High School Teachers

Comment

Comment by michael baer on August 5, 2010 at 8:21am

I teach high school science in rural northeast Indiana. I am seeking full
or partial funding for a science project with a global application. Please take time to read the following and see what high school students are developing:

“Lots and lots of dots, in blue water” a seven year old described the flood victims to her mother. A friend, headmaster at a private school in rural Haiti, found his school building to be the refuge from the raging floodwaters that accompanied a hurricane in 2008. However, after three days and no sign of rescue from nearby Port-Au-Prince, several children—many HIV orphaned—sensed hopelessness, and dropped into the waters. After the waters receded, my teacher friend retrieved more than thirty student bodies in his pickup. When my high school science students asked what could be done to help, his reply: moms and their children are wearying themselves, carrying water each day from hours away, simply to survive. Thus began “Dots in Blue Water”—substituting for their science labs in chemistry, electricity, and environmental impact—a project that would develop, test, assemble, and deliver water purification units, powered by auto batteries, that could chlorinate impure water to drinkability. Each Friday thereafter, “Dots” convened in a classroom “board meeting” where students heard reports from RESEARCH, who had investigated Haiti’s ecosystems and the cause of the water pollution. DEVELOPMENT reported on their results of testing various salt concentrations, voltages, and other variables in producing chlorine gas from the electrolysis of salt water, as well as the effectiveness of killing water-borne microorganisms. Using the current prototype, students can treat 55 gallons of contaminated water to drinkability in about five minutes, and the system continues to be refined using student work. MARKETING reported its efforts in promoting the project throughout our school and community using posters, brochures, and online sites. INVESTING created giving opportunities, encouraging donors to invest in the plight of the Haitian children. The project continues this year, focused on raising funds for students and teachers to build purifier units, deliver them to Haiti, re-assemble them at various schools and villages, and train locals to operate and maintain the units by June 2011. We are also investigating an off-road Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV) that would allow one of the units to be mobile, allowing the delivery of water treatment to remote villages.

Any words of wisdom?
michael

Comment by Karolyn (KC) George on February 13, 2010 at 1:07pm

I am a high school science teacher and new to the site. Hope to find a lot of useful information here.

Comment by Karen Richmond on November 6, 2009 at 6:20am

Hi there,

New to the site... I'm a Family and Consumer Sciences teacher in Arizona, but have my elementary certificate as well. I will be checking out grants from this web site. It looks like I found a "gold mine" of sorts. My best to each of you this Friday.

P.S. My 8 year old daughter's pet rat goes by the name of Abby. I may change my photo in a bit. She's a cutie though, don't you think?

Karen

Comment by julie smith on May 14, 2009 at 3:16pm

Amanda,
Thank you for your leads, I will look into both of these asap. Any other ideas will be greatly appreciated. Again, thank you.

Sincerely appreciated,
Julie

Comment by NSTA Awards on May 14, 2009 at 8:19am

Julie,
For technology science equipment you may want to look at the Vernier Technology awards that we manage. There are three awards given annually to high school teachers. The award consists of $1000 prize, $1000 of Vernier products, and up to $1000 in travel expenses to attend the NSTA National Conference on Science Education in Philadelphia in 2010. You will also receive free registration and a free year's membership to NSTA. You do not need to be a member of NSTA to apply for the award. Many previous winners are not NSTA members.
There is another program that I do not manage that is here at NSTA the Toshiba ExplorerVision program that provides laptops as part of the award.
The link to our awards programs is www.nsta.org/awards and the deadline is November 30, 2009.
For the Toshiba program information, if you go to the main NSTA website you can find the link to that information.
You would be eligible to apply and win both, as they are different programs.
Let me know if I can further assist you.

In Regards,
Amanda Upton
Manager, NSTA Nominations and Teacher Awards Programs

Comment by julie smith on May 13, 2009 at 10:42am

Hi All,
I am a High School teacher who is located in rural northern California. Our charter school covers five counties and we have several students who are geographically challenged. Here's my question, we are currently using a college model of delivery (Blackboard) in our technology program. We are really looking to expand our technology program to not only our students but other students who would like to participate. We teach in "real time" with highly qualified teacher. Here's the problem, we need grant money and lots of it to expand our virtual high school. Does anyone know where I should begin looking?