Small Grant Winners

By Nella Quasnitschka

UConn Early College Experience continues to offer Course Enhancement Grants for courses taught in partner high schools. The purpose of these grants is to create opportunities for classroom and community development for UConn ECE courses. Instructors currently teaching courses at their high school are able to submit proposals for books, technology, equipment, or other materials that enhance the subject matter taught in the classroom. Community development applications solicit funds for projects that have a large impact on the surrounding community, including plans to eliminate an eyesore, make communities healthier, or to foster creativity and research. See below for our list of this year’s winners.

Bais Yaakov of Waterbury High School Instructor: Davita Rosenbloom Course: AH 4092, ENGL 1010, ENGL 1011 Description: Books and equipment will help ensure that students receive the most out of their UConn ECE courses. Supplies such as medical equipment and textbooks to supplement the instructor’s teaching will benefit the students in these courses.	Franklin Academy Instructor: Amy Bigelow Course: STAT 1100Q Description: With the purchase of TI-84 graphing calculators all students will have access to a calculator. Having a standard calculator for all students throughout the class allow for efficient instruction as well as time allows to focus on the important concepts and analyses found in these courses.
Central High School Instructor: Jill Vital Course: CHEM 1127Q, CHEM 1128Q Description: Funds will be used to acquire equipment and needed glassware such as hot plates, pipets, Buchner funnel kits, etc. This will greatly impact the effectiveness in both the accuracy of the experiments being run in the course as well as teach students the most efficient and foundational methods of using this equipment.	Jonathan Law High School Instructor: Tracy Turcotte Course: CHEM 1127Q, CHEM 1128Q Description: Vernier digital probes will allow students to work in smaller groups when conducting experiments which allows more hands-on experience for each student. Additional hardware will allow this equipment to connect to student’s Chromebooks allowing students to integrate their technology into learning.
Central High School Instructor: Ann Trapasso Course: ENGL 1010 Description: Funds will be used towards art supplies and transportation to fully engaged with the second text they study, “Untitled 2009,” a painting of a painter by Kerry James Marshall, which is exhibited at the Yale University Art Gallery.	Miss Porter’s School Instructor: Lisa-Brit Wahlberg Course: HRTS 1007, POLS 1402 Description: Students will use statistics from UNICEF along with other sources to learn about child marriage in Mexico and methods used to end it. They will examine current methods and how cultural understanding effects these efforts. They will then look at how ending poverty could address the issue of child marriage. Ultimately, the students will organize an awareness campaign, create an online petition, and design a fundraising venture to contribute to the eradication of child marriage in Mexico.
Cromwell High School Instructor: Christina Williams Course: SPAN 3179 Description: Purchase of the Voice Thread program will be used to enhance the learning environment. The program will help students gain proficiency and confidence in both auditory and verbal aspects of the Spanish language.	New Fairfield High School Instructor: Karon McGovern Course: AMST 1201 Description: A trip to New York City will allow students who have learned about 20th Century issues for five units to walk in the footsteps of those who experienced them first hand. Students will visit places such as Ellis Island, the African Burial Ground & Memorial and more to immerse themselves in the events of that time.
E.O. Smith High School Instructor: Suzanne DasJarlais Course: HRTS 1007 Description: A performance from Looking In Theatre will be available to students from multiple courses such as UConn ECE Human Rights, Creative Writing, Social Studies, etc. This performance will illustrate local and global social issues. Students will be exposed to this in hopes that it opens dialogue about the issues students face.	Waterford High School Instructor: Diane Herr Course: NRE 1000 Description: To gather authentic data, camera traps will be used to capture images of wildlife. Students will have to use these images to quantify and sort the animals to draw meaningful conclusions from their data. This data will also be used over the span of multiple years to look for trends over the years.
E.O. Smith High School Instructor: Amy Nocton Course: SPAN 3178, SPAN 3179 Description: Students will produce a monthly podcast about equity and social justice issues. The podcast will consist of stories from community members and students. This podcast will connect students with adults who have expertise in areas of interest as well as give a creative connection with others through storytelling.	Westbrook High School Instructor: Nancy Malafronte Course: ENGL 1011 Description: Books as well as author visits will be arranged through the bookstore RJ Julia to enhance student learning about diverse cultures. With the implementation of Literature Circles students will learn about cultures including Cuba, the Middle East, and the South Pacific.
Frank Scott Bunnell High School Instructor: Kristen Record Course: PHYS 1201Q, PHYS 1202Q Description: To enhance teaching of wave phenomena, PASCO Ripple Generators and Light Sources will be purchased. This equipment will allow for better demonstration of phenomena across many inquiry labs. This equipment will also allow for small group work leading to more interactive labs.

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.

And briefly, Jan Frazier of Waterford High School received funding for the publication of a minitextbook, edited and put together by students of UConn ECE Latin. Equipment purchases of

spectrophotometers to upgrade laboratory facilities were also approved for Jane Carey Lyon of Windham High School and Sharon Geyer of Woodstock Academy. A joint application of Jennifer Gampel at Masuk High School and Jamie Cosgrove at Christian Heritage Academy for the purchase of a miniPCR and a PTC Taster Lab was also approved.

The office will be providing grants again next year. The deadline to apply will be October 15, 2017. We encourage all our schools to apply. To be eligible for a grant, applicants must be instructors of a currently running UConn ECE course and complete the entire grant application available on our website.

All projects must be completed within the school year.

Congratulations to all our winners!

We look forward to seeing the progress on the projects.

UConn ECE Magazine

Congratulations to our 2019-2020 Course Enhancement Grant Winners!

UConn ECE 2016 Small Grant Winners