December 2014 – Carlisle Education Foundation

News from the CPS Engineering Lab

Students from all grade levels have been busy in the engineering lab this fall! Just before the holidays, CPS teacher Ginny Lamere recently sent CEF a brief update on some of her highlights over the past few months:

Instead of a 1-day activity, the 8th grade was in the Engineering Room for a week working on an Egg Zipline. They designed, built, tested and inevitably, redesigned and retested a container that ran down a zipline holding an egg then released it into a basket without breaking the egg.

I have been working with the librarian, Maya Bery, to have students do an “Hour of Code,” an international event that has students do one hour of (computer) coding, (programming). This movement is huge. This nation is not producing nearly enough computer scientists, programmers, computer engineers and software engineers to fill the growing number of jobs in that area. So we need to start early to expose kids to this type of thinking and encourage them to continue.

CCHS science teacher Elaine Picard and I are running a Robotics STEAM Class after school starting in January with Hummingbird kits the CEF bought last spring. Also, there is a workshop in January led by Wendy Stack & Brad Cranston to teach other teachers how to use these robotic kits.

The Robotics Club (using LEGO Mindstorms kits) and LEGOs at Lunch (for 3rd graders) continue.

Please thank the CEF once again for outfitting this Engineering Room. It is a terrific space! I am daily thankful for the many cabinets and and long counters. Having a cart of computers is tremendous. You (The CEF) make a difference in education here.

Annual Appeal in Mailboxes Now!

Dear Friends,

Take a moment to pat yourselves on the back! The Carlisle Education Foundation recently completed our Fall 2014 Grant Cycle and were pleased to award over $19,000 in grants to our faculty. In fact, over the past 3 years, CEF has raised nearly $300,000 to support our mission to sustain excellence in teaching, demonstrate innovation in the classroom and provide superior learning opportunities for all students. Over our 20+ year history, we have raised and distributed well over $1 million dollars in total gifts to Carlisle Public Schools. CEF has certainly helped orchestrate the giving, but it is all of you who have made the choice to invest in our children, our schools and our community by your generous support of the foundation.

Here are a few more reasons to be proud:

Carlisle Public Schools now operate a state of the art Engineering classroom for all grades that includes a part-time dedicated faculty member.
Carlisle now owns more than a dozen voice amplification systems which are being shared by all classrooms.
As a result of our Fall 2014 grant cycle, 15 teachers will attend national conferences in their respective disciplines, and 7 will receive specialized training in reading, literacy or English as a Second Language this year.
A network anaylsis of our school is underway to help Carlisle Public School meet Department of Elementary and Secondary Education guidelines for technology use and programs in public schools, and to identify current and future needs regarding technology initiatives and equipment.
Most importantly, 100% of our students benefit each day from donations to CEF, whether they have created a robot or a mailbox in the engineering room, learned to code using Scratch, sung with a school choir, used a laptop or Activ Board, or worked with highly trained teachers who have broadened their knowledge base through participation in a CEF-supported professional development program.

Through your generosity, the Carlisle Education Foundation continues to support our school system with tools and training that are unmatched in most other communities. Please consider a tax-deductible gift to the CEF Annual Fund this year so that we may continue to advance our mission. And, don’t forget that pat on the back!

Yours truly,

Mary-Lynne Bohn, President