2022 NYSCATE Grant Winners

 

Congratulations to the following ten NYSCATE members that were awarded a NYSCATE learning grant for 2022! This year's grant winners will conduct poster sessions at the 2022 Annual Conference and share out more information on their winning grant! Thank you to all that submitted a grant proposal this year!

Allison Bacon

Ossining UFSD

Mobile 3D Printer Maker Space

Adding a 3D printer station to the Library Media Center’s Maker Space to train both teachers and students to use the 3D printer. A course, co taught by the Coordinator of Instruction Technology and Library Media Specialist, will be offered for teachers to allow them access to bring the mobile 3D printer station to their classrooms. This program will provide all students and teachers in grades 6-8 to gain access to the printer, learn and develop skills related to the 3D printer, such as, design, coding, collaboration and computational thinking. This grant will allow us to purchase all of the necessary materials for this project: the 3D printer, a cart designed for the printer and multiple rolls of each color of the filament needed for printing.

Jessi Donner

Tonawanda City

STEAM meets Light and Sound

We are seeking to secure funds from this grant in order to purchase the Sphero Specdrums to further advance our STEAM program with more emphasis on the arts in elementary education. We seek to focus on bringing authentic learning experiences to our special education STEAM lessons that encourage all students to discover and explore associative (color and sound) learning. Students with visual impairments rely on their other senses like touch and hearing to create meaning in their environment and will assist students in learning tactile awareness and listening skills. These are essential skills for students and will further our inclusion of  music and art as a part of our STEAM curriculum. The Specdrums will also be used to support all core curriculum with a focus on coding through notes, rhythm and movement.

Tim Needles & Cathy Masrour

Smithtown School District

Smithtown Interdisciplinary STEAM Collaboration

The purpose of this project is to increase interdisciplinary and STEAM collaboration while infusing educational technology in project-based learning at the secondary level in our school district. The project pairs our library staff with the secondary technology integration specialist as collaboration partners to work with educators on enhancing their teaching and creating engaging learning experiences for students. The grant will be used to purchase a laser etching and engraving machine that would be used by students across the subject areas on creative interdisciplinary projects. The project will begin with a collaboration with the foreign-language teachers on transforming their reading assignments into short films created by the students featuring laser-etched wood puppets and backgrounds narrated and edited by the students in the library makerspace. This is an evolution of a project that began this year and will be extended to other subject areas beginning with English and Science while including collaboration partners from Art and Technology

Anna Langlois

Northeastern Clinton CSD

Bee Bots for Critical Thinking & More!

Through this proposal, we hope to obtain engaging and age-appropriate robots to enhance the teaching and learning process for young elementary school students (grades K-3). By integrating Bee Bot robots into lessons, students will gain access to a wide range of hands-on activities that promote critical thinking skills as well as other technical skills, such as sequencing, problem solving, and programming, while incorporating curricular content. Specifically, we hope to acquire 2 Bee Bot Hive Sets (12 total robots) as well as accessories such as alphabet mats, shapes, colors, and size mats, dice mats with dice, number lines, blank card mat, and online bee-bot lessons for more innovative lesson ideas. Students will be challenged to work cooperatively with their peers to navigate a variety of tasks encouraging communication skills, creativity, and logical reasoning. Students will use the resources during their Technology Class that they receive weekly. Also, we plan to incorporate them into our extended learning day program. Our goal is to increase the inclusion of such innovative practices in our district, and the tactile robots are an ideal introduction to them for our younger students.

Chris Regini

Half Hollow Hills Central School District

 

Light Spectrum Research For Indoor Agriculture

I hope to continue to evolve the capabilities of our agriculture research lab with this grant by equipping our learning space with indoor grow lights from SYNCE LED and an Apogee Instruments PAR meter.  These special lights will allow students to design fully customizable spectral routines delivered throughout a photoperiod. This will allow students to recreate growing conditions for plants that are native to almost any terrestrial environment.  Student researchers can create lighting algorithms that emulate the frequencies delivered to crops as the sun rises and sets throughout the day.  They can even experiment with spectra that are emitted from various forms of artificial light sources such as High Pressure Sodium (HPS) or Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH).  Students will interface crops growing under these lights with a data logging PAR meter from Apogee Instruments that will allow them to observe the photosynthetic active radiation in the lighting conditions they design. Students will be able to extract these readings as CSV files to be analyzed with scientific computing libraries in the Python programming language. This will facilitate independent research projects that can be applied to better understand how to recreate conditions that optimize the growth of various crops in extraterrestrial indoor growing environments. Threading industry-standard technology and data collection into our agricultural curriculum is essential to allowing students to understand how to make the process of growing food more efficient. We are creating a full-time high school elective course centered around AgTech, scientific computing, and engineering practices to better understand growing food in space.

Julie Parsons

Greece CSD

Prekindergarten Sphero Indo Opportunity

As Early Childhood educators, we are committed to providing children with authentic, experiential and engaging learning experiences that are grounded in play. Through play, children have the opportunities to explore, create, pretend, imagine, and use trial and error to figure out a task or problem.  Through targeted play-based learning experiences, students are continually practicing critical 21st century skills including, but not limited to, collaboration with teams through project-based activities and emphasizing activities that focus on solving unstructured problems. Through this grant project, students will have the opportunity to be engrossed in additional imaginative play-based learning through the use of Sphero indi Robots which will empower our earliest learners to design and build their own paths while practicing critical 21st century problem-solving and computational thinking skills. The intent of the grant is to purchase one Sphero indi Education Robot Class Pack and six additional Sphero indi Educational Robot Student Kits to be used in our Universal Prekindergarten classrooms. These Sphero indi cars will be able to be used on a rotation basis by all of our Universal Prekindergarten students. Funding of this grant will provide equity of access to encourage exploration, imagination, and perseverance and empower all of our learners of all backgrounds and abilities to be equipped with the 21st century skills they need to be the world’s future leaders.  

Alyssa Arroyo

Yorktown CSD

Supporting CS & DF in K-1 with Kibo Robots

This grant project will support our district in expanding our integration of NYS Computer Science and Digital Fluency standards in K-1 Classrooms across two elementary buildings by providing an equitable experience for students to explore computer science, robotics, computational thinking, design thinking, the Four Cs, and so much more. At the Yorktown Central School District we are focused on transforming learning through the integration of eSTEAM. This means that our programs are developed in order to support our students in becoming global citizens who use empathy to create concrete solutions to real world problems with an interdisciplinary lens. These 5 kits will provide a critical low tech option that enables students to interact with both hardware and software without the use of a screen and permits teachers to utilize these tools and concepts to connect to classroom learning goals. Lessons and their related activities will be carried out across both elementary school buildings in our district within K and 1 classrooms.

Michele DiMarco

Wappingers CSD

Math, Science, and Robotics

Our grant project is the continued addition of KOOV robotic kit(s) in our classroom. Last year, our classroom was awarded a KOOV Classroom Set through NYSCATE’s grant process and the addition of the robotics kit has been a great success. In our 5th grade classroom, we operate from a STEM mindset and have an ever-growing KOOV Robotics station that supports  Math, Science. And SEL (Social Emotional Learning) through  the ever important aspects of opportunity and equity. The robotics station will be used as a constant in each Math and Science unit with citizenship, justice and human rights undertones. In both our Math and Science class, we have a PBL (Project Based Learning) mini-project that students participate in. The KOOV resource will allow students to create and improve on real-life models such as, “space nets” to collect space debris, or creating sound based code as a message for the hearing impaired.

Nicholas Kiser

Newfane Central School District

STEAM Resource Room

Our middle school has a vision of a STEAM Resource Room for students to work in and use as a space for innovation. This would be supervised by a staff member but the intention is to give students a space to freely create and explore all the STEAM-related resources available to them without a strict guideline of a curriculum or standards. (think: a Montessori STEAM room) Our district is currently experiencing a ‘renaissance’ when it comes to technology in schools and we would like to have a room at our middle school for students to innovate and create. Stakeholders in the program will include our principal, technology integrator, STEAM teacher, art teacher, technology teacher, and school counselor. With our teachers, we see this room serving as an extension to their curriculum and for our counselors we hope to use this as a positive behavior intervention for students that are technology driven but struggle to follow expectations in the classroom.

Dawn Sullin

Utica Academy of Science Elementary School

Empowering Student Learning through Digital Presentations

The grant will be used to purchase a Padcaster starter kit, IPad, and a green screen to be used for a third-grade science project. The project would require students to research the climate of an assigned region to determine the expected weather conditions in that region during a specified time period. Students will work collaboratively to create a fictitious forecast for the region and create a weather report based on their findings using the Pastcaster equipment. The equipment will also be used for similar projects based on learning standards for kindergarten through sixth grade. Additionally, students in fifth-grade will create live broadcasts to replace morning announcements. These broadcasts will be shown throughout the classrooms in our school. The Padcaster equipment will give students the opportunity to use technology in a way that is innovative, creative, and engaging while collaborating on projects with peers.

Prior Grant Winners

2021

Christina O'Malley Akron Middle School Physical Computing:  Foundations to Robotics

Aaron Straus Salamanca City SD Drone Inspections & Agricultural Land Management

Sarah Robinson Mount Markham CSD Using Technology to Understand the Universe

Janet Matthews & Mary Knopp Mount Pleasant CSD Empowering Girls:  Females Face the Future 

Amy Balling Lancaster CSD Rubik's Cubes to Build Community for Remote and Hybrid Students

Heather Bermingham Lockport City SD Stop Motion Storytellers

Barbara Procario Wappingers CSD Cultivating Curiosity Through Digital Design

2020

Chris Regini Half Hollow Hills CSD Innovating Agriculture Through Food Computers

Thomas Cork Susan E. Wagner High School Accelerated Biology: Turning a challenge into an opportunity

Anne Mlod & Victoria Calarco Auburn Enlarged City SD Engineering Brightness-Empowering Students to Make a Difference 

Heather Bermingham REACH Academy Charter School Harnessing the Wind

2019

Aaron Burke Beacon City SD Coding Drones

Mary Howard Grand Island CSD Cardboard Creations with Hummingbird Circuits

Karen Monaco Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda SD Autographical Portfolios-Beyond the Word Processor

Margaux Delgiudice-Calemmo Garden City High School 3D Printer to Support the Creation of a Collaborative "Maker Club"

Walter Fishon & Laura Moakley Bay Shore High School Humanities:  Cross-Curricular Exploration using VR 

Jennifer Hatfield & Khrista Tabak Depew High School Engraving our Path to Innovation

Tammy Cummings Center for Instruction Technology & Innovation Can you fit in a box?

Shannon Sauder Southwestern Central SD Rethinking the Elementary Sandbox with AR

Shawn Christman Cheektowaga Central SD Unfathomable Field Trip

2018

Jessica Kearns Pearl River Middle School Make Storytelling a Cinch with a Robotic Finch!

Sheri McNair Highland Falls/Ft. Montgomery CSD Can We Fix it?  Yes We Can!

Todd Shuskey Perry High School Using DNA barcoding to identify the fish of Silver Lake

Cassandra Horton Wappingers CSD Coding with Robotics

Amy Balling Lancaster CSD Everyone Can Code

Dominick Dimperio Oneonta CSD Rap Composition

Joseph D'Amato Depew UFSD Student investigations in Thermal energy and Force through STEAM integration

Marybeth Diggins Hamburg CSD STEAM in the Primary Classroom

Caitlin McCabe Wappingers CSD Build Class: Teachers and Students Build a 3D Printer and a Learning Community

2017

Timothy Dawkins South Glens Falls SD Mini Projectors for Multiple points of projection

Bryan Van Vliet Saugerties CSD Programming Autonomous Robotic Control

Scott Reichert Anna S. Kuhl School Lights! Camera! Stop!

Marc Hunt Erie 1 BOCES VR Digital Storytelling

Benjamin Rudd Hilton CSD It Takes a Village-3D Printing

Claudia Abate Mt. Pleasant CSD 3D Printing Cuts Across the Curriculum

Stefani Trapani Highland High School Creative Technologies in the Classroom

Ryan Bane Hamilton Central SD Creating Connections:  Cultural Exploration to Digital Development

2016

Mary Anne Milano Voorheesville CSD Elementary Robotics, Coding and Playing with Sphero SPRK

Tammy Cummings Center for Instructional Technology Monkey Bot Sparks Ideas

Jennifer Hessletine Malone CSD Going Green with a Food Computer-A Project with MIT OpenAg Initiative

Corey Flynn Potsdam CSD Supporting STEAM with 3D Scanning and Printing

Andrew Nikola Wappingers CSD Working Collaboratively to Create, Invent, Tinker and Share

Julia Hannibal William Floyd CSD Computers:  Learn What They Can do From the Inside Out

Jeff Wekar & Macy Fountain Indian River SD Explore IOT with Pi:  Using Raspberry Pi and GrovePi Kits to Invent for the Internet of Things

2015

Jeff Wekar & Macy Fountain Indian River SD Take a Bite Out of Pi: Using Raspberry Pi Kits to Teach Students Computer Coding

Maria Mullbauer Yorkshire Computer Coding and World Launguage

Ellen Harp Brighton CSD Young Global Citizens use STEM Rockets to Aid Nations in Crisis

Cassandra Horton Wappingers CSD Empowering At-Risk Students in a Blended Learning Lab

Amanda Pacanowski Fredonia CSD Enhancing Student Learning with iPads

2014

Joanne Lotter Fredonia CSD Hands-on Healthy Learning Using iPads and Apple TV

Megan Cernaro Palermo Elementary Connecting DIY and Literacy

Jeff Salerno Lakeshore CSD Physics with Video Analysis

Aaron Pascucci Urban Choice Charter School 3rd Grade Chromebook Pilot

Jesse Fitzgerald Niskayuna CSD The Portable Math and Science Lab-Chromebooks and Vernier Labquest 2

Jennifer Kibler Parkdale Elementary iPad Partner Power

2013

Lucia Guarnieri Gustavus Adolphus Learning Center Using iPads with struggling readers to improve reading fluency and comprehension

Jeffrey Clark Cheektowaga Sloan UFSD Game-Based Learning in the Classroom

Laurel Chiesa Fayetteville-Manlius CSD Movin' Your Bod with the iPod

Nedra Isenberg Holland Patent CSD Growing Readers with a Healthy Mix of Daily 5, Cafe and iPads

Ronald Kotlik Clarence CSD Google Chromebook Flipped Classroom Becomes a History Lab

2012

Padraic McCarthy Port Jervis CSD "RED" Hot Technology in the Science Classroom

Kristen Howlett & Julianne Chamberlin Clarence CSD Authentic Scientific Experiences in the Middle School Classroom

Laura Graceffa Poughkeepsie Day School Enhancing Student Collaboration and Communication with Mobile Projection Technology Using Apple TV & iPads

Nicholas Lawrence East Bronx Academy for the Future Intercontinental Arguments-The Just War Ning