Resources for Science Education

ADDRESSING GEORGIA'S NEEDS IN THE STEM FIELDS

Ask a Georgia school administrator where they would like support in resources or staffing and the most likely reply will be Science or Math. It has been reported that Georgia will need to produce more than 2,000 middle and high school teachers of life sciences, chemistry, earth science and physics by 2010 to meet the demand in those fields. These subjects reflect the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.According to the Board of Regents statistics for the 2008 academic year, only 90 teachers were prepared as Georgia teachers in these areas.

Here is information on programs and resources that address that need.

TRAINING FOR FUTURE SCIENCE TEACHERS
The National Sciences Foundation recently awarded a grant to Georgia State University to increase the number of science teachers in metro Atlanta schools. The almost $900,000 grant will be used to recruit, prepare and support 36 high quality science educators over the next five years under a program called Impacting Metro-Atlanta Science Teaching (I-MAST). Scholarships will be offered both to undergraduate majors studying in the STEM fields and to graduates who hold degrees in the STEM fields and want to go into teaching the sciences on the secondary level.
The I-MAST program is a collaboration between Georgia State's College of Education, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia Tech and four Metro-Atlanta public school districts.

GRANT TARGETS STEM TEACHERS
NASA awarded a $3 million grant to Georgia Tech to support a program that will allow Georgia teachers to strengthen their teachings skills in the STEM fields. Georgia Tech's Distance Learning and Professional Education (DLPE) Center for Education Integrating Science, Math and Computing (CEISMC) will take the lead on The Electronic Professional Development Network Grant. The purpose of the program will be to prepare, produce, deliver and evaluate NASA-related online courses, workshops and experiences for the benefit of STEM educators in Georgia and across the nation.

GPB CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS COURSES FOR THE CLASSROOM

Chemistry & Physics consists of two series teaching high school college preparatory chemistry and physics. Chemistry: A Study of Matter and Physics Fundamentals provide instructional content delivered through thirty-minute episodes and integrated classroom materials. Episodes provide content while giving cues for the classroom teacher to pause the program and interact with students, engaging them in discussions, problem-solving, and laboratory activities. Chemistry: A Study of Matter and Physics Fundamentals can be streamed from this site or GPB Education Streaming.

For each unit, daily lesson plans will be provided to help teachers prepare for and pace the lessons. Classroom materials, including note-taking guides to accompany the episodes, worksheets, classroom activities, quizzes, and tests, are available in electronic format. Teachers should call GPB Education at 1.888.501.8960 or email education@gpb.org to request teacher materials.

Spring '09 Deadlines for Education Grants

FUNDamentals!

Grants Currently Available for Educators

There is no single place that lists all available grants for education. That’s why it is important to identify and get on the mailing lists of those online sites that are most helpful and complete. This blog has mentioned this – and named names – on several occasions. One of those helpful lists is Education Funding Watch, the Foundation Center's newsletter devoted to education. You will also find links to other education-related news, resources, funding opportunities for individuals and organizations, and job listings. Education Funding Watch is available by registering at the Foundation Center's Web site.

Listed below are just a few of the currently available grants listed in the most recent issue of Education Funding Watch:

BP Invites Teachers to Apply for Energy Education Grants
Grants of up to $10,000 will be awarded to pre-K and K-12 teachers in the United States and Alberta, Canada, working to incorporate energy and/or energy conservation education in the classroom....
Deadline: 3/09/09

Educators Invited to Apply for ING Unsung Heroes Program
One hundred K-12 educators across the country will receive grants of up to $27,000 to help fund innovative classroom projects...
Deadline: 4/30/09

Jordan Fundamentals Grant Program Offers Support for Public School Teachers
Grants to be used for project-related expenses will be awarded to K-12 teachers or paraprofessionals in the U.S. working to improve academic achievement through student engagement, student-teacher relationships, and/or building the capacity of teachers...
Deadline: 4/15/09

While you are at the Foundation Center website, be sure to look at the free Basic Classroom Training Courses, as well as free online guides, tutorials and webinars.

Grants are out there and available. Unfortunately, most schools do not have the services of a professional grant writer. So, it is up to you to take advantage of the training available to find and capture the grants that will enrich your classroom, your students and your school. To quote from Ralph Stayer, CEO of Johnsonville Foods and co-author of Flight of the Buffalo, “If it is to be, it is up to me. If it is up to me, it shall be.”

If you find a really great list of available grants, please be sure to share it with us. Send it as a comment to this blog.

Sandy Spruill is the Grants Administrator at Georgia Public Broadcasting and a Member of the American Association of Grants Professionals.

Thinking Grants for Educators in a Tight Ecomony

FUNDamentals!

The Big Money is Going Away

A wise person once said, “Watch the pennies, and the dollars will take care of themselves.”

In today’s economy with serious budget cuts the order of the day, corporate and foundation donors are tightening their belts, laying off employees and not making as many grants. They have also pared down the size of those grants they will still fund. The big money is going away. Schools and school systems that were getting grants are watching them disappear.

So, it just makes sense to “watch the pennies” and go for the small grants – the grants that are “classroom” grants, usually designed for one teacher/one project. These are grants that are too small for a grants consultant. And, most schools don’t have the luxury of a person dedicated to writing grants. Some larger school systems have a single grant writer whose job is to write grant applications for the system as a whole. So, getting school-based, classroom-level grants is really up to you – teachers on the front lines. A number of small grants will add up to big bucks for a single school. And “the dollars will take care of themselves.”

That’s why it is important look for suitable grants and apply … apply … apply.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Another wise statement that applies to the grantseeking process.

If you have followed all the guidelines and met all the requirements for a grant application, but you are turned down – don’t despair. It’s not personal. Get in touch with the program officer, thank them for considering your application and ask for a review. Ask how you can improve the grant application so that it will be competitive and may be re-submitted. Ask how soon it can be re-submitted. Often a grant application has to be submitted more than once – maybe two or three times – before it is funded.

Have you gotten your complimentary subscription to eSchool News yet? It is a good, free source of grant opportunities.

All for one and one for all!

Send me your questions and comments, please. What else do you want to know from me? Share what you have discovered out there on the grantseeking front. What you know will make each of us a stronger, more successful grantseeker. And that’s a good thing!

Sandy Spruill is the Grants Administrator at Georgia Public Broadcasting and a Member of the American Association of Grants Professionals.

Plan for Success in Grants for Educators

FUNDamentals!

Make a Plan and Start Early

Have you ever wished for “just one more day” or “just one more week” or “just one more month” to complete a project? Doesn’t everyone? Then, give yourself a whole year!

Throughout 2009, when you see a grant program that piques your interest, put the due date on a 2010 calendar. A month-by-month calendar for 2010 is easily made and saved on your computer. Most grants come around again and again. And, generally, they are due each year at about the same time. However, grant application availability usually is announced only 30 – 60 days in advance of the due date. This is a tough timetable for a busy teacher.

By putting a tentative due date on a 2010 calendar you have time to think through and plan your grant request. You also have time to involve other teachers and organizations, as well as obtain letters of support. Remember that grantmakers particularly like the leverage their funding by having several entities benefit from one grant.

The key to making this plan work is to be disciplined enough to create – and meet – some intermediate deadlines. For example, set an intermediate deadline for

(1) selecting an appropriate project and gaining approval to move forward;

(2) then, set another one for meeting with potential partners;

(3) set another one for outlining the information required by your grant application (and listing sources for the information); and

(4) an intermediate deadline for drafting and requesting letters of support.

Finally, be sure to have an intermediate deadline for completing a draft of your application – especially the application narrative, the budget and the budget narrative. This intermediate deadline should be set about 3 – 4 weeks before the tentative due date on your 2010 calendar. This gives you plenty of time to edit it and tweak it into perfection. More importantly, it gives you some wiggle room when the real 2010 deadline is announced.

Sandy Spruill is the Grants Administrator for Georgia Public Broadcasting and a Member of the American Association of Grants Professionals.

Build a Solid Foundation for Grants Success

FUNDamentals!

Timing is Everything!

When writing a grant, timing is everything! Deadlines are firm. Approvals must be obtained. Mailing time must be considered. And, always, always it is important to be ready to mail or submit online about a week in advance of the firm deadline. This allows for the fact that Murphy’s Law (If anything can go wrong, it will.) may come into play, as well.

So, how can you gain critical minutes as the clock is ticking down? By building a solid foundation of pre-approvals, collaboration possibilities and up-to-date information! Here’s how:

1. Make sure that your principal and your department chair are on board with your project and the grant you are seeking to fund it. Creating a “one-pager” of bullet points for your principal and your department chair will not only enable you to gain their approval, it will also give you a starting outline of all the points you must make in the grant application. Most important, it avoids a delay when you are ready to submit your grant application.

2. Once you have those necessary approvals, e-mail the same one-pager to all of the faculty in your department or in your school, depending upon the scope and topic of the grant. This written communication lets them know what you are working on. It will prevent two teachers from the same school from going after the same grant at the same time. When you send the one-pager, also ask if the recipients have anything to add and/or if this project lends itself to a possible collaboration. Grantmakers love the leveraging effect that comes from collaboration! And you gain time by dividing the workload with one or two other people.

3. Create and maintain current, descriptive boilerplate about your organization. Boilerplate is a unit of writing that can be used over and over without change. A mission statement is an example of boilerplate. A 3-or-4 sentence statement describing your organization is boilerplate. You and your colleagues may find yourselves answering the same questions or saying the same things over and over. That is also boilerplate! If your school has a central hard drive with files that may be shared by all faculty and staff, put your boilerplate – and updates as they occur – on the shared drive. More minutes saved as you simply copy [CTRL-A]-and-paste [CTRL-V]!

4. Another area where you can save yourself critical time when minutes count is by maintaining a current

electronic file of information about your school. Information for this file includes:

· a scanned copy of your school’s IRS Letter of Determination for the 501 (c) (3) status

· a scanned copy of most recent audited financials

· current budget

· listing of past and current financial donors, including dollar amounts

· listing of past and current in-kind donors, including dollar value

· socio-economic statistics on your school (i.e., % of students by race and sex; % of students receiving

free-or-reduced lunch; etc)

5. Finally, remember to keep your lists of “Bragging Rights” updated and filed by year. Here are a few examples:

· list of student academic achievements (i.e., number or % of National Merit Scholars; standardized test scores; college acceptances, etc)

· list of faculty/staff achievements (i.e., school system teacher of the year, etc)

· list of institutional achievements (i. e., Georgia School of Excellence; National School of Excellence; etc)

Ask your principal to assign one person – possibly the school secretary or the media specialist -- the responsibility of keeping all of this information up-to-date and accessible electronically. Creating it initially may be time-consuming, so this may be a good volunteer project. Or, perhaps your PTA will be willing to pay a stipend to a faculty or staff member to work on this “after-hours”. But, it will

be worth its weight in gold (literally!).

You won’t need to use all of this information every time you complete a grant. But, when you do need it … when time is tight … when the stakes are high … you will be glad you have laid the foundation and have everything you need right at your fingertips!

Sandy Spruill is Grants Administrator for Georgia Public Broadcasting and Member, American Association of Grants Professionals. This article was first published in the blog for the GPB T.I.E. Network.

Help from the Federal Government on Grants for Educators

FUNDamentals!

Grant Help from the Feds-
Your Tax Dollars at Work!

The Compassion Capital Fund, managed by the Office of Community Services in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families – Whew! That was a mouthful! – is offering a very valuable toolkit online. I checked today (January 22, 2009) to be sure it was still available and it is.

Take a look at the wealth of information being offered. There is quite a lot. You won’t need to know all of it, but there is so much that will yield helpful nuggets of information. My recommendation is to save everything to a Grantseeking – Grantwriting Information file on your computer or on a flash drive. Not only will this save paper, toner/ink and trees, you will also find it very quick and easy to search using Microsoft Word’s “Find” feature or Windows’ “Search” feature. To search a PDF document, look on the toolbar for the binoculars icon with the word “Search” next to them.

Another helpful service provided by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services is Grants.gov, your source to find and apply for federal government grants. This initiative is having an unparalleled positive impact on the grants community. A new service of Grants.gov is a blog that provides up-to-the-minute information on the status of the website and other help. Grants.gov also offers Succeed, a free news-filled quarterly newsletter.

If you tried Grants.gov previously, but could not download and install PureEdge, the software required to submit and/or view an application, you will be glad to know that as of January 1, 2009, Grants.gov uses only Adobe Reader. Check here to determine and download – free! – the version of Adobe Reader that works best.

Speaking of applications, do take the time to read through one or more successful grant proposals. Annotate as you read – highlighting and noting which parts of the proposal are particularly helpful to a reader-evaluator who may not be intimately familiar with the topic. These are the items you will want to be sure to include in your grant application.

Four Words: Education World Grants Newsletter

Have you subscribed yet? It’s free! It’s fabulous!

Sandy Spruill is the Grants Administrator for Georgia Public Broadcasting and a Member of the American Association of Grants Professionals

'09 Grants Opportunites for Schools & Classrooms

FUNDamentals!

Grants Available to Schools & Classrooms in the New Year

Happy New Year to all!

Do you ever feel like life is one big Monopoly game? When I was growing up, my family played Monopoly on New Year’s Eve to usher in the New Year. It is still something I like to do – maybe more appropriate than ever considering that the Monopoly we know was created in the depths of the Great Depression! The best thing about January 1 and the new year – just like passing “Go!” on the Monopoly board – is the chance for new opportunities.

For example, there are many grants opportunities for schools and classrooms. If you have not already done so, I urge you to go to EducationWorld.com . This online website has 12 free newsletters you can sign up for. Newsletter # 12 is the grants newsletter . If you are serious about getting grants for your school and/or your classroom, you will find the contents of this free newsletter to be extremely helpful and valuable. Of course, you won’t be eligible for every grant opportunity mentioned. But, you will be able to tell pretty quickly which grants are available to you.

A very helpful resource mentioned in this first newsletter of 2009 is a treasure trove of successful grant applications. These will help you better understand what grantmakers are looking for.

Also helpful is Don Peek ’s column in every issue of the newsletter.

The economy may be tanking, but there are still grants available. Make a New Year’s resolution right now to begin applying for school and classroom grants. The more grants you apply for the better you will get – and the more money you will get!

Sandy Spruill is Grants Administrator for Georgia Public Broadcasting and a member of the American Association of Grants Professionals.

More Free Grant Writing Workshops for Educators

FUNDamentals!

Free Grant Writing Workshops

Available in November and December

The Foundation Center, a regional library located in Atlanta, GA, offers excellent training. Many basic classes are free. Some of these classes also are available in Spanish.

Online training is also available.

Webinars, again, many are free, are available for those who cannot get to the Foundation Center.

Multiple languages, too! A Proposal Writing Short Course describes how to prepare a funding proposal, including the planning, research, and cultivation of foundation and corporate donors. (Available in English, French, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.)

For other training opportunities, ask your congressional representatives (House and Senate) to put you on the mailing list whenever grant writing training is offered in Georgia, especially in your area. This training is almost always free, and it is always helpful, but registration is required and seats are usually limited.

Also, be sure to check out Foundations for the Future (F3). Subscribe (free) to the F3 Funding Forecast.

Sandy Spruill is the GPB Grants Administrator and Member, American Association of Grants Professionals. The current post was written in response to a Georgia Graduation Stories reader's question.

Grants for Educators

GRANT SUGGESTIONS

Teaching Tolerance Grants for Teachers and Classrooms,
Since 1997, they have awarded more than $1 million in funding to support classroom teachers' efforts to reduce prejudice, improve intergroup relations or support professional development in these areas.

The Best Buy Teach Award program recognizes creative uses of interactive technology in K-12 classrooms. Winning programs focus on kids using technology to learn standards-based curriculum, rather than on teaching students to use technology or educators using technology that children aren't able to use hands-on. The purpose of the Best Buy Teach Award program is to reward schools for the successful interactive programs they have launched using available technology. Please do not be discouraged from applying if your school does not have the most current equipment. Applications must be completed and submitted online by 11:59 p.m. Eastern DST on October 12, 2008. Awards will be announced on March 2, 2009.

The Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy is a one-week all-expense-paid intensive professional development program for third- through fifth-grade teachers. The Academy offers a five-day program designed to provide third- through fifth-grade teachers with the knowledge and skills necessary to motivate students to pursue careers in science and math. Application for the 2009 Academy are due by October 31, 2008.

Target will award 5,000 Field Trip Grants of up to $800 each during the 2008-2009 school year. That adds up to 5,000 more opportunities for students to explore more of the world outside the classroom.Visit the zoo. Go backstage at a local theater. Tour a museum. Explore more with a Field Trip Grant from Target. online anytime between now and Nov. 1, 2008.

For years Wild Ones® members and chapters have worked with schools and nature centers to plant and maintain natural landscapes in these centers of learning. In 1996, the Wild Ones Board of Directors started the Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education (SFE) Fund to further foster such projects.

Classrooms throughout the U.S. are invited to enter the PFK “Play with Your Produce Healthy Challenge” contest for Fall 2008. All entering classrooms will receive coupons and discounts for fresh produce, sample lesson plans with fun fruit & veggie activities, discounts on nutrition books and curricula, and Produce for Kids goodies for the classroom.

A partnership between Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. , Inc. and the National Science Teachers Association, the Toyota TAPESTRY Grants for Science Teachers program offers grants to K–12 science teachers for innovative projects that enhance science education in the school and/or school district. 50 large grants and a minimum of 20 mini-grants, totaling $550,000 in all, will be awarded this year.

Captain Planet Foundation ALL PROJECTS MUST: Promote understanding of environmental issues. Focus on hands-on involvement .Involve children and young adults 6-18 (elementary through high school) .Promote interaction and cooperation within the group .Help young people develop planning and problem solving skills .Include adult supervision

Website for more grant information. I suggest this website:
http://www.grantsalert.com/

Cynthia Rutledge is School Improvement Specialist at the Oconee RESA. This article was originally published in the T.I.E. Network blog.

Grants: Spend Money to Make Money

FUNDamentals!

The old saying, “You’ve got to spend money to make money.” is certainly true. However, you can still be frugal in your spending. For example, many grants request you to send the application package (or, in the case of some online applications, separate paper copies of specific pages) by next day air. That can get expensive! Most overnight services offer a selection of delivery times at varying cost—later in the day is cheaper. And, in general the cheapest service still gets it there overnight – just sometime in the afternoon.

But, is next-day air really necessary? Maybe not. Sometimes second-day air will suffice – if you just need to have it delivered by a specific date. Have it delivered late in the day and – well, you do the numbers. You may be able to save more than 60% of what it would cost to send your package by next-day air. You still get all of the same services, though, including package tracking and assured on-time delivery.

Think of this the next time you are putting together a timetable for writing a grant. Back it up another week and save big if you are using overnight delivery.

Sandy Spruill is the Grants Administrator for Georgia Public Broadcasting and a member of the American Association of Grants Professionals.

Free Resources = Grant $$$

FUNDamentals!

High Tech + Newsprint = $$$

Even in this high-tech world, sometimes just nothing beats the feel of newsprint – holding a real newspaper in your hand, folding it just so to make it easier to read and then tucking it in your briefcase for those “hurry-up-and-wait” times.

I have a free subscription to eSchool News for those very reasons! An added benefit is that it also entitles me to free access to eSchool News Online. The online version offers even more of the great news and resources supplied by eSchool News -- updated 24/7!

If you are reading my blog posts, then you need funding for your classroom and/or school. At eSchool News Online, you will find the latest Grants and Funding news, awards and deadlines including a new e-Rate Survival Guide.

Funding doesn’t exist in a vacuum, though. It is affected by so many other things. That’s why you will appreciate eSchool News Online’s insightful, in-depth coverage of the biggest stories of the day, updated daily with comments from your fellow educators along with today's latest news story.

The editors of eSchool News have assembled a variety of resource centers on the hottest topics in education technology. The resource centers are a collection of news and resources aimed at helping you sort out the complex challenges facing educators every day.

Finally, eSchool News Online provides powerful research tools inside their new Buyer’s Center, including over 10,000 company profiles. Their Technology Solution Center Buyer’s Guide, the new AV Buyer’s Guide and the new Security Buyer’s Guide will help you find essential information for budgets and budget narratives.

It’s hard to believe that all of this is free, FREE, FREE!

More than 190,000 educators have registered for free online access to eSchool News. You can join them! Sign up today and look for the registration quick link!

Oh – and if you are like me and love the feel of newsprint, you can also subscribe to the print version of eSchool News for free.

Sandy Spruill is the Grants Administrator for Georgia Public Broadcasting and a member of the American Association of Grants Professionals.

Grant Writing Basics

FUNDAMENTALS!

Hopefully you have looked at the sites I recommended in my previous post (8.19.08 Grants for the Classroom) and have found some grant opportunities of interest. Now what?

Here are a few basics:
Make sure there is a good match between your project/funding needs and the grantmaker’s interests/requirements. Yours may be the best project ever, but if your classroom is in Georgia and the grantmaker funds only Iowa-based grant requests, you will be wasting your time to go for that grant. Find a good fit!

Make sure there is adequate time – 3 to 4 weeks, at least – to complete the grant application, get all the necessary administrative approvals and signatures, and submit the grant on time. Some grantmakers require that the completed grant application be in their office by a specific time on the date it is due. Others simply require a postmark (not a postage meter label) or proof of mailing through an overnight carrier on or before the deadline date. Make sure you know what is required and plan accordingly. If possible, request proof of delivery. Your carrier can tell you how to do that.

Make sure you set your personal deadline earlier – at least a week earlier – to incorporate additional time to allow for the unexpected. There are so many things that can go wrong: the copier breaks down; your car breaks down; a person whose signature is required is out of town; the Internet connection goes down; you run out of toner or ink for your printer or copier and all the stores are closed; etc. Never, ever, never plan to submit a grant application on the day it is due. Even submitting the day before can be risky. Grantmakers do not extend deadlines.

Make sure you have followed the grant application requirements exactly. Exactly. For example, if the grant narrative must be in 12-point type, don’t use a narrow version unless the grant guidelines tell you that is okay. One-inch margins mean exactly that – top, bottom and sides – not 0.9 inches. Is there a word or character limitation? Write and edit your draft in Word and check it against Tools>Word Count, editing until everything fits. And, yes, for “character count” include spaces.

And a few more words:
Collaboration! Funders love collaboration. It extends the impact and reach of their money. Find the right collaborator(s) – within your school or between schools – and you cut the work in half or better. The right collaborator(s) share your work ethic, your interest in the project to be funded, your attention to detail and your commitment to meet the deadline.

Checklists. Make two.
#1.) Go through the grant guidelines and list all items that must be included in the grant application package. Then prioritize and begin working your way down the list. For example, if letters of support are required, they should be high on the priority list to give your supporters plenty of time to write letters and get them to you.
#2.) List all narrative and budget requirements so you will include everything. Then check them off as you include them.

NOTE: Don’t skip this checklist creation step! Often grant requirements are buried somewhere in the verbiage of the guidelines and may be easily missed.

Correctness, completeness, clarity and coherence. Proofread to eliminate typos, misspellings, grammar and usage errors, etc. Strunk and White’s Elements of Style is an inexpensive, invaluable little 56-page resource. Buy it. Use it. Then use Checklist #2 (above) to check for completeness. Finally, ask a friend or colleague who is not involved in the project to read the application for clarity and coherence. If that reader gets confused or lost in the application, so will the grant reader/evaluator who will be making the recommendation to fund or not fund your application. Re-write if necessary.

That’s all for now. More to come …

Sandy Spruill is the Grants Administrator for Georgia Public Broadcasting and a member of the American Association of Grants Professionals.