Grants
2020 – Phenology Program, WLC – $2,500
This grant will provide teachers with the tools and equipment to teach whole class lessons on the observation and collection of information on life cycles in plants, animals, and climate while also allowing children time to explore and investigate their natural world. In partnership with the Jeffers Foundation, this grant will allow for the further devolpment of WLC’s outdoor classroom theory.
2020 – Technology Exploration Program,
Middle School – $6,600
An after-school club will be created to plan, script, and practice for “Live From the Middle School”. This will have weekly broadcasts on Friday morning, which will live stream to all classrooms. In addition, students will learn how to use Osmo gimbal cameras, iPads, iMac digital editing stations, webcams, microphones, and encourage both collaboration and independent projects.
2020 – Space Science and Exploration,
High School – $7,600
This grant will provide funding to purchase telescopes, including some computerized telescopes, that will allow students to find and track astronomical bodies across the night sky. Students will have hands-on experience exploring space, tracking orbital paths, and seeing a variety of structures in space firsthand. In addition this grant will help New Ulm High School meet and exceed the Minnesota Department of Education’s new science standards.
2019 – Eagle Enterprises – $15,000
Eagle Enterprises will create student-run businesses in each of the Career & Technical Education Departments. The purpose of Eagle Enterprises is to provide real work experiences while filling the skills gap in our community. This is the CTE’s version of personalized learning and pushing the advanced students to help them be job ready upon graduating high school.
2018 – Collaborative Learning Initiative – $10,200
According to the National Middle School Association, the Middle School “House” concept is one that supports the transition from the self-contained classrooms of elementary schools to largely collaborative, yet independent high schools. An exemplary middle school is one that provides an environment rich in opportunities for collaboration and social interaction, and House hallways are an obvious space for these opportunities. This grant will allow the purchase of furnishings for collaborative workspaces that will be utilized by all students in grades 5-8 at the Middle School.
2018 – Dramatic Play Stage and Equipment – $3,000
Dramatic play promotes imagination, self-regulation, conflict resolution, and confidence in our youngest learners. Research has shown that dramatic play is important to social development and for the development of linguistic and literary abilities. This grant provides for, and encourages, unstructured play sessions for students during morning clubs and school hours as well as a classroom tool to enhance the students’ understanding of literature. This grant impacts each of the over 200 students who attend Washington Learning Center every year.
2017 – Solar Panels for the Greenhouse – $15,000
The addition of solar panels to the High School’s greenhouse will provide students the opportunity to apply skills and principles related to the production and transmission of clean energy. Utilizing STEM
(Science/Technology/Engineering/Math) concepts in the classroom increases student enthusiasm and participation, teamwork/collaboration, and creativity while helping students understand how and when they will use these newly developed math and technology skills. “I enjoyed the greenhouse this year because I never knew much about agriculture, and being able to build and produce food was amazing to me. It was a great learning experience and I’m glad I was involved with the greenhouse.” – Abbey Frauenholtz
2016 – Innovative Outdoor Learning Environment
– $12,500
The use of play as an instructional tool allows students to learn how to problem solve, share, socialize, and use their creative voices. This grant provides those opportunities for play, and includes pollinator and vegetable gardens, water play, and building and music areas. Students are able to explore, investigate, and approach tasks and experiences with flexibility and imagination. The school anticipates higher levels of growth in the areas of social problem solving, large and fine motor skills, close observation, understanding quantities, estimation, and cause and effect. This grant impacts each of the over 200 students who attend Washington Learning Center each year.
2015 – Destination Imagination Science Curriculum – $15,000
Destination Imagination (DI) is a standards-based international science competition in which students work in teams to solve one of the seven yearly Challenges. Each Challenge is open-ended and enables students to learn and experience the creative process while fostering their creativity, curiosity and courage. Using STEAM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Arts/Math), public speaking, and teamwork, students are able to come together to solve the unique challenges before them. Over 400 students in grades 5-8 have been impacted so far.
“Everything we’ve given up in teaching in the last 20 years has come back through this: the collaboration, and the working together, the challenges.” – Tammy Yackley, 5th/6thMath Grade Teacher, DI Coordinator