Robert P. Bell Teacher Creativity Grants Awarded to Local Teachers

Free Press Report

MUNCIE, IN - The Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County, Inc. has announced that the following Robert P. Bell grants totaling $2,470 have been awarded to local teachers for the second and third grant cycles of the 2012-2013 academic year. It is estimated that nearly 1,800 Delaware County students will benefit from these grants.

• Amy Cullum, Wes-Del High School, was awarded $259 for high school Spanish students to create their own Damascene craft during their study of Spain. These items are native to Toledo, Spain but sold throughout the country. Each student will create their own design, and examples of finished crafts might include earrings, small boxes, plates, and other items.
• Darlene Hill, Storer Elementary School, was awarded $403 for kindergarten students to participate in a cross-curricular unit titled “Digging for Dinosaurs.” Students will learn about dinosaurs and fossils through hands-on activities such as a fossil dig, puzzles, rubbing plates, dinosaur math manipulatives and creative writing.
• Pamela Meier-Fisher, Wes-Del Middle School, was awarded $186 for eighth grade English students to participate in a writing “Boot Camp” in an effort to improve their writing skills and be more engaged with the writing process. To get into the spirit of Boot Camp, students will recite their Boot Camp Cadence, wear multi-colored camouflage bandanas and armbands, and organize their work in camouflage folders.
• John Marsh, Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanties and Burris Laboratory School, was awarded $450 for 11th and 12th grade world history students to learn about the religious beliefs, artistic techniques, hieroglyphics, labor, clothing and economics of Ancient Egypt as they research and construct an Egyptian tomb, sarcophagus, statues and costumes. Students from the sister school will create ceramic pieces, jewelry and additional drawings for the tomb as part of their art studies. All 650 students from the two schools will be given engaging and informative tours of the completed tomb by student interpreters.
• Myra Fraley, Wilson Middle School, was awarded $134 to create a unique environment for middle school special needs students and allow students with limited mobility to learn through independent play and exploration. A small frame will be created with a Plexiglas ceiling allowing a variety of objects to be suspended within the students’ reach. By investigating the items in the space, students will learn about the noise properties of various objects, work on fine and gross motor skills, and improve cognitive skills such as problem solving and sequencing.
• Bethany Clegg, Storer Elementary School, was awarded $450 for elementary physical education students to study the My Plate Program, a guideline for healthy eating that replaced the former food pyramid. Students will learn to make healthy food choices and participate in cross-curricular activities to reinforce the concepts studied in their physical education classes.
• Becky Juday, East Washington Academy, was awarded $450 for fifth grade students to learn about the past and present struggles and triumphs the United States has encountered to gain and maintain the freedoms enjoyed today by creating a “Freedom Lives Memorial” honoring Indiana fallen soldiers. Students will communicate with the families of fallen soldiers and then create shadow boxes to display information collected from families and thank you letters from the students as well as items that represents freedoms for which the students are thankful.
• Kevin Jospeh, Daleville Elementary School, was awarded $326 for sixth grade students to study owls and create hypotheses about whether an owl is an omnivore, herbivore, or carnivore. Students will then dissect owl pellets to test their hypotheses and determine the diet of the species. Finally, students will learn even more about the diet of owls as they assemble the bones found in the owl pellet.
• Elana Camp, Cowan Elementary School, was awarded $434 for elementary music students to participate in music education activities in their regular classrooms when classroom work is completed. Stations will be created and placed in each classroom, and students will have the opportunity to work on music notation activities, listening exercises, and terminology practice in their free time. The goal of this unit is to expand the students’ musical education outside of weekly music time and further the students’ understanding of the mechanics of music through notation and listening activities.
• Mason Fulton, Muncie Central High School, was awarded $400 for 11th grade Advanced Placement U.S. History students to study Gregory Williams’ book, Life on the Color Line, a book about one young man’s struggles growing up in Muncie, Indiana during the 1950’s. Students will discuss racial issues that families faced during this time period and make connections to life in modern-day Muncie. The unit will culminate with students talking with others outside of their classroom about segregation and events in the Civil Rights Movement.
• Sondra Siebold, Muncie Southside High School, was awarded $131 for high school language arts students to study poetry and identify their all-time favorite poet. They will then create a poster consisting of the poet’s picture, a brief biographical sketch, and lines or stanzas from a favorite poem to illustrate a particular poetic device. The posters will be affixed to three-dimensional boxes and on display during National Poetry Month in April.
• Ami Brown, Cowan Middle School, was awarded $267 for eighth grade English students to learn tolerance and respect of others by studying and appreciating their own uniqueness. Students will read The Diary of Anne Frank , The Road from Home, and Forgotten Fire and a variety of other nonfiction texts and poetry. Throughout the unit, students will react to their readings in their own journals, which by the unit’s culmination will become their own “testimony of me.” Students will also work in groups to create puzzles representing the theme of their readings and its application in the modern world.

Bell Grants of up to $450 are awarded to teachers with innovative ideas, programs or projects designed to stimulate learning in their students. The deadline for the next and final round of grants for the 2012-2013 academic year is April 1, 2013. For more information about Bell Grant applications, contact Suzanne Kadinger, Foundation Program Officer, at skadinger@cfmdin.org. Information is also available at www.cfmdin.org.