P-H-M Educational Foundation
 HOW WE HELP Grants Scholarships Endowment
Innovative Classroom Grants
The P-H-M Educational Foundation is proud of its role in schools and in our community. Since 1996, we have awarded nearly $163,000 in Innovative Classroom Grants, Teacher-of-the-Year Grants, Hensler Scholarships, Academic Scholarships, Silver Mile Grants, Dr. & Mrs. Jerry Thacker Scholarship, Corporation-wide Initiatives, and Corporations for Education Grants.

The Innovative Classroom Grant program provides Penn-Harris-Madison teachers, individually or as part of a team, the opportunity to apply for funds to bring innovation into the classroom, improve aspects of teaching or programs for students that public funding does not provide. The chart below shows the increase in the grants awarded by the Foundation since 1996.



2008 Spring Innovative Classroom Grants Awarded

Rosewater Award Books                                                   Penn High School – Grade 9                                                 Mary Kizer, PHS Media Specialist                                                 Total Project Budget: $1,400 — Amount Requested: $1,000 — Amount Funded: $1,000                                                                     This grant will allow students to participate in a program called the Eliot Rosewater Award by providing funding to purchase a large number of duplicate copies of 20 high quality young adult books chosen by a statewide committee. The project promotes academic excellence by encouraging student to read for fun and instill a love of reading that will in turn improve test scores.

Adding a New Dimension to Science                                   Penn High School – Grades 10 - 12                                       Diane Bowersox, Chemistry Teacher                                      Total Project Budget: $697.68 — Amount Requested: $697.68 — Amount Funded: $697.68                                                       This grant would purchase 38 books entitles The Story of Science Einstein Adds a New Dimension for us as supplemental reading in the first year Chemistry course at Penn High School. Highly readable to anyone in middle school and beyond, the book is exceptionally engaging and captivating. It will be used in 50 25-minue reading, writing and discussion periods spreading throughout the school year.           

Multisensory Genres                                                                     Moran Elementary School – 2nd Grade                                  Alecia Conrad, Teacher                                                        Total Project Budget: $661.36 — Amount Requested: $661.36 — Amount Funded: $661.36                                                                   This grant will provide 8 sets of specific readers for second graders. The types are fantasy, original fairy-tales, drama, myths, fables, legends, and science fiction. These genres will be teamed with specific art instruction and hand-on activities that will teach the story elements that identify the genre type which normally are more difficult for children to grasp. This project promotes academic excellence by creating a multisensory environment, through which connections are made through art and creativity while developing an appreciation for different types of literature.

Web-Based Cameras for Language Lab

Penn High School – Grades 9 - 12

Delicia Huckleberry, ASL Teacher

Total Project Budget: $2,046 — Amount Requested: $2,046 — Amount Funded: $2,046

Real-time communication through a web-based camera will impact the American Sign Language (ASL) and World Language students by providing practice of their current and prospective language skills. ASL especially, with the need for eye-to-eye communication, will be directly impacted by this step into Deaf culture. The project promotes academic excellence by significantly expanding the exposure students receive from native, professional, and expert users of the languages they’re striving to learn.

 

Conflict Resolution

Horizon Elementary School – Grades K - 5

Laura Lehner, Youth Service Bureau Counselor

Total Project Budget: $365.95 — Amount Requested: $365.95 — Amount Funded: $365.95

This grant will purchase two conflict management programs to promote respect, tolerance, and peaceful resolution. This project promotes academic excellence by decreasing fighting and distractions in the classroom and teaches students to positively resolve disputes before escalation occurs.

 

Let There Be Night

All Schools K – 8 (will be offered at Penn)

Art Klinger, Planetarium Director

Total Project Budget: $30,000 — Amt. Requested: $4,000 – Amt. funded by Grants Comm. $1,300 — Amount funded by the Foundation’s Corporation-Wide Initiatives: $2,700                   Total funded:  $4,000

This project will introduce students to outdoor lighting issues and coordinate a district-wide experiment in which students quantify local sky glow. PHMEF funding will complement a grant from Toyota for the groundbreaking Let There Be Night program. After visiting the P-H-M Planetarium, over 6,000 students in grades 3-8 will measure the darkness of the night sky by comparing their backyard observations of Orion with online star charts. In the classroom, teachers will guide students in analyzing the data and discussing the side effects of lighting technology.