Noel Nesmith: Breakout Boxes

Teachers are constantly searching for ways to make content meaningful and engaging in an ever-changing world. Students often struggle with connecting what they learn in school to their everyday lives. Breakout boxes are an exciting way to bridge this gap. Students build their communication and leadership skills while using problem solving and teamwork to achieve a common goal. Students will use the Algebra 1 and Geometry content that they have learned to solve the steps in each box. After completing one box, they will attempt other boxes and in the end, take the next step of creating their own. Breakout boxes create an avenue for math practice and application of content knowledge in an exciting and meaningful way.

Scott Edge: Raspberry Pi for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner?!

The field of Computer Science has been growing exponentially every year. In fact, it is so popular that major CS Companies like Google require every employee whether computer scientist or not, to become fluent in at least one programming language. In order to fuel the demand of computer science, it is necessary to introduce programming to students at an early age. Raspberry Pi hardware is a terrific tool which introduces students to the CS world using the Python programming language. Essentially a small computer, students build and program Raspberry Pi themselves!

Shaun Gant: Lance Digitization Project

The purpose of the Lance Digitization Project is to preserve and avail 25 years (1983-2008) of Hellgate High School newspapers for Hellgate students and to the public.  Free access and preservation of the papers makes them useful generally for the school, community, and alumni and for HHS journalism students specifically.  With the advent of preserving newspapers digitally, journalism students can access the history of editorials, student events, writing styles, photographic history, and artwork from the past.  The content of this collection will also be available for social studies, ELA, and library media classes exploring the culture and history of Missoula’s schools.  As the oldest high school in Missoula, the historical preservation of these papers is important to the community at large.

Colleen Windell: Cellular Respiration and Photosyntheses – Two Sides of the Same Coin

Using Vernier Carbon Dioxide and Oxygen sensors, students will be able to accurately measure the levels of these gases as they monitor plants, animals and combustion to get a better understanding of cellular respiration (and how it relates to combustion) and photosynthesis.

Melissa Lynn: Early Elementary STEM

Using Lego WeDo 2.0 kits, young, early elementary students will engage in the engineering design process and early coding skills. Through collaborative problem solving teams, aligned with NGSS standards, children will learn early STEM concepts and 21st century skills.

TJ Decker: 1^st Grade Literacy Library

The 1^st Grade Literacy Project at Rattlesnake Elementary aims to bring a variety of beginning and mid-level picture book sets as well as sets of beginning chapter books to use in our Walk to Read program.

Joanne Boyles: Creative Geometry

Students will plan, design and create items such as blankets, pillows, patchwork quilts using principals of geometry for themselves or as gifts for others, making this a true practical application of skills in the real world. This allows students to experience for themselves some of the real world/practical applications of geometry.

Kristy Rothe: Farm to Fork – Veggie Garden and Canning Lab

In conjunction with the new MCPS Meat Processing Lab, the Agriculture Center will also be installing a Commercial Kitchen.  This project will utilize the commercial kitchen to teach students how to harvest, process and safely can fruits and vegetables the students have grown in the gardens at the Agriculture Center. Through hands-on learning students will learn where their food comes from and how to produce and process their own fruits and vegetables.

Ariel Cornelius: Graphing Cardio Movements

Algebra 1 students will complete a cardio task and graph their results. This cardio task can be running, walking, sprinting, a cartwheel, or a mixture of all. Students will then try to find a function that relates to their creation and pass to another group. The second group will have to determine what activity the group completed based on their equation. Students will then compare and talk about results. This is an active activity that encourages students to study the real world and model the results.

Jeanne Veteto: Lifetime Education

This program will educate students on the positive impact of exercise and why they should be active and live a healthy lifestyle after high school. Students will develop an understanding of how their physical health effects their emotional, social, community, and academic success in life.

Noel Nesmith: Making Math Real

In high school, math students always ask, “When will I ever use this?”. Making math real is essential to student success and for the application of math outside of the classroom. It is difficult to teach conceptual understanding in math unless students are shown how to apply it to the world around them. This approach to teaching and learning math requires students to apply math skills to real world problems. Students must pass this course to graduate, but it must also be meaningful and prepare them for the world in which we live.

Chris Jacaruso: CNC Machining

This project addresses the need for students in the manufacturing area to develop their skills using computer technology to manufacture items.  Much of the manufacturing industry today has become automated through the use of computer technology. What makes  this project unique is the combination of science, math, and technology needed to create an acceptable individual project.  Students will research creative designs on the internet before beginning designs.  Students will need to use the computer program, AutoCAD, to create a design.  They will use the Lincoln Torchmate software and CNC plasma cutting machine to manufacture the design from steel.  Once the design is manufactured, many of the students will learn the science behind heat coloring steel as part of the metal finishing process.

Jessica Stamler: Podcasting: Audio Reporting and Storytelling

The art of interviewing requires students to conduct prior independent research, synthesize various sources of information, identify key facts and atmospheric details, think critically, and collaborate seamlessly with their subjects. By inviting students to practice care with their interviews, then giving them the opportunity to reflect on and then refine the results, this project will use modern technology to get at the core skills of journalism: critical analysis, personal connection, and intelligent inquiry.

Angel Nordquist: A Classroom to Meet the Needs

According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, students who feel safe and comfortable are able to better and more quickly learn material in school. This project will serve to provide supplemental comfort/food/social support to SLP students.

By being productive and successful in self-choice students will begin to build self-confidence in their learning environment. This allows the teacher to reach the final tier of self-actualization where a student is able to learn. For many of our students, the only meals they get are at school. We want to provide food that will nourish the body and mind, and so will provide a small kitchen where students can cook and eat together. In providing different types of seating, students are encouraged to show self-efficacy in choosing what seating they can handle and what type of seating best suits their mood or physical needs of the day.

Crystal Thompson: Re-Imagined Recess

Franklin Elementary is a Montana Behavioral Initiative School, which means we are fully committed to collecting school-wide behavioral data, reflecting upon that information, and creating goals of improvement. One area of continued focus for our school is socially-appropriate, safe play during recess. Many children cannot manage the noise, chaos and freedom of recess and are continually searching for ways to stay indoors. This Missoula Education Foundation Grant will help Franklin Staff to develop a fun and academically-engaging alternative to outdoor recess, called Re-Imaginged Recess. This recess alternative will be center-based and developmentally-appealing. There will be opportunity for individual play, or group play. Re-Imagined Recess will be staffed by two adults, trained in Zones of Regulation and Social Thinking curricula, assisting children in building their knowledge bases, self-regulation, and socially-healthy engagement. NeoRock chairs will be available to students with sensory or movement-based needs—they can participate in center activities while meeting their needs for movement.

Nicholas Malinak: Summer Activities Camp

High school students who participate and lead a range of school clubs, activities, and academic programs, ranging from fine arts to STEM to the International Baccalaureate program, will spend a week in the summer sharing those programs with students from Missoula area middle schools in a camp that is free and open to all students entering 7-9 grade.  The mornings will consist of a week-long speech, drama, and debate unit in preparation for a Friday exhibition tournament, while the afternoons will vary from drama games, a trip to the Ag center, a crime scene STEM mystery, and more depending on student requests.

Matt Bell: Water Wisdom

This project will focus on using hydroponic techniques to grow foods. Students will evaluate management practices related to the human, economic, and environmental resources. Students will learn about other methods of gardening and make comparison through observation and analysis. Students will also learn about concepts of food sovereignty and food justice.

Daniel Lande: Help Eliminate 3D Printing Waste!

With 3D printers becoming more common around the district, a significant amount of waste plastic is generated. A common statement I get from my students is “it would be cool if we could recycle the filament.” Well, with The ProtoCycler we can! Waste plastic can be turned into new filament that can be reprinted using our 3D printers. In my classroom, 3D printing has become a major part of what we do. We print items for many classes, other teachers, our robotics team, and we sell 3D printed items as fundraisers. We have even designed and printed our own brackets for mounting networking hardware in our equipment rack. We have three 3D printers in my classroom, and three others in the school. Across the district, there are many more. Students engaged in Help Eliminate 3D Printing Waste will collect the waste from failed prints, filament changes, etc. from all of the schools and use a filament recycling machine to grind, melt, and produce new filament.