By Magdalena Narozniak

For the first time, the UConn Early College Experience offered Small Grants for Classroom and Program

Development to our high school partners. The office set aside $10,000 for the UConn ECE community available to high school instructors through a competitive grant process. The purpose of the grants is to

create an opportunity for classroom and community development for a UConn ECE course. The classroom grant can be used for books, technology, equipment or other materials that enable students to learn the subject matter or skills. Community grants may include projects that have a large impact on the surrounding community, including projects that eliminate an eyesore, make communities healthier, or foster creativity. Applications must have the support of students, principals, and UConn faculty coordinators.

The office received fifteen incredibly competitive applications from schools all over Connecticut. Applicants sought funds for textbooks and advanced pieces of equipment like Spectrophotometers, miniPCRs, and a theremin, campus visits, and a series of nationally recognized speakers. Projects for the community included community gardens, a butterfly sanctuary, a project targeting the hygiene of young impoverished women, and a solar panel system. Out of these incredible proposals, six winners were fully funded and two applications were partially funded.

Among them:

William Schultz and several other instructors of Enfield High School applied for the purchase of a solar

panel system and additional physical outputs to be used in the classroom and in community outreach events for demonstrations and experiments relating to renewable energy conversations. Experiments will include electrical, chemical, and mechanical energy conversions in the UConn ECE Chemistry, Biology, Environmental Science and Physics courses.

April Kelley of Laurelton Hall at Academy of Our Lady of Mercy applied for funds to build a hoop-

style greenhouse in the corner of the campus designated for green learning. The intention is to use the greenhouse as an outdoor classroom, to let students participate in a farm-to-table experience and to allow community gardening, fostering stronger ties between students and senior citizens living in the senior complex next door. Students of UConn ECE Environmental Science will construct the greenhouse.

Lisa-Brit Walhberg and Sarah King of the Master’s School proposed a collaborative community-based learning project designed to address the psychosocial effects of war and resettlement on refugees in Connecticut. UConn ECE Political Science and English students will be instructed in journal making, journal writing, and art activities to foster and develop global citizenship, social justice and diverse cultural awareness. Students will be trained through IRIS (Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services) of New Haven about the Syrian crisis and plan community activities involving Syrian refugees.