Farmington Public School Foundation Awards Grants

The Farmington Public School Foundation, an independent local nonprofit, announced the list of 2013 grant recipients today in a release.

The foundation awards grants either to fund innovative educational programs proposed by Farmington teachers or what it calls "innovation initiatives," large-scale programs determined in partnership with the superintendent of schools. The foundation's work allows for educational opportunities students would not otherwise have. To date, the foundation has given away more than $100,000.

According to the release, this year's recipients include: 

• Archeological Field School 2013. A continuation of the 2012 grant, this program will enable students at FHS to enhance their archeological experiences with more opportunities in the field at Yale's Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington. Students will also use new software to develop a system to catalog artifacts found.

• Land and Water Stream Table Investigations. This grant supports hands-on learning and fosters increased student collaboration in the fourth grade science curriculum at Union School. This program seeks to improve the understanding of behaviors of river environments over time, teaching students about erosion, and sediment deposition in the Farmington River.

• Maple Sugaring: Sap to Syrup. IAR special needs students and their peers will have the opportunity to build upon and develop their skills in observation and collaboration with this grant. As students learn the real-world process of maple sugaring, math, science and history curricula will be reinforced.

• Math Music Videos. This grant will give students at Union School the opportunity to design and produce short, skill-specific videos aligned with their math curriculum. By integrating music and providing engaging, innovative opportunities for creative writing, and video making, students will strengthen their problem solving skills.

• Social Thinking Class. Connecting the FPS "vision of the graduate" to the middle school level, the development of this program will provide IAR students the social and critical thinking skills needed to succeed within the classroom and the 21st century workforce. This grant will give students the opportunity to learn what “social thinking” is and how it impacts them personally.