Robert P. Bell Education Grants
Publishing Squad
South View Elementary
Students at South View Elementary created and published their own book to help them gain confidence as young authors. After researching, the students wrote and illustrated a page to explain their future occupation, going through the entire writing process: prewriting, writing a draft, revising/editing, and publishing. Students were then able to take home a published copy of their book.
Twenty-four junior and senior students at the Indiana Academy were immersed in a hands-on, creative experience as they researched, traced, embroidered, and constructed a recreation of the historic “Bayeux Tapestry. ” Through this project, the students learned about the significant cultural and linguistic impacts of the events commemorated on the tapestry, as well as researched and created engaging and informative interpretive signs for the exhibit’s viewers. They created almost 2/3 of the tapestry, using a combination of historical embroidery methods and fabric markers. The completed project was displayed in the halls of the school for other students and visitors to see and learn from.
Over 70 fifth-grade students at Yorktown Elementary School learned to play chess, helping them to improve their memory, planning, and problem-solving skills, and creativity. Students learned to communicate with another player and to anticipate upcoming moves.
The engineering class at Wes-Del High
School designed an animatronic hand for spring theater production. The students practiced coding and 3D printing, then implemented the project
by using the skills they had learned to prototype a basketball camera mount that had a similar function to the hand.
Art students at Muncie Central High School saw art come alive on a functional object by painting on umbrellas. Instead of discussing what line, shape, color, value, space, form, & texture have to do with art, they planned how to use each to design an umbrella. Students started by learning about the seven elements of art. Then, they drew out a plan to use each element on their umbrella. Students had their umbrellas displayed at the All City Art Show in May.
Elementary physical education students at Burris Laboratory School got to experience the great outdoors through a unit on basic camping and hiking skills, practicing physical activity while learning about science, problem-solving, and survival skills. The students learned to read a map and compass, hiked along simulated trails, used animal tracks and scat to identify animals, and practiced yoga poses while reading stories.
English students at Yorktown High School engaged with American history hands-on by creating documents related to different class units and then displaying them in frames throughout the school building.
Wes-Del Elementary
During the end-of-year "Maymester" at Wes-Del
Elementary School, fifth graders came up with the idea to build a GaGa Ball Pit for the playground. The project allowed students to engage in STEM, physical education, and language arts as students helped build the GaGa pit by engineering and following blueprints, measuring the materials, writing a list of school rules for the pit, and creating a video to share with the school about the new game and how to play it.