2016-2017 Mini Grants

Yoga Mats

Yoga is now being offered to our Middle and High School students thanks to the grant from the Foundation to purchase 30 mats and a bin to store/carry them in.  Kim Enterline, who works in the Refocus Room of our High School, is also a yoga instructor.  She is now bringing this popular movement to our young people.  Several yoga benefits include stress management through techniques to redirect thoughts and calm the nervous system, increased concentration and focus through breathing and poses, strength building and flexibility, improved posture, stability, and balance.  Students who participate are taking a preventative role in their own physical and mental wellness.

CPR Mannequins and Supplies for Babysitting 101 Class

Our 8th-grade students who take the Babysitting 101 Course are now able to be CPR certified thanks to a grant from the Foundation to purchase CPR Mannequins, AED Trainers, Epi-Pen Trainers, First Aid Kits and Student Training Kits.  Having these training tools allows the student's hands-on experience and proper procedures to follow while babysitting and in case of a life-threatening emergency.  The students are required to pass performance evaluations and a written exam in order to become certified by the American Health and Safety Institute.

College and Career Exploration Field Trips

Thanks to a grant from the Foundation, our high school students are able to broaden and expand their ideas about college, careers and other options by creating an early exposure to post-secondary paths.  Grade 9 students visited Penn State Erie-The Behrend College where they had a hands-on experience in a chemistry lab and worked on an engineering task.  They also listened to presentations about various careers in these fields.  Grade 10 students visited Edinboro University.  Along with a campus tour, the students met with faculty and admissions counselors to talk about career paths and discuss the importance of their high school class selections and grades as they apply to college.  Grade 11 students visited Mercyhurst University where they discussed careers in Business Management, Health and Sciences, and Creative and Artistic Expression.  Students were also given a campus tour.

Field Trips

Wacom Intuos Graphic Tablets

The Foundation is proud to invest in these digital artist graphic tablets.  They will be used in the high school digital art and digital photography classes.  These professional tools will advance student craftsmanship, precision, and creativity.  This tablet creates many opportunities for the future of our digital artist programs.

Graphic Tablets

Memory Project – Drawing and Painting

The Memory Project is a charity organization that allows art teachers and students to make portraits for youth around the world who may have been neglected, lost a parent, involved with violence, or lives in extreme poverty.  This project is a great way for some of Fairview High School’s best artists to use their talents to benefit others and to show kindness.  The organization will send the art teacher both a physical print and a digital image of a child.  The art student will draw or paint that child’s portrait.  It will then be sent back to the organization where they will hand deliver the finished portrait to the child.  The art student will receive a video record of the event.  This project is meant to help these impoverished children to feel valued and important – it also allows our students to become more empathetic and aware of what life can be like outside our small town.  The Foundation is proud and excited to participate in a small act of kindness that can bring a difference to a child in another part of the world.

Drawing

High School Maker Space Project & STEM Integration

The high school library is the location of Fairview’s newest Maker Space project.   This exciting new area will provide students with many different opportunities for interactive and independent learning.  It will encourage students to collaborate, create, and explore tools and resources they may be picking up for the first time or using devices they already use in a new way.  This will include:

Robotics – Students will be learning and exploring the advancements in Drones, Robots, and programmable devices.  Students will use their I-Pads and the internet to learn through tutorials and educational resources the controls and implementation of the devices.

Programming – Students will be using new technologies such as Arduino Bean and Raspberry Pi to design and develop programming interfaces as well as robotic operations.  Students will learn through online resources to develop projects and implement/explore the new technologies.

Programming

Sound, Photo and Video Recording – This recording studio will be available to all students to conduct professional videos and voice recordings for classroom presentations.  Students will learn the fundamentals of video and audio production using professional equipment in a sound, photo, and video recording room.

Sound, Photo and Video Recording

Vinyl Graphics and Design – With this equipment students will be able to explore the newest techniques in design and technology.  They will be able to replace outdated graphics for our clubs, extra-curricular activities, and other areas of the school.

STEM Integration – Students in Science and Math classes will be utilizing STEM equipment and tools to design geodesic structures for the Maker Space.  The structures will follow tessellations and provide areas of separation for the Maker Space.  The designs will be built in the machine shop of the school.  Science and Math classes will also collaborate with STEM Projects to help integrate STEM in the Fairview High School curriculums.

Robotics STEM Integration

This grant was awarded by the Foundation to the Middle School’s technology education program.  The LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 Core Sets will be used by the 5th Grade Technology Education classes, 8th Grade Robotics classes, and after school robotics opportunities.  Through hands-on learning, students will build, program, and test their design solutions based on LEGO® building bricks and real-life robotics technology.  Teaching STEM subjects using robotics to middle school students will strongly support our school-wide effort to integrate this information into our ever increasingly technological world.

Robotics STEM Integration

Serving With A Smile

Serving With A Smile (SWAS) is a group of our middle school students that visit the local nursing home, Pleasant Ridge Manor, once a month to interact and establish relationships with the residents.  The students create and implement the activities.  This mini-grant is to fund the crafts, games, and projects the students come up with.  The students are learning how to build relationships with the elderly and the importance of doing things for others.  Each student is expected to reflect on their experience after each visit.  Serving With A Smile is helping the students grow up to be thoughtful, kind, organized, creative, and empathetic young adults.

Vernier Lab Equipment

In an effort to incorporate more technology into Fairview High School science labs, eight Vernier LabQuest 2 Interfaces and a variety of probes and kits have been purchased over the past four years.  Funds for the purchase of this equipment have come from the Fairview School Foundation Mini-Grant program, the science department annual budget, and the curriculum review budget.  With an ever-increasing class size and the addition of a new teacher, more items are needed to facilitate the teaching of these inquiry-based labs.
The Foundation agreed to purchase Go Wireless pH Sensor probes to interface with the LabQuests for data collection, they can also connect directly to the school iPads.  The second purchase was for two SpectroVis Plus Spectrophotometers.  These are used to measure absorption and emission spectrums of light.  Applications include the analysis of plant pigment in Biology, and for studying the rates of various chemical reactions in Chemistry.
The Foundation is proud to bring these interactive learning tools to the classroom.

Elementary School Makerspace

To round out our projects for the 2016-17 school year, the Fairview School Foundation is pleased to announce the funding of the Elementary School’s new Makerspace area in the library.   We are proud to have been able to make all three Makerspaces a reality for the Fairview School District.  For our youngest students, this Makerspace will be an area allowing them to tinker, play, build and discover through hands-on exploration.  They will be able to experience new cutting-edge technologies, such as 3-D printing, robotics, and coding to prepare them for their future.  Makerspace areas allow the students the opportunity to be creative and innovative, and to also solve problems through critical thinking.  Some of the things you will see there are:


Dash and Dot robots (A "hive" of Bluetooth-enabled BeeBots) and Ozobot 2.0 - these kits help show coding in a physical and tangible way.  All of these robots are able to be controlled and programmed using iPads and each has multiple levels to challenge students further.

XYZ da Vinci Jr. 3-D printer - This 3-D printer will open up the doors for the students in the areas of fabrication and design.  Students will be able to learn the basics of CAD design and integrate many mathematical concepts, such as geometric shapes, coordinate grids, and measurement.

XYZ da Vinci Jr. 3-D printer

Snap Circuits and littleBits Electronic Kits - will give students the opportunity to experiment with circuits and learn the difference between inputs, outputs, power sources, and wires.

Osmo Genius Kit and Bloxels- The Osmo kits will allow the students to utilize their iPad, along with tangible objects and make the pieces come to life.  The kits include a coding pack to practice coding in a hands-on way, as well as a number, tangrams, and spelling pack to integrate other curricular areas.  A Bloxels box will let the students build and design their own characters and settings, snap a picture of it on their iPad, and immediately enter their own virtual world.