Thanks to the generous support of our Business Partners and individual donors, BCEF will award over $40,000 in grants for 2016. See below for details and check back on our Grants in Action page for updates!
Coffin Elementary
Baxter’s Book Room– Funds were awarded to purchase quality leveled fiction and non-fiction texts for the Baxter Book Room. The book room was launched in December, 2015 with limited materials but with a long term goal of ensuring that literacy instruction at Coffin is supported by rich and abundant resources, both fiction and non-fiction and to provide all students with developmentally appropriate leveled texts that are engaging, and will entice students to have a passion for learning to read. This large grant will go a long way toward completing that dream!
Making Poetry Books and Celebrating Young Authors– In a 6-session writing and publishing workshop this April and May, students in a first grade class will get to explore onomatopoeic poetry and book publishing with parent volunteer and teaching artist Molly McGrath.
Learning in Motion: Stability Balls in Early Elementary Classroom– After the success of a partial grant last year, funds were awarded to replace traditional chairs with stability balls in a first grade and a multi-age classroom. Research, and now first hand experience at Coffin, has shown that stability balls sharpen student attention, improve posture, increase concentration, minimize impulse behavior, improve handwriting, and engage active listening.
Ready for K– Funds were awarded so that every child who participates in the Kindergarten screening process will be given a colorful, engaging alphabet book. Along with this book, parents will receive a sheet of tips designed to help them get their children ready for their upcoming Kindergarten year.
Technology for Connections at Coffin– This grant will enable the purchase of technology,including iPad’s, to increase learner engagement for a classroom serving students with emotional or behavioral difficulties.
Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary
Woodworking Tools– Funds were awarded for the purchase of antique woodworking tools for use by 4th and 5th grade students for a variety of units including Colonial American craftsmen and their trades, Maine History and simple machines.
Wabanaki Outreach Program– This grant will enable a presentation to all 2nd grade students at HBS by experts from the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor on the culture, traditions, customs, beliefs and way of life of the four tribes of the Wabanaki, which are native to Maine and surrounding areas. The presentation will allow a hands on experience for the students and closely aligns with the revised 2nd grade social studies curriculum.
A New World View– Funds were awarded for the purchase of stereo-microscopes for use by 5th grade students in multiple units including chemistry, biology, and literacy where they can provide tremendous detail for use in the description of natural objects.
Maine: A Place, a Beloved Home, a Part of the World – Over the course of four months, through partnerships with Maine institutions such as The Telling Room, the Abbe Museum, and the Maine State Museum, and through exchanges with local businesses and citizens, 4th grade students will create museum exhibits, oral histories, a Maine guidebook, a Maine Encyclopedia and video archives. The project will culminate with a public presentation of student creations.
Challenger Learning Experience – Funds were awarded to allow half of 5th grade students (the other half having already participated through a grant from the Senter Fund) to engage in a simulated mission to the International Space Station at the Challenger Learning Center in Bangor. Each student will be assigned a role in the mission, either at mission control or as part of the crew flying to the space station. In addition, students will participate in a STEM program while they are at the center.
Colonial Craft: Spinning Wool– Funds were awarded to allow all 5th grade students to experience the craft of wool spinning in conjunction with the unit on Colonial America.
Music to Soothe the Soul– This grant will enable the purchase a sound system for the entrance area to Harriet Beecher Stowe to play classical music for the purpose of creating an environment of ‘inviting calm’ as students enter to start the school day.
Creative Authors – Funds were awarded to allow 3rd grade students, in conjunction with industry professionals, to publish original books, films and musical albums.
Just Because You’re Non-Verbal Doesn’t Mean You Don’t Have Anything to Say (joint grant with Brunswick Junior High School)- This grant will fund the purchase of technology, including GoTalks, for use by students with various disabilities, including non-verbal students, giving voice to someone who has none.
Singing and Storytelling– This grant will provide funds for the purchase of books for 2nd grade classrooms which students and teachers will use as a guide and inspiration for the creation of an original concert to be given by the students next December.
Brunswick Junior High School
Hoop House– This grant will enable the purchase and construction of a Hoop House style green house, along with planting and growing materials, to be used for multiple purposes including to provide a space for experiments and studies in Life Sciences and Energy, and for use by the Garden Club.
Creative Writing Club Literary Magazine– Funds were awarded to provide professional printing for the school wide literary magazine, Husky Prints.
Aquaponics: The Adventure Continues– Funds were awarded to enable this highly successful grant from our first grants cycle to become an established and ongoing part of the 6th grade science curriculum. Aquaponics is the symbiotic cultivation of fish and plants in a re-circulating ecosystem, enabling multiple areas of the science curriculum to transform from worksheets and textbooks to hands-on experiential learning.
Connect to Casco Bay– This grant will enable the seventh grade students of the Jewell Island Team the opportunity to engage in a community-based, expeditionary learning unit to help our students understand the fragility of Casco Bay and our civic duty, as Maine residents, to care for it.
Harmony Director– This grant will enable the purchase of an innovative musical teaching tool, the YamahaHD-200 Harmony Director keyboard. The Harmony Director will have a direct impact on BJHS instrumental and choral musicians and teachers by enhancing instructional time and empowering the teaching of the difficult concepts of intonation and ensemble timing to high levels more quickly than conventional means.
Math in Motion– Funds were awarded for the purchase of Bicycle Desks for use on a rotating basis (no pun intended) by BJHS math students with the goal of increasing student movement, engagement, motivation and learning. Research shows that motion increases blood flow to the brain, which helps students to remain engaged and focused during class, which leads to increased student learning
Brunswick High School
9th Grade Team Building– This grant will fund a day of ‘Team Building” at Camp Ketcha for all for all incoming 9th graders. The Camp Ketcha program focuses on using an experiential approach in a challenge-by-choice setting. Students will have the opportunity to get to know each other in an environment that fosters positive relationships and to learn strategies to cope with difficult situations. The skill development and friendships formed will support BHS’s goal to provide freshmen with a supportive and well-balanced transition to high school.
Creating a Makerspace in the Brunswick High School Library– This grant will fund the creation of a “Makerspace” in the BHS library, where students will be provided with tools that allow them to create, discover, invent, and generate new ideas through “making”. The “Makerspace Movement” is a creative revolution happening in schools around the country, transforming the way students learn by encouraging hands-on projects and problem-solving.