Daring Innovation Grants

 

Pictured Individuals

 

Top Row: Meghan Ahern, Ashley Antony, Rebecca Austin, Michelle Bastiani, Yon Choi, Alyssa Clarke, Nicole Collins, Justina Doll, Amy Elliott

 

2nd Row: Elissa Gong, Alicia Harris, Neal Hausmann, Erin Jaffe, Kim Jansen, Jennifer Kahn, Paul Karnstedt, Karen Kym, Alice Leafblad

 

3rd Row: Adam Lueken, Jenna Manz, Wendy Meister-Louria, Brian Miller, Simone Oslage, Rebecca Pike de Oliveria, Danielle Rogner, Jason Rush, Jan Sancho

 

Bottom Row: Marci Simmons, Julie Smith, Benjamin Stepen, Mary Todoric, Kaydee Wasserman, Kimberly Weinberg, Shawn Woodie, Sara Zaher

 

2023-2024 DARING Innovation Grant Summaries

 

Abilities in Bloom Through Vocational Consumer Education

• Description: Funds a sustainable greenhouse for students in the Vocational Consumer Education course, helping develop vocational, consumer, and independent living skills through hands-on experience.

• Funding: $2,000

• School & Department: LHS - Special Education

• Grant Recipient: Alice Leafblad

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Amplifying D128 Voices: Empowering Student Storytellers with Class Intercom

• Description: Provides Class Intercom, a platform for students and staff to share stories and contribute to the district’s social media presence while honing digital citizenship and communication skills.

• Funding: $2,195

• School & Department: District Office

• Grant Recipient: Mary Todoric

 

Butler Lake Science Day

• Description: Establishes an annual scientific data collection event where students collaborate with scientists to assess Butler Lake’s health using water quality and ecological indicators.

• Funding: $2,500

• School & Department: LHS - Science

• Grant Recipient: Jennifer Kahn

 

Chemistry in Our Lives

• Description: Enables students to test household solutions for conductivity, solubility, and molarity, deepening their understanding of chemistry in everyday life.

• Funding: $950

• School & Department: VHHS - Science

• Grant Recipients: Nicole Collins, Yon Choi, Sara Zaher

 

Differentiation that Makes a Difference

• Description: Funds a Diffit site license, an AI-powered tool for adapting content to various reading levels and languages, supporting multilingual learners and differentiated instruction.

• Funding: $2,500

• School & Department: VHHS - EL, Physical Welfare, Social Studies

• Grant Recipients: Michelle Bastiani, Elissa Gong, Wendy Meister-Louria, Rebecca Pike de Oliveira, Julie Smith, Benjamin Stepen, Shawn Woodie

 

Food in the Chemistry Classroom

• Description: Integrates cooking experiments into chemistry lessons, such as altering flour properties in bread, making cheese by modifying acidity, and kneading dough to explore intermolecular forces.

• Funding: $1,245.50

• School & Department: LHS - Science

• Grant Recipient: Paul Karnstedt

 

Functional Literacy: Math and Life Skills through Service Learning in a Global Community

• Description: Students apply functional literacy and math skills to service learning, selecting and supporting community organizations through hands-on projects.

• Funding: $2,500

• School & Department: LHS - Special Services

• Grant Recipients: Meghan Ahern, Kim Jansen, Simone Oslage, Jenna Manz, Alice Leafblad

 

“Getting to Know You” | Getting Students to Sequence DNA

• Description: Provides lab materials for students to sequence DNA from a mushroom and themselves, learning about genetic identification and evolutionary relatedness.

• Funding: $2,500

• School & Department: VHHS - Science

• Grant Recipient: Amy Elliott

 

Light Up the Dance Floor: A Collaborative Project on Fashion, Engineering, Dance, and Programming

• Description: Integrates fashion design, electrical engineering, dance, and coding to create lighted outfits synchronized with choreographed dance performances.

• Funding: $2,500

• School & Department: VHHS - Interdisciplinary

• Grant Recipients: Adam Lueken, Erin Jaffe, Jan Sancho, Brian Miller, Jason Rush

 

Multipurpose Functional Skills Lab

• Description: Establishes a functional skills lab for students in Special Education to develop vocational and independent living skills.

• Funding: $2,187.97

• School & Department: VHHS - Special Services

• Grant Recipients: Rebecca Austin, Kaydee Wasserman, Danielle Rogner

 

NueLog Environmental Science Probes

• Description: Provides environmental science probes for water quality, agriculture, and atmospheric science testing, enabling students to collect data in the field.

• Funding: $2,414.40

• School & Department: VHHS - Science

• Grant Recipient: Alyssa Clarke

 

PASCO - Human Eye Model

• Description: Allows students to experiment with lenses to understand normal vision, farsightedness, nearsightedness, and astigmatism.

• Funding: $199

• School & Department: VHHS - Science

• Grant Recipient: Ashley Antony

 

Proteomics: The Next Biotechnology Frontier

• Description: Provides lab equipment for Western Blotting, allowing students to analyze proteins using antibodies.

• Funding: $2,500

• School & Department: VHHS - Science

• Grant Recipients: Amy Elliott, Justina Doll

 

Roller Coaster Physics

• Description: Helps students explore physics concepts like energy, forces, and motion using a roller coaster apparatus.

• Funding: $2,500

• School & Department: VHHS - Science

• Grant Recipients: Nicole Collins, Alicia Harris, Neal Hausmann

 

Self-Regulation: Finding Calm

• Description: Funds Calm Connect, a multisensory program helping students build self-regulation strategies.

• Funding: $1,490

• School & Department: Transition Pathways - Special Services

• Grant Recipients: Marci Simmons, Kimberly Weinberg

 

World Dance Week

• Description: Engages students in cultural dance forms through instruction from renowned professionals, fostering cultural identity exploration.

• Funding: $1,600

• School & Department: VHHS - Physical Welfare

• Grant Recipient: Erin Jaffe

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Total Grants Funded for 2023-2024: $31,781.87​​

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