Madison Schools Awarded $17K Education Grant

The Madison Education Foundation (MEF) awarded a number of grants totaling more than $17,000 to teachers in Madison schools.

The MEF approved 10 teacher-initiated educational enrichment grants totaling $17,300, according to the MEF. The grants will benefit students at nearly all levels of school in Madison.

Madison High School students will be provided with Hominin Skulls in biology classrooms, which will help them better conceptualize the evolution of man, the report said. Additionally, biology classes will benefit from dynamic Veriner Probeware, which allows students to gather data on PH, temperature, oxygen, carbon dioxide and turbidity during lab experiments.

A group of 200 seventh grade students at Madison Junior School will benefit from the grants by attending a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The grant was approved after last year’s trip was an overwhelming success, the Foundation said.

“With the current events in Iraq and Syria, most notably in the ancient cities of Nimrud, Nineveh and Hatra, the opportunity to see ancient Mesopotamian artifacts is becoming more and more rare. These events have been discussed at length in our classrooms as students have developed a connection with these ancient people,” Erik Lih, seventh grade social studies teacher at MJS, said in a release. “With this new knowledge of a once unfamiliar culture, our students have become extremely passionate about the preservation and protection of these ancient artifacts. Because of MEF’s continued support, our students will be able to experience numerous Mesopotamian cultures as well as the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans at one of the world’s premier museums.”

Several classrooms at elementary schools will receive enhanced libraries, providing students with greater in-depth reading at appropriate levels. Also, clay for special projects was awarded to all elementary art classes and district-wide elementary K-five phys. ed. classes will benefit from Fit Deck Cards, which include exercises from Yoga to Navy Seal exercises, according to the report.

(Photo courtesy of the Madison Education Foundation)