AND THE WINNERS ARE...
Mini-Grant Winners Announced

Grade Level:  PK-2
Stacy Milan of the Milton School in Oak Ridge, NJ is the Project Manager for this

winning grant that will support a minimum of 24 PK disabled students by using

augmentative devices (talking photo albums and buttons) to help autistic students

communicate. Specifically, the educational goals and objectives of the grant say,
"Through the use of augmentative devices it is our goal to accelerate skill acquisition

for our autistic, developmentally and language delayed students.  The following areas

will be targeted: communication skills, independence and academic goals. These devices

will facilitate the child’s communication abilities to express needs and wants, comment,

put ideas into words and subsequently sentences and improve articulation skills.  

Independence will be increased as the child is able to participate in classroom routines

and initiate interactions with adults and peers. Utilizing assistive technology will

improve academic goals in language arts and literacy; i.e. sequencing experiences; story

retelling."

Grade Level:  3-5
Debbi Marra of the Ocean Road Elementary School in Point Pleasant, NJ is the Project

Manager for this Fifth Grade project - integrating iPods in the curriculum as learning

and creation tools. A total of 87 students will be involved in the project that will

include Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Math curriculums. Included in the

educational goals and objectives of this grant are "One of the primary goals of this

project is the use of digital tools, more specifically iPods, as part of the fifth grade

curriculum to increase our students’ active participation in 21st century learning and

overall exposure to new and exciting forms of technology. Also, by incorporating

multimedia activities into daily lessons, students will have access to a wide range of

interactive lessons to enhance their learning."

Grade Level:  6-8
John Volpa of the Indian Mills Memorial School in Shamong, NJ is the Project Manager of

this grant - using math and science equipment and software to study how individuals’

homes impact plant and animal life in the pinelands. The grant will involve 92 sixth

grade students this year (The project will continue after the grant is completed and

will involve 120 students next year.). From the educational goals and objectives of this

grant, we learn that this is a "multidisciplinary project based learning experience

joining math, technology and science researching the local ecosystem.  Using exciting

new hardware and software and some Web 2.0 tools (Survey Monkey, Google Docs,…) in the

project, students will learn and be amazed at how their families’ ordinary use of the

land effects the animal life, plant life and water system in the area."

Grade Level:  9-12
Anthony Sciaino of DePaul Catholic High School in Wayne, NJ is the Project Manager of

this grant that will have an impact on all 630 students in grades 9, 10 and 11. As

outlined in the educational goals and objectives of this grant, the "objective is to

design and pilot a digital learning game to demonstrate knowledge and skills related to

computational skills." The grant funds will be used to purchase software to develop a

math game for a 3D programming course.

Mini-grant winners have been notified and contracts sent to them. As soon as these

contracts have been signed and returned, the grant monies will be sent from NJAET and

the projects can be implemented. We look forward to learning more about these projects

when they are presented at the Annual Fall Conference.