Grant Awards 2020-2021 Spring

Social Thinking for Early Learners
Curriculum materials funded by this grant will be used to help young students better understand themselves and others, develop self-awareness, perspective-taking, social problem solving, and support students’ social-emotional learning, relationship building, and academic performance.  For some students, particularly those with certain disabilities, these skills need to be taught very explicitly.  The curriculum materials will be utilized by various teachers in either whole group (for example, special education classroom or preschool) or in therapy sessions with a speech-language pathologist, psychologist, or special education teacher.

STEM Attraction
Students in kindergarten need to learn to count, create shapes, and understand the forces of push/pull.  Magnetic sticks, purchased through grant funds, will be used to learn concepts in math, science and engineering.  Having manipulatives that are colorful, fun, and easy to use will support all students as they investigate and create. In math, they will be counting, creating shapes, and discovering the connection between quantities and numerals.  The manipulatives will also prove helpful as students address “real-world problems”, using logic and imagination.  

STEM Crossover
STEM Crossover is about providing electronic devices (iPads) to classroom teachers for students to demonstrate learning as they work on  STEM projects.  The focus would be on 1st grade during blended learning.  Later these devices would also be available for other grade levels to use.  The learning objectives would be dependent upon the project that the classroom teachers are working on.  For example, students will be able to accurately record their observations in a Seesaw post for the class and families to view after completing a unit on Salish Coast Habitat Restoration.

SAIL in COLOR
Grant funds will be used to purchase a color printer for the SAIL (Supporting Academics for Inclusive Learning) program.  Color materials allow SAIL students to engage in their curriculum at a deeper level than when engaging in black and white copy materials.  A dedicated color laser printer combined with waterproof paper will increase the amount and quality of the materials SAIL students can engage with and use in their learning.  The printer can also be used to make more Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) low-tech boards for the SAIL students’ communication partners, including friends, neurotypical peers and family.   

 AAC on the Playground
Communication is the right of every child at Salish Coast.  Students who have significant communication disabilities must have alternative means to communicate.  Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) includes all forms of communication other than verbal speech.  Students at Salish Coast who rely on AAC to communicate their thoughts, feeling, wants, needs would benefit from having their voices heard on the playground.  Grant funds will be used to create two large low-tech communication boards on the playground that can tolerate the weather in the PNW.  All students at Salish Coast will be able to learn more about AAC and how their peers with communication disabilities use AAC to communicate.

Communication Stations
Grant funds will be used to create an interactive large mid-tech communication AAC board for students who have significant communication deficits.   The board is approximately 3 feet by 4 feet, with a smaller sentence board under the mainboard.  3d printed icons are removable and can be combined with other core words to form messages and sentences. This project allows all students to interact and learn core words as they learn how to communicate with symbols.  Core words make up 80% of the words we use to communicate. This project also provides an approachable way for neurotypical children to experience what it is like to use symbolic communication to communicate with others.  Doing so breaks down barriers and teaches acceptance and understanding for those individuals who use AAC to communicate.

Novel Engineering
Inspired by kids and grounded in research, Novel Engineering is a multidisciplinary innovative approach to integrate engineering and literacy in elementary and middle school. Students use literature – stories, novels, and expository texts – as the basis for engineering design challenges that help them identify problems, design realistic solutions, and engage in the Engineering Design Process while reinforcing their literacy skills.  Students in the OCEAN alternative learning program, grades K-8, will spend science and literacy classes engaged in rigorous academic and creative novel engineering projects.  They will have the opportunity to design and actually create engineering solutions inspired by challenges their favorite literary characters encounter in a multitude of stories.  Grant funds are used to purchase required books and materials.  

World Language Independent Reading Library
The current PTHS Spanish classroom library, which began with seed funding from a PTEF grant, offers over 500 student-accessible titles. These texts vary in difficulty and topic, so students can find a "home run book" that turns them on to a lifetime of reading or one that sustains and grows their existing identities as readers.  This additional funding will be used to purchase extra copies of popular texts, obtain new titles to enhance the library, and buy protective materials and labels for more effective book circulation.  The purpose of the current grant is to expand the library to make it operational in a remote and/or hybrid learning scenario, while also building the core collection to continue to provide meaningful, engaging, contemporary, and challenging texts for all learners for coming years, whether in-person or remote.

Forensic Aspects of Fire Investigation
Funds will be used to support a field trip for Forensic Science students who will travel to the East Jefferson Fire and Rescue training grounds to learn about the Forensic Aspects of Fire Investigations. Students rotate through stations with Fire Science professionals where they learn the specialized techniques of evidence collection in cases of fire.  Students investigate, first-hand, an 8'x8'x8' "burn cell" fire, constructed from materials partially funded by Hadlock Building Supply.  Students will have an increased understanding of fire science and fire investigation as well as increased knowledge of professions related to fire investigations.

Weight Room Transformation