Featured Grants

Tim Lundt received two TAF grants in the last five years.  He used these grants to help high school students at an alternative high school reengage with the science curriculum and begin to understand how success in the science classroom can translate into success after graduation.  Mr. Lundt describes his work below.  

In 2004 our grant entitled “Documentation of Changes In Luminosity of Semi-Regular Variable Stars From High Declination Using CCD Imagery” was funded and the work began.  Forty students invested many hours at Stargate Observatory located at Burchell High School in Wasilla, Alaska working with the telescope and CCD camera to get the images of the semi-regular stars we needed.  Often the weather didn’t cooperate.  Either the clouds were moving, or the wind or temperature would force us to close early.  But that is Alaska, unpredictable. 

As I reflect, the students who participated in the research project all improved their skills in science and technology, were academically successful, and increased their self-esteem.  This is especially true of the three girls who spent many hours working with me at Stargate Observatory and conducting research at Kitt Peak Observatory in Tucson, Arizona.  Each of these girls weren’t successful at the “traditional” high school and had to overcome many obstacles just to attend high school daily.

Student A graduated from high school in the spring of 2006.  She has been attending University of Alaska, Anchorage, where she has volunteered over 80 hours in the OR and plans to become a surgeon.  

Student B graduated from high school in the summer of 2006 and currently works in a food distributor business where she has worked full time for the past 3.5 years.  This job allowed her to move out of her home after her junior year in high school into a more stable environment.  Her future plans include going to college and getting a degree in computer information. 

Student C graduated from high school in the fall of 2007 then became a part-time student at Mat-Su Community College in the spring of 2007.  She moved to Anchorage, found a job and took the fall semester off.  In January, she will be attending University of Alaska, Anchorage where she will become a medical assistant.

All three of these young women have taken different paths in life, but who is to say which path is the right.  All I can say is that these young women had a very positive experience, learned how to conduct research, took on responsibilities, met deadlines, and set records while improving their self-esteem and it appears they still are.  Their work on the star Z uma was published in the 2006 Research Based Science Education (RBSE) Journal.

Nancy Rehwoldt has received several TAF mini-grants over the years. She has used these grants to help her sixth grade students in Satellite Beach, Florida understand the connection between their everyday world and the world of scientific exploration.   Ms. Rehwoldt describes an alternative energy project below.

We began our energy studies with a student-generated list of concerns regarding our environment and its limitations. Since we live only a few blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, my students are familiar with the problems of beach erosion caused by hurricanes and storms. Because our island school and homes are only eight feet above sea level, students are also concerned about global warming and the possibility of rising ocean levels. Through this discussion, my students were introduced to the idea that the study of renewable energy resources is exciting and necessary.  

We started with the construction of solar ovens.  Each group of four students constructed and tested their own insulated solar box cookers. I developed a lab activity whereby students tested the angle of the sun as a variable and related it to the internal oven temperature. Later the students used what they learned about sun angle and oven angles to compete—they worked to make the hottest oven for melting chocolate kisses! 

We purchased a commercial solar oven and researched places in the world where this type of cooking is saving forest resources as well as the human resource of time. Students were interested to learn that women in many countries are using the solar cooking method and it is changing their lives.  

We concluded our solar cooking lessons with a feast of hot dogs, baked beans, baked potatoes, nachos, chocolate chip cookies and S'mores - all cooked by the sun!   Another solar activity was the building of cars powered by solar panels. After building, we held races with our tiny solar-powered racecars.   

In addition to the solar projects, we experimented with a hydrogen-powered rocket kit.  The converter creates hydrogen and oxygen from water.  The igniter creates a spark and the rocket launches! That was an amazing sight to see. Before we launched our rocket, I thought it was important for the students to observe first hand the process of electrolysis through which water is converted to two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. 

We had a guest speaker come to our classroom from Florida Tech University.  At Florida Tech they are working on ideas for using hydrogen power in a safe and efficient manner. It was interesting to make the connection between our classroom experiments and the real world applications that soon may be available for our daily use.

Because of this project, I believe my students have developed a true sense of caring for the planet. We extended this mind-set into several community-based activities which are environmentally related:  Beach clean-up, campus clean-up, school and office paper recycling, (over 2,000 pounds) and telephone book recycling (1,048 books). I hope these classroom experiences will help my students see the importance of using scientific reasoning to become life-long stewards of our earth's resources.

Located in a mountain valley, Missoula, Montana suffers from an extraordinary amount of air pollution for a region usually known for the beauty of its natural resources.  Big Sky High School's Dave Jones challenged his students to learn more about the air quality problem and to share what they learned with their community.  Mr. Jones reports on their efforts.

The link between air quality and asthma is a significant environmental health concern in Missoula , MT , where severe temperature inversions occur frequently in winter. Under the direction of Dave Jones, Big Sky High School chemistry classes conduct atmospheric chemistry research to investigate the relationship between the incidence of asthma and the levels major air pollutants groups.  The classes measure both indoor and outdoor air at the individual homes of students. Each site is sampled for twelve-hour periods at least three times, with samples collected in fall, winter, and spring.   Two computer-interfaced instruments are used to collect the data: a Gas Chromatograph/ Mass Spectrometer (GC/MS) and a hand-held Global Positioning System unit.  The resulting data will be used by the local health department to identify air pollution hot spots in the Missoula Valley , and will also tie into a larger environmental public health tracking system being developed at The University of Montana by the Center for Environmental Health Sciences (CEHS).

Developed between Big Sky High School and The University of Montana the Air Toxics under the Big Sky model is used as a tool to provide a multilayered research experience for high school science students. High school science students bring air sampling equipment to their homes to simultaneously measure indoor and outdoor concentrations of selected air toxics.  The samples are analyzed and the results provided back to the high school students.  At the end of the school year, students present their findings to the academic and public health communities at a formal scientific forum held at The University of Montana.

There are many benefits to this program, both to the participating high schools and to researchers at The University of Montana.  Students are encouraged to collaborate with scientists from The University of Montana and the Missoula City/County Health Department to interpret their data.   The science and chemistry teachers participating in this program can incorporate this research program into their course curriculum as a teaching tool.  Finally, students have contact with active professional researchers while studying a “real world” issue, in hopes they will choose a science oriented career path.

The Air Toxics project has completed its third year and is now in its fourth.  Initially, a high school junior designed a study to sample volatile pollutants at the homes of 14 classmates during the 2003/2004 academic year.  The investigation constituted the student’s topic for his Applied Problems in Science (independent research) course at Big Sky High School .  Given the success and feasibility of the pilot study, the project expanded to two additional area high schools and a tribal college during 2004/2005.  This involved a total of 69 high school and tribal college student research partners.  Student participation rose to more than 80 students in 2005/2006 academic year.  We see this as a long-term project that will be built upon and expanded by future students during each new school year, and as new schools are added.  This model will foster a long-term scientific collaboration between The University of Montana, Montana high schools and tribal colleges, and establish students as regular and valuable contributors to the scientific community while exposing them to environmental issues involving chemistry, science, and health.

Mt. Lebanon High School in Pittsburgh, PA, received a grant in the 2005 – 2006 school year and a follow-up grant in the 2006 – 2007 school year from the Toshiba America Foundation to study the water quality at a local lake. Chemistry teacher, Nick Salvo , described the project and the impact on student interest in chemistry.

In the fall of 2005, one of the owners of a privately owned lake in the district contacted our high school. She was worried about the pollution levels in the lake and contacted the high school to see if students would or could help.

Two groups of students, Mr. Nick Salvo  ’s Academic and Honors Chemistry students and Mrs. Jen Cramer’s AP Environmental Science students, were eager to help.

When we first went to the lake, we had no idea what to expect. Many of the students were excited – but they were more excited about getting out of the school building than studying something like chemistry – an abstract science that many of them did not feel connected to.

After the very first visit, though, students were voluntarily staying late, sometimes as late as 7:00 pm on a Friday evening , to perform additional tests on the water quality! The students became excited about more than just getting out of the building – they became excited as they realized how they could use chemistry to make a difference in the community. Hannah S., an Honors Chemistry student, said that the project “feels like I am doing real-world chemistry.”

Not only did the students become enthralled with trying to make a difference, but also the lake owners were del ighted with the students’ involvement. Over the span of about two months, chemistry students performed 17 different water quality tests while the environmental science students performed nine tests. Additionally, students were able to use their various talents as they created websites, wrote PR releases, and recorded video documentaries of the project. In the analysis of the data, we were able to identify and quantify the amount of pollution coming into the lake from the main pollution source. Based upon this new knowledge, the community is starting to take action to rectify the problem.

In this second year of the project, we are again eagerly collaborating with the Toshiba America Foundation to monitor the water quality for changes over time and to bring an additional 100 environmental science students from Mrs. Lisa Hoover ’s classroom onboard.

This project has had a profound influence on the culture of the science students in the high school. Before this project, very little technology existed in the chemistry laboratories at the school. Once the other teachers saw how excited the students were to be using the handheld probes both in the field and in the lab, the technology was made available department-wide. Additionally, many students did not see the real-world applications of classroom learning. Now, they feel that they can make a difference and are eagerly awaiting the spring to continue the studies.

In fact, when Mr. Salvo’s students found out that he was going to be replaced by a permanent substitute for the second semester of this school year to work on a State technology initiative, his students were not worried about missing his lectures, quizzes, labs, or tests. Rather, they were worried that they would not be able to continue the project. They were so excited about continuing the work from last year that they were upset. Luckily, the parameters of the State initiative will allow Mr. Salvo to work with his students on the project. Such student concern about a school activity really demonstrates how seriously they take the project and how much of an impact such a project-based, authentic learning tool can have on students.

Main Street Intermediate School located in Norwalk, OH received a grant from TAF.  Fifth grade teacher Kathy Gill shares her thoughts about what her students learned.

The grant from Toshiba America Foundation dramatically changed my classroom.  My project, “Diving into Ecosystems”, enabled my classroom to transform from one of infrequent hands-on activities to one with students working with real live ecosystems every single day.  Previously, we studied from books about the factors that create a healthy ecosystem. This year, my students really had to take them into consideration when building and maintaining the ecosystem kits. 

Seeing real food chains in action was exciting for the students.  It was especially evident in the river ecosystem which was home to live land and water plants, fire-belly toads, newts, fiddler crabs, an electric blue crayfish, a dwarf amphibian frog, and some feeder fish. The crayfish ate the plants, dead fish, and dead crickets. We saw the crabs snatch up feeder fish and gobble up crickets.  Crickets were the only food source for the toads which pounced on them as soon as they were dropped into the aquarium tank.  We had problems, though finding any food that the newts would eat.  Therefore, one died.  It was good to see students taking it in stride by realizing that death does occur if the needs of organisms aren’t met. Students also observed how creatures use camouflage techniques to hide from predators, too.

Overall, it was obvious that my students acquired a greater understanding of “the big picture” when studying ecosystems.  This would not have happened without the funds to purchase these materials.  I simply can’t stress enough how having the responsibility of creating and maintaining the ecosystems on a daily basis stretched their personal experiences and improved their scientific skills of observation, measuring, analyzing and evaluating.  All of the cooperative activities helped build our classroom into a community of young scientists that all did their part to keep our ecosystems healthy.

In September 2006, Toshiba America Foundation's Board completed the second phase of Toshiba's Gulf  Coast recovery giving with grants totaling $551,000.  These grants were directed towards rebuilding efforts at Gulf Coast schools and youth organizations, including a grant to assist displaced students who are now attending Houston public schools.  Recipients included: The New Orleans Science and Math Charter High School (LA), New Schools for New Orleans (LA), The Foundation for the Mid-South's Hurricane Recovery Fund (MS) and the Spring Branch Education Foundation (TX).  

Immaculate Conception Academy located in San Francisco , CA received a grant this past spring from TAF. High School Physics teacher, Laurel Reitman, shares her reflections about this wonderful and exciting project.
 

ICA's Mini Bumper Car Project Summary

“OMG!  I’M SO EXCITED!  So today I actually hooked up the wires that connect the toggle switches to the motor and soldered them together.  [Teachers who stopped by] all tried ‘driving’ our car… Today was extremely successful.”
                                                                                                                              
                                                                                              -- Islam H., physics student

For six weeks this spring, Laurel Reitman’s physics class became an engineering lab.  Students designed and built tethered miniature bumper cars to compete in Immaculate Conception Academy’s First Annual Bumper Car Competition.  Young women who had never hammered a nail before learned to solder, drill and saw.  They argued over designs, learned to troubleshoot problem circuits, and built a working car from scratch.   

The Toshiba America Foundation grant provided funds for the bumper car materials as well as the lab equipment necessary for teaching relevant principles.  Students practiced their problem-solving skills in early labs, using new motion detectors and data-collection devices to calibrate a spring scale and track movement in collisions.  They learned to predict and measure all aspects of the complex circuits they built.  As the competition approached, students had to pass a series of oral quizzes that earned them the components of their cars.  For example, to earn their gears, students determined the rules of gear ratios and torque by experiment.  To earn their motors, students used the right-hand rule and models to explain why an electric motor spins.

During the building phase, Ms. Reitman noticed a palpable difference in the classroom atmosphere.   Although students had been always been agreeable about working, now they demanded to get started as soon as they entered the room.  Their confidence in their abilities grew: they were eager to show each other how to overcome design problems; they reported showing off their new skills to their fathers; and some realized they had a previously unsuspected knack for things mechanical.  As one student said, “I know that no matter what happens, [we] will be proud of each other because, come on, WE BUILT A CAR!”

When the day of the competition finally arrived, the atmosphere in the auditorium was electric.  Students cheered for a fox-shaped car as it raced to trap ping pong balls in its mouth and deliver them to the goal.  They laughed as another car demonstrated its “hydraulics,” pushing its front end off the ground and spinning around on its scoop.  But most exciting, the ninth graders in the audience told Ms. Reitman that they had some ideas for their car when they took physics senior year.  The project had succeeded in getting young women to start realizing their potential as engineers.

Toshiba America Foundation tips its hat to Steve Pellegrini, a science teacher at Yerington High School in Yerington, Nevada. Pellegrini discovered that his own interest in biotechnology and DNA research could stimulated his students and the community to champion the study of a possibly endangered local bird.

Pellegrini’s students compared the DNA of isolated populations of sage grouse in their part of Nevada to determine if these birds were part of a genetically distinct variety of Southern Sage Grouse. The next goal was to compare the geographic parameters of this sage grouse vs. its northern neighbors, the Northern Sage Grouse. The project bloomed into an exciting lesson on DNA and what understanding its properties means to all of us.

The sage grouse project had many positive effects on the school and community. Students from academically disparate parts of the class came together for the project’s success. Pellegrini noticed students who were not particularly motivated in science began to assume leadership roles through this project. University researchers, local environmental professionals and faculty from other departments at the high school, also cooperated and devoted their energies to helping students collect and analyze data for the sage grouse project. As a result of all this teamwork and effort, students at Yerington High School now view science as an accessible subject in which they can achieve important results. Some students now see careers in biology and related fields as viable options.

Pellegrini says, "DNA rivets kids. Protocols rivet kids. They know that DNA is important and it rivets them, if you can give examples and tell first-hand about how extracting DNA might in some way restore extinct species or be used to cure disease. They know we are practitioners." This project brought together the study of environmental science and molecular biology. Students examined policy related to the protection of the sage grouse population. Students were motivated because their data mattered to the local community and helped area researchers to increase understanding of the sage grouse’s genetic make-up, behaviors and habitat.

In addition, Pellegrini challenged students to take on independent study projects based on their new knowledge in topics ranging from a study of the DNA of Nevada’s wild horses to further investigation of the population density of the sage grouse in Nevada. Pellegrini even had a local rancher invite the class to study changes in feeding patterns of the sage grouse related to alterations in the ranch’s irrigation system. Pellegrini summed up the experience by saying, "This, for me, is the best teaching has ever been."

Neither barns nor owls are common features of the cityscape in Camden, New Jersey. But for 100 students in the sixth grade at Camden’s Promise Charter School, barn owls and their habitat are now very familiar.

The Camden’s Promise students learned that barn owls were given that name because they are cavity nesters. These distinctive looking birds with the wide open faces and dark eyes like to build their nests and nurture their young in narrow nooks and dark places, such as old barns or tree cavities. The owls seek out these nesting places when the grassy fields where they hunt for prey are no longer available.

Using her Toshiba America Foundation grant, Lana Garris led her students and colleagues in a study of the effects of urban sprawl on Barn Owls in South Jersey. In addition to learning about the challenges affecting owl habitat in New Jersey, students became part of the solution by building their own owl "nesting" boxes. Six teachers worked together to incorporate elements from language arts and social studies into the project. Math skills were a particular focus as students figured out how to turn piles of two-by-fours and nails into the cozy owl boxes on their teacher’s blueprints. Each of the six participating classes used its science lab period to work on the project.

Students spent time at New Jersey’s Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, where the staff led them on nature trails and investigations related to owl nesting and breeding patterns. Exploring an owl habitat proved rewarding. According to Ms. Garris, "When we were walking around, the students seemed to be pointing out everything, any little thing they were noticing. It was really exciting."

As a culminating event, students donated their completed owl boxes to the wildlife refuge to augment its active program of barn owl restoration. At Back-to- School Night, students eagerly presented information about their barn owl restoration project to parents and friends.