Marcy Klay, Susan Getty
Bennett-Hemenway School

Tony Hunt Honor Grant: The Natick Anniversary Quilt
This grant will fund the creation of a “Natick Anniversary Quilt” to be presented and toured through Natick. The quilt will illustrate the evolution and growth of the Natick community during the past three and a half centuries.
Bev Melchiorri, Denise Young, Jed Stefanowitz, Michael Albert
Brown School

Recovering the Lost Key: Poetry
This grant provides funds to purchase quality poetry books and teacher resource materials for classroom use in all five of the elementary schools in Natick. In addition, a teacher-training program through the Natick Public Schools Mini-University program will develop a network of educators with a love of poetry and will ensure full utilization of the purchased resources.
Amy Bruns, Anne Rollins', Ben Gatto, Kevin Crowley
Johnson School

Alphabet Book Creations: A Journey Through the Process of Developing an Idea
This grant is designed to motivate students to research topics of interest and make the content of non-fiction accessible through a study of Jerry Pollatta’s alphabet books.
Beth Goldberg, Sandy Palmer
Kennedy Middle School

Cognex Honor Grant: “Soundworks” – Theater Sound System
This grant will support an initiative by the Kennedy Middle School Theater Arts Department to install a permanent theatrical sound system at Kennedy.
Donald Griffin
Kennedy Middle School

E=MC2
This project develops a resource of video-based units that engage students in math by showing mathematical concepts in action in everyday life, specifically in science and the arts. School-wide access to these materials will provide all students with the opportunity to answer the question, “Why do I want to know math?”.
Paula Fay
Kennedy Middle School

Bird Unit
This bird study project will enhance students’ understanding of bird behavior and adaptations through hands-on investigation. Students will compile and analyze data about local birds and bird behavior.
Elaine Herzog
Lilja Elementary

Boston Scientific Honor Grant: AP Physics Lab
AP Physics is one of two AP science courses to be offered at Natick High. It was taught for the first time this year and requires lab equipment beyond that required for introductory Physics. This grant will allow purchase of new laboratory equipment.
Joel Bradford
Natick High School

Comprehensive Chemistry
Natick High School students will be able to more fully integrate the use of technology into chemistry classes by use of computer software, which includes a multitude of interactive multimedia lessons.
Helen O'Keefe, Karen Byrne, Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Integration of Physics into Introductory Physical Science
A pilot program introducing force, motion and energy will be integrated into the current physical science curriculum. Integration of these concepts will allow the first-year science curriculum to align more closely with MCAS frameworks.
Deb Ommundsen, Kathi Browne, Marylin LaBossiere, Robert Allison
Natick High School

On the Record
As part of the print media portion of Journalism class, students are often required to conduct interviews. This project will provide some rudimentary technology to facilitate and improve the accuracy and reliability of their use of “sources.”
Margaret Hagemeister
Natick High School

Digital Photography in the Middle School
This grant will support the introduction of digital photography into the middle school science curriculum.
Ken Henderson
Wilson Middle School

TJX Foundation Honor Grant: Kids on the Block Disability Awareness Program
‘Kids on the Block’ is an established puppet show program, complete with scripts and educational material, designed to increase disability awareness. Life-sized puppets are used to act out various scenarios that teach children to accept and respect differences among them. Community volunteers, including High School Students fulfilling their community service requirement, will be trained in the use of the puppets and bring them to every elementary school.
Barbara Singer
All Elementary

“Baggie Books:” A First Grade Read-at-Home Program
The “Baggie Books” program really brings literacy home – in little plastic bags. This already-successful Bennett-Hemenway program sends first graders home with paperbacks to read with their families, and enhances both reading skills and the school-home partnership by encouraging shared reading. By way of this year’s NEF mini-grant, the Baggie Books library will expand and include selections in the areas of math, social studies and science.
Kathleen Ryan, Lisa Char-Smith, Marcy Klay, Susan Getty
Bennett-Hemenway School

Celebrate Mexico
“Celebrate Mexico” will be a multidisciplinary exploration of the culture, history and customs of our neighbors south of the border. The rich Mexican culture will inspire projects in all of Brown and Lilja’s special subject classes: art, music, reading and gym. This half-year focus will peak with a day of celebration with Mexican art, song and dance.
Ann Horton, Kathy Furst
Brown School, Lilja Elementary

Harriet F. Siegel Honor Grant: Traveling Treasures
“Traveling Treasures” will give third grade students hands-on experience with the history, geography and economics of other parts of the country. Six suitcases, each representing a different part of the US, will be decorated with bumper stickers from that area, and filled with regional ‘treasures’ such as soil samples, cultural and historical artifacts, maps, postcards, e-mail addresses, recipes, books and a variety of activities. Three sets of suitcases will be assembled: one set will stay at Johnson, one will be used for workshop presentations and teacher training, and another will be available for loan to other Natick schools.
Jennifer Gershon, MaryBeth Kinkead, Rachel Fier
Johnson School

Cognex Honor Grant: Expansion of Technology Offering Through Use of Microelectronics
The Unilab Microelectronics Workstation and supporting LEGO materials purchased with this grant will be vital additions to the technology laboratory at Natick High School. The Unilab station will allow electronics students to work through series of problem-solving activities that mirror real life. Using a systems approach, students will be able to make decisions, reason out responses to problems, and test and evaluate solutions.
Deb Ommundsen, Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Cognex Honor Grant: Schoolyard Habitat Project
A wildlife habitat, including a pond and native plants, will be created and maintained in a Natick High School courtyard thanks to the Schoolyard Habitat Project. This living classroom will give biology, ecology and zoology students an ongoing resource for the study of natural ecosystems and wildlife.
Elizabeth Wallman, Kathi Browne, Natasha Stevens
Natick High School

Lighting It Up
Through the “Lighting it Up” grant, the Natick High School auditorium stage will be outfitted with basic theatrical lighting equipment. In the past, per-performance lighting equipment rentals were too brief to allow students thorough hands-on training. Now, however, students will have ample time with the equipment to be able to learn lighting design, and other lighting-related theatrical arts. In addition, performances and events, from musical theatre to Town Meeting, will benefit from adequate illumination.
Zach Galvin
Natick High School

Natick High School Instrument Request
This grant will fund the acquisition of several intermediate-level musical instruments for Natick High School’s prizewinning Symphonic and Jazz bands. The new saxophones and trumpet will enhance the musical experience for players and audiences alike.
Gerald E. Ash
Natick High School

Wilson Students As Readers Book Club (Grades 5 & 6)
A lifelong love of literature will be given a healthy start in the students who join the Wilson “Students As Readers” Book Clubs. The clubs, for which NEF will purchase the paperbacks chosen for discussion, will be teacher-led after-school groups, and will introduce to middle-school readers the joy of talking about good books.
Anne Malloy, Janet Fleming
Wilson Middle School

Wilson Students As Readers Book Club (Grades 7 & 8)
A lifelong love of literature will be given a healthy start in the students who join the Wilson “Students As Readers” Book Clubs. The clubs, for which NEF will purchase the paperbacks chosen for discussion, will be teacher-led after-school groups, and will introduce to middle-school readers the joy of talking about good books.
Andrea Taylor, Kirstin Sokol
Wilson Middle School

"One Bird in the Bush Is Worth Two in a Book: Establishing a School Bird Feeding Station"
This grant will provide first graders with the opportunity to observe native birds as they fly, perch, eat and interact with each other in the wild.
Laura Erwin, Lisa Char-Smith, Marcy Klay, Susan Getty
Bennett-Hemenway School

Land Ho!
This is a journey to the lands once visited by Columbus, Coronado, Cartier, Balboa and Hudson. The students will use the world of music to explore how the native cultures adopted, adapted and resisted these explorers from the Old World.
Suzanne V. Murphy
Brown School, Johnson School

This Is The Way We Go To School In Natick
This project will be a photographic tour of each of the five elementary schools, with photos taken by kindergarten students with a digital camera.
Jo Ann O'Brien Forester, Lynne S. Hunt, Martha Wells
Brown School, Lilja Elementary

Baskin and Johnson
This is a six week summer program which provides at -risk students with weekly language arts and math activities essential to success.
Kerry MacIsaac, Lynnell Connolly
Johnson School

Emergent Guided Reading Program
This grant is an extension of a Title 1 pilot program for emergent readers called "Success From the Start". It targets at-risk first grade readers. It involves staff training, pre- and post-student assessments, books for emergent readers and a consistent schedule where students work with a trained instructor.
Bebe Zaniboni, Donna Moore, Gael Daly, Laney George, Mary Thomas, Nina Kazlas, Pat Ditullio
Johnson School

Baby Think It Over
This is a realistic infant simulator that will allow Grade 8 students to realize that parenting impacts on their sleep and social lives.
Karen Maguire
Kennedy Middle School

Cognex Honor Grant: Hollywood Natick: Synthesizing Social Studies Curriculum Through Video Production
This grant will establish a video production facility at Kennedy Middle School. This facility will have the capability of enriching all academic programs by stimulating and motivating students to synthesize academic knowledge and creativity.
Marie Norton, Mary Breen
Kennedy Middle School

Digital Video: A Revolutionary Multimedia Solution to Video Production
Currently, all Grade 8 computer classes produce a curriculum related final project. With this technology, students can quickly and easily include high quality video into their presentations.
Marie Norton
Kennedy Middle School, Wilson Middle School

Native Americans/Multiple Intelligences
Through setting up learning centers based on each of the Intelligences, children will be given a rich opportunity to learn about the customs and traditions of several different Native American peoples.
Beth Altchek
Lilja Elementary

Colonial Life Study
This grant will fund curriculum material for the study of Colonization and the Revolutionary War that will provide a hands-on approach. This is a new area of curriculum developed to meet both the new State Frameworks for Social Studies, and to teach what is needed for the MCAS.
Danice Smith, Diane Demskie
Lilja Elementary, Memorial School

Connecting the Rhythms of the World
This grant is a continuation of two projects begun last year: (a) to acquire a full range of Orff instruments and (b) to acquire instruments crafted in countries studied by the children as part of the mandated curriculum.
Hilda J. Zinner
Memorial School

Middlesex Savings Bank Honor Grant: Application of Microscale Techniques in the Chemistry Laboratory
This grant will introduce students to microscale techniques in the chemistry laboratory, thereby reducing the production of chemical waste within the laboratory. This technique also allows students to perform experiments which produce results with both high precision and accuracy. Many colleges, as well as industry, currently conduct research using microscale techniques.
Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Millennium Grant: Expansion of Use of Computer Based Laboratory in High School Science Classes
The Computer Based Laboratory (CBL), used in conjunction with TI-graphing calculators, allows students to collect real-time data which can then be immediately graphed and analyzed. Use of these instruments, with the appropriate probes, will allow students to collect and analyze greater amounts of data in a shorter period of time.
Joel Bradford, Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Phearless Physics
This grant will enrich regular classroom instruction in physics through the integration of interactive software and web-based resources.
Julie Szymczak
Natick High School

Seeing the World in New Ways
Fifth grade students in Natick will be Seeing the World in New Ways through the use of culture kits from Africa and Asia, and through participation in an interactive web experience called AsiaQuest.
Amy Bruns, Gwendolyn Arrusian
Wilson Middle School

The Hand Development Kit in a Pizza Box
The Hand Development Kit in a Pizza Box will help our preschool and first grade students with prewriting and handwriting skills. The kits contain selected materials and toys that promote improved muscle coordination, pencil grasps, and fine motor coordination abilities.
Marty Guild
All Grade 1, Preschool

Curtain Up! Exploring Science and Literature Through the Creative Arts
This grant will provide first graders with the opportunity to learn about literature and science through the creative arts by allowing them to put on two exciting musical plays. Using the visual arts to help create their costumes, props, and sets for the two musicals, the children will sing, dance, act, and have fun while exploring important curriculum areas.
Laura Erwin, Lisa Char-Smith, Marcy Klay, Susan Getty
Bennett-Hemenway School

Development Mathematical Knowledge in Kindergarten through Spatial, Musical and/or Bodily Kinesthetic Intelligences
This project recognizes that students have different ways of knowing and absorbing information. It aims at improving the mathematics performance of kindergarten students whose dominant intelligence is visual-spatial, musical, or bodily kinesthetic. It involves construction with manipulatives, movement activities, games, musical and rhythmic activities, and art projects.
Carol Finn
Bennett-Hemenway School

Roche Bros. Honor Grant: Kids Cook Up the Curriculum
Cooking activities enhance many areas of the curriculum. Funds will be used to purchase cooking implements and small appliances. A cross-curriculum cookbook will be produced by the students at the end of the school year to be used as a reference for future classes.
Catherine O'Brien, Dianne Keough, Joanne Foster, Lisa Ahearn
Bennett-Hemenway School

Shake, Rattle & Roll
This grant is an interactive musical project that will engage primary students in a variety of spatial and bodily/kinesthetic experiences. A giant size staff rug will create the opportunity for students to actually become the notes. The use of pitched and unpitched rhythm instruments will enhance this experience by providing an aural dimension to each student's repertoire.
Kristen Kupperschmidt, Laney George, Lynne Hunt, Margaret Donohoe, Mary Pacione, Sharon Stiefel, Suzanne V. Murphy
Brown School, Johnson School

Merlin's Magic
Merlin's Magic will provide an opportunity for Natick students to experience a virtual guided tour of the legendary sites of King Arthur. This multimedia presentation can be used by individual students as well as by classroom teachers to explore the fact and fiction of England's most beloved hero.
Heather Bishop, Kirsten Sokol
Kennedy Middle School

Mini Language Lab
This project, involving tape players with recording capacity, a CD player, a small television/VCR, and computer would create "corner stations" which students would utilize for individual, small group, supplemental advanced, and remedial work in the world languages program at Kennedy Middle School.
Ann Galvani, James Thomas, Sue Mandell
Kennedy Middle School

Peer Mediation Training for Kennedy and Wilson Middle School Students
Peer mediation is a form of conflict resolution which is a way for students to solve problems in a non-violent and peaceful way by talking to each other. Students are trained to be neutral third parties who help other students work together to create solutions to disputes.
Jim Hill, Karen Dalton-Thomas, Maureen O'Neill, Nancy Nichols
Kennedy Middle School

Science Software
This grant will develop an interactive science classroom for teaching 7th graders. Students will be the focus of the learning environment and will be given more responsibility for their learning through the use of the science software.
Don Petrone, Jim Brown
Kennedy Middle School

Orff Instrumentation, Part 2
Orff methodology is an integrated approach to music education that links listening, rhythmic speaking, singing, instrumental music, movement, improvisation, and composition. It will allow students increased opportunities to experiment, improvise, compose and perform instrumental music.
Kris Hill
Lilja Elementary

The Well Versed Student: Learning Through Poetry
A collection of materials, including a diverse range of poetry books and art materials, will be created in order to learn using multiple intelligences to promote reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. This project will provide students with the opportunity to explore, interpret, and respond to poetry
Karen Belsley, Shoshanah Starr
Lilja Elementary

Multiplication Mastery
Multiplication Mastery is a two-part program to help all third grade students master the multiplication tables. It will give children who have strong musical intelligence or spatial intelligence an opportunity to learn a skill which is most easily mastered by children with strong mathematical intelligence.
Danice Smith, Holda J. Colten, Kathleen M. Hart, Paula F. Bloomquist
Memorial School

Musicians All: Acquisition of an Orff Instrumentarium
This collection of pitched and unpitched instruments enhances the acquisition of knowledge by integrating all the bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, intrapersonal, and interpersonal. Every student at the school can, in some way, experience success and enjoyment from the instruments.
Hilda J. Colten
Memorial School

Rhythms of the World
This collection of diverse musical instruments will reflect the countries and cultures the children study as part of the curriculum, and those studied for the Multicultural Fair which takes place each spring. Playing the instruments will add to the knowledge of the specific country while at the same time affording the children the opportunity to integrate the multiple intelligences: musical, bodily-kinetic, spatial, logical-mathematical, and linguistic.
Hilda J. Colten
Memorial School

Books on Tape for NHS Library
BOT is an alternative strategy involving multiple intelligences in the appreciation of reading and literature. Unabridged tapes will be purchased to coordinate and enhance literature included in the high school curriculum as well as supplemental titles for pleasure/recreational reading.
Carl Bates, Jane Connolly
Natick High School

Natick Center T Station Mural Project
Natick High School student volunteers will create a large outdoor mural on the back wall of the south side of the Natick Center T Station platform. The planning, design, and execution of the mural will be done by students, supervised by NHS teachers, and directed and coordinated by an artist consultant.
Barbara Milot
Natick High School

Use of Computer Based Lab in High School Science Classes
The Computer Based Laboratory Unit (CBL) allows students to collect real-time data, such as temperature, voltage, and pH. CBL units, used in conjunction with TI82 or TI83 graphing calculators, will allow students to use the data modeling and graphing features to immediately analyze their data.
Kathi Browne
Natick High School

Weather Station
This grant will provide the Natick High School Science Department with a weather station to coincide with the Freshman course of Physical Science. This will not only enrich the curriculum, but will also extend the positive experiences gained at both middle schools.
Brett Lubarsky, Vera A. Larkin
Natick High School

Reptiles and Amphibians
North Star students will join with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Commission to survey, catalogue, and record data pertaining to the shrinking reptile and amphibian population in Massachusetts. During this hands-on project, the students will utilize and demonstrate an understanding of the reptiles and amphibians, as well as their evolution, heredity, and ecosystems.
James Lauzon, Scott Dixson
North Star

Connect the Dots: Building a Classroom Resource LibraryBuilding a classroom resource library in the 8th grade at Wilson Middle School will enable teachers to create interesting, integrated, multidimensional and exciting lesson plans for the thematic study of the tapestry of humanity. It will also enhance the skills of students as they learn to use these resources to research and cross reference historic periods to gain a more complete understanding of and appreciation for the history of human achievement.
Martha E. Curran
Wilson Middle School

Jacqueline Searle Honor Award: Ichi, Ni, San! Let’s Study Japan
Third grade teachers at Ben-Hem currently teach a unit on Japan. They plan to incorporate hands-on activities with purchased materials for a “Japanese Culture Box” including various Japanese household items, art supplies, clothing and books that reflect Japanese culture.
Irene Mancuso, Lisa Char-Smith, Lisa Hayes, Sandra Levy
Bennett-Hemenway

SchoolMusical Beginnings - An Autoharp in the Hand is Worth Three Violas in the Closet
The Hand in Hand and Special Beginnings preschool programs housed at Ben Hem will purchase and use autoharps. Kindergarten guidelines will be used to institute a formal music curriculum at the preschool level.
Anne Danieson, Claudia Price, Debbie Kuhlman-Hussey, Kris Hill, Lisa Sisoian
Bennett-Hemenway School

On the Road Again
Second grade teachers at Ben-Hem plan to have students produce a video tape of Natick and their school. One of 50 copies will be sent to a second grade class in a school in each state. The second grades will ask each school to return a video of their school and community and use e-mail to communicate with those schools that send tapes.
Elizabeth Lang, Kathleen Montgomery, Lois Hochberg, Mary Cunniff
Bennett-Hemenway School

Electronic Portfolio
Using existing hardware, third grade teachers at Brown plan to pilot an electronic portfolio system. This grant will support the purchase of software and storage media that will allow all students to create a multimedia portfolio. Sound clips, scanned artwork and videos will be combined with traditional portfolio elements to create a unique record of their accomplishments.
Denise Young, Jed Stefanowics, Lynn Blumer, Michael Albert
Brown School

Creating a Nature Neighborhood
Johnson parents, teachers and interested community members have plans to create an outdoor extension of the classroom by creating a habitat that will attract wildlife and invite observation . Students will keep observational journals and engage in interdisciplinary activities supported by the project that. All students will participate in this project.
Debbie Mandino, Karen Cotter, Kerry MacIsaac, Lucia Frenkel, Margaret Donohoe
Johnson School

Salt Water Aquarium Program
Fifth and seventh grade science teachers at Kennedy plan to contract for a salt water aquarium to be installed at school. Each week, for a month, BIOMES Inc. will install a different collection of live animals. Learning activities will reflect the theme of each week.
Jim Brown, Lisa Bacon
Kennedy Middle School

Solar Voltaics
This first-ever collaboration between the Wilson and Kennedy Middle School science departments will support the purchase of 60 solar voltaic kits to be shared by both science departments. Using simple instruments, each student will conduct a wide variety of solar energy experiments.
Elizabeth Haight, Patricia Rowan, Russell Rylko
Kennedy Middle School

Orff Instrumentarium
Orff methodology is an integrated approach to music education that links listening, performing, singing, instrumental music, improvisation and composition. The purchase of larger lower pitched Orff instruments will expand the variety and range of instruments currently available at Lilja. All students will increase their understanding of a much wider range of musical sounds.
Kris Hill
Lilja Elementary

The Launching Young Readers Program
This program will provide parents of children at Lilja with a circulating collection of books specially designed to support young readers in kindergarten and first grade. Bookbags containing 3 to 5 books, a pamphlet for parents, a notebook for comments, a library card application and a treasure hunt card will be available to all children throughout the school year.
Celia Biagetti, JoAnn O'Brien, Lois DiLorenzo
Lilja Elementary

Climbing New Heights: YMCA Challenge Program
In September approximately 50 students from the East Alternative school, and the High School’s Target and Omega programs will be united under the new North Star program at Natick High. In the fall and spring, these students will participate in low- and high ropes challenge courses at the YMCA outdoor center in Hopkinton. The program is designed to foster trust, self-awareness, and teamwork. It is sponsored by NEF and other grant sources in the community.
John Lauzon
Natick High School

Assisted Living Center Intergenerational Partnership
This grant will support the institution of a formal partnership between Wilson Middle School and the newly constructed Whitney Assisted Living Center, through the purchase of computer hardware.
Peter Alderman, Sara Lane
Wilson Middle School

Pictorial Library for the Open Door Program
This grant will provide a pictorial library to be used in a reading program for developmentally delayed non-readers in the “Open Door Program” at Wilson Middle School. Through a multi-method approach students will develop new reading skills and a desire to read.
Karen Fennelly
Wilson Middle School

Radio Station: WLSN
Wilson Middle School is in the process of installing a student run radio station. NEF is pleased to contribute to the establishment of a student centered activity that supports many areas of the curriculum.
Rosa Sterk, Sara Lane
Wilson Middle School

Technology Software
The seventh grade science teachers at Wilson will purchase software to be used in an interactive science classroom. This grant will support the institution of an ITS Learning Matrix, similar to the successful ITS program at Natick High School.
Ken Henderson, Pat Rowan
Wilson Middle School

Every Day Heroes: Promoting Equality
This grant will support the purchase of a computer and software: Decisions, Decisions: Prejudice, a program designed to introduce students to important issues surrounding prejudice and discrimination.
Jane Marsh, Jennifer Parson, Rosa Sterkiption

Author Appreciation Center
In support of author studies and related learning units, a resource center holding author reference materials will be established to share among all elementary schools. The author appreciation center, which builds upon the popular author letter writing station, will house biographical material, author software, author videos, and audiotapes.
Amy Gallagher Goodwin
All Elementary

From Seed to Table
Working cooperatively, the Natick Community Farm, the Bennett-Hemenway School, and the Wilson Middle School will create a joint program about health, nutrition, food production, and record keeping. Students will investigate and chart many factors involved in food growth, explore local farm history, and learn about health and nutritional benefits of different plant varieties.
Irene Mancuso, Lisa Ahearn, Lisa Hayes, Lynda Simkins
Bennett-Hemenway School, Wilson Middle School

Creating Music with Technology
This project is designed to provide music education using computer technology with a MIDI keyboard and sequencing software. Seventh grade students at Kennedy Middle School will participate in a composition project where they hear, read, play, and create their own compositions. They will publish and present an original composition guided by Ms. Taranto and Ms. Sterk.
Marlene Taranto, Rosa Sterk
Kennedy Middle School

Student Recognition Program
This program will be used to recognize Kennedy students for their achievements and contributions to both the school and the community at large. In order to promote self-esteem, information about students' accomplishments will be highlighted.
John Hughes, Sara Lane
Kennedy Middle School

Musical Sound Machines
Based on knowledge gained through the study of simple machines, sound, and orchestral instruments, first and third graders at Lilja will work collaboratively to invent musical instruments. Students will use these instruments to produce musical responses to literature, create musical compositions, illustrate math concepts and patterns, and evoke mood.
Kelli Connelly, Kris Hill, Shoshanah Starr
Lilja Elementary

Wall of Achievement
This program will recognize the achievements and contributions of Natick High School alumni to their professional and community organizations. These individuals will be invited back to Natick High to share their professional and personal life experiences with students and faculty alike.
Diane Verschure, Richard Kopelman, Sheilah Bernard
Natick High School

Books for Teachers as Readers
This program will focus on enjoyment of reading for students in grades seven through twelve. Participants will compare reactions to published book reviews, discuss ideas for teaching the book or using it in the curriculum, and explore the relevance of adding it to the school libraries.
Kirstin Sokol
Wilson Middle School

Classroom Aquarium Project
This grant will supply freshwater aquarium and training to six non-science classrooms at Wilson. Students will be trained to conduct water tests and to perform general aquarium maintenance. Students will keep maintenance records and will take responsibility and leadership roles in caring for the aquatic animals.
Ken Henderson
Wilson Middle School