The Montgomery County Educational Foundation (MCEF) hosted its annual breakfast for its 2024-2025 grant recipients, giving teachers from across the county the opportunity to showcase how the grants have impacted their classrooms. The foundation provided nearly $40,000 in grants last year.
Teachers, alongside some of their students, presented a variety of projects funded by grants provided by MCEF. North Montgomery, Crawfordsville, and South Montgomery schools highlighted several different initiatives. Hoover Elementary shared how fourth-grade students explored STEM through science kits, funded by a $4,400 grant. South Montgomery Schools showcased multiple grants, including those aimed at enhancing their band program.
Sharon Danforth, a teacher at Hoover Elementary, used her grant to purchase science school supplies from the Kiwi Company. The Kiwi Company provides students with science kits that include building supplies for basic and more advanced mechanical equipment.
“They came at two different levels, so that was kind of cool. We got to start with easier kits. They were called the Tinker Crates. We built some pendulums, catapults, trebuchets, automatons, labyrinths, and conveyor belts. Then we dug into the Eureka Crates,” Danforth said.
The advanced kits challenged students with more complex builds. Students were able to make more advanced devices like air pumps, label makers, pencil sharpeners and mechanical lock boxes.
Kevin Brooks, District Library Coordinator at North Montgomery Schools and teacher of Mass Media and Digital Media, received a $1,000 grant for his “BrickFlix - Bringing Legos to Life” project. The goal was to introduce seventh-grade students to digital media and broadcasting through stop-motion animation. Brooks emphasized the value of storytelling and teamwork the program gives students.
“The principal and I were talking about what if we added a seventh-grade class to start a new pathway for students to go into digital media, into broadcasting. He decided that it would be a good idea to add a seventh-grade class,” Brooks said.
With the grant, Brooks was able to reintroduce stop-motion animation, a technique he had previously taught when the school used iPads.
“When we went from iPads to Chromebooks, we no longer had the capabilities of doing that. When I saw the grant come through, I thought this would be a great opportunity to get the equipment and the software that we need in order to do that,” Brooks said.
The class now serves as an entry point for students interested in digital media. Students use stop-motion software and are learning video editing skills. Brooks says his classes will be a great entry point into more advanced media and technology programs.
Sondra Hardisty, a music teacher at Sommer Elementary, used her $1,255 grant, ‘Bigger is Always Better - Little Hands Need Big Instruments,’ to purchase larger instruments for her youngest students.
“In the last two or three years, I started teaching the preschool four-year-olds in the music room. And then this year, we started teaching the preschool three-year-olds in my room. So we started to notice in the classroom that as the refined motor skills are developing, a lot of the instruments that I was using to try to help them explore sounds and pitch and study beat were just not conducive to their little hands and their lack of refined motor skills,” Hardisty said.
With the new instruments, her students now have the tools they need to explore music at their developmental level.
“So we got a grant this year to help with getting some larger instruments for these students to be able to manipulate with and explore sounds and explore steady beat and get to practice their singing voices,” Hardisty said.
Other projects MCEF has supported throughout the year included programs ranging from literacy for students in kindergarten to “Building a Buzzworthy Community of Pollinators” for middle schoolers in North Montgomery.
