7-12 Grants

Funded projects in grades 7-12 provide students with the opportunity to "do science" in new ways that promise to increase their engagement with the subject matter and improve their learning.

April 2007 - March 2008

A complete list of grants from 2007 is provided below, along with descriptions of several exceptional projects.

Mat-Su Career & Technical High School (Wasilla, AK) 

$10,790 will enable students to conduct a field-based research project that will develop baseline data on the emergence of tree buds as an indicator of climate change.  By monitoring the times at which local plants produce leaves and flowers each year, students will gain insight into changing climate conditions and its effect on local ecosystems.  Students will work with local experts to incorporate their findings into the community's environmental stewardship plans.

Madeira Beach Middle School (Madeira Beach, FL) 

$8,960 will help students hone their math and science skills while exploring the marine environment near their school.  Students will use state of the art technology to track changes in the marine environment due to various elements including time, season, changing tides, and pollution.  They will also work with Tampa Bay Watch to monitor oyster domes that were installed as part of an ongoing school project to rebuild nearby coral reefs.

Warrenton High School (Warrenton, OR) 

$15,000 will enable students to rear salmon, track their migration patterns, and measure their effects on a local river ecosystem. Students will develop specific programs related to salmon hatching, nurturing, and growth, with the ultimate goal of restoring a native salmon run to the Skipanon River.

Divine Child High School (Dearborn, MI) 

$9,560 will enable students to learn core concepts of physics and how they relate to various sporting activities.  Students will create inquiry-based projects about the role that motion, force, momentum, energy, and other physics concepts play in baseball pitches, tennis serves, and basketball free throws.  As a culminating project, students will present their findings to their peers in the form of documentary videos.

St. Paul's School for Girls (Brooklandville, MD)

$9,450 will enable students from urban, suburban, and rural communities in the Baltimore area to team up and study the similarities and differences between their local ecologies.  Students will collect data on water quality, soil quality and biodiversity, land cover, and impervious surfaces -- all measurable indicators of environmental health -- and use their results to create trend analyses.  At the end of the year, they will present their findings at a symposium.

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