By Steve Robinson | September 28, 2010 - 10:07 pm
Posted in Category: The Normalite, Unit 5

Steve RobinsonFive teachers from Kingsley Junior High School received the very first $10,000 grant awarded by the Beyond The Books Educational Foundation in a ceremony in the school’s library Tuesday. This year, the Shirk Family Foundation, based in Bloomington, chose the Beyond The Books Foundation to administer the $10,000 grant, which would be awarded to a single recipient. This $10,000 grant was called the “Beyond The Box” Grant.

KJHS Science teachers Stacie Threlfall and Jennifer Snyder, Math teacher Keith Rice, Social Studies teacher Jennifer Ritchason, and Language Arts teacher Jennifer Snyder applied for the grant over the summer. They collectively applied for it to begin a lesson for their students about water conservation.

Threlfall, serving as the group’s spokesperson, said the group was inspired to apply for the “Beyond The Box” Grant because their students at KJHS had expressed concerns about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which happened this summer. The grant application submitted by the KJHS teachers was one of 21 the Beyond The Books Foundation received for this specific grant.

Unit 5Threlfall said the quintet applied for the grant, which was titled, “Water Is Life: Our Endangered Resource,” with the idea that they wanted to teach students about water, and try “touching as many lives as possible” in the process. So, in addition to teaching KJHS students about water and how it effects our everyday lives, the educators will be helping their students to pass along lessons to local grade school children as well. That will come in the form of KJHS students being involved in shared activities with local elementary school students.

Threlfall cited a statistic from the U. S. Geological Society that said, even though the Earth is 70 percent water, only three percent of that is fresh water. ”We really want to give our students the gift of knowledge so that they know how to take care of that three percent,” Threlfall said.

A thumbnail of the lessons ahead for the students: Sixth graders will receive basic knowledge about water. Seventh graders will learn what they can do to conserve water. Eighth graders will learn to how take what they have learned and apply it within their communities and their own lives.

Speaking for the group, Threlfel said, “We are absolutely thrilled for the opportunity that it is going to give our students, and not just our students, but also the elementary students.

Unit 5 map“And what we’re really, really hoping is that it will touch the lives of the students’ families,” Threlfel said.

The group explained that sixth graders will study the effect having water had on an ancient civilization like Ancient Egypt. This would involve students building scale models of rivers. Seventh graders will spend the year discussing why people settled near water during Colonial times. Eighth graders will study the time periods surrounding World War I, World War II, and the Depression Era, and what effect those times had for people in relation to having or not having water.

Rice said mathematics will come into play with students recording data, such as how much water they use daily, either through laundry, showers, and other household functions, and see what they can do to conserve water use at home. Students will also look at how to conserve rain water. Eighth graders will visit a water treatment plant and look at the various water sources available to the Twin Cities.

Kingsley CavaliersLaurel Straub, president of the Beyond The Books Educational Foundation, reminded those in attendance that the Foundation annually awards funding for programs “that go beyond the standard classroom experience.” Since 1992, the Foundation has awarded just over $339,000 to 497 different grants, submitted by teachers in both Normal’s School District Unit 5 and Bloomington School District 87.

On another subject, the annual “Chili Bowl” game between Normal Community High and Normal Community West High is Friday at NCHS. This will be the 16th annual event. Next week, I hope to have a little history on how the event started. NCHS holds a commanding 13-2 lead in the series since it began in 1995.

With West at 3-2, having lost to Danville last week, and NCHS, winners of their fifth straight over, last week over Champaign Centennial, remain ranked third in Class 6A. Danville head coach B. J. Luke said the Wildcats played against his team in a fashion that was, in Luke’s words, “pretty dang salty.” No doubt West head coach Darren Hess hopes his guys continue to be a little salty against their cross-town rivals on Friday night.

As for me, not too much salt please, but I do hope the chili will be nice and hot.

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