Longview ISD Foundation, Inc. Awards Six John W. Harrison, Jr. Academic Field Trip Grants

On December 9, 2024, the Longview ISD Foundation presented its annual John W. Harrison, Jr. Academic Field Trip Grants, named for the late Mr. Harrison, longtime Longview ISD school board member, to honor his loyal support of the Foundation.  Traveling to five Longview ISD campuses, Heather Hilton, chair of the academic field trip grant committee, Hillary Arnold, Helen Davis, Cherika Johnson, Chandalyn Jenkins, and Scott Lewis, Foundation board members; and Kay Ray, Foundation director, surprised the recipients and their students with the funding news.
 
The Foundation awarded six field trip grants, two to elementary schools and four to middle schools, for a total of $33,083.30.

With grant funding of $4,298.00, Kristi McAdams and Danieshia Terrell, Forest Park Middle School eighth grade science teachers, will take 154 eighth graders on February 25, 2025, to Stephen F. Austin State University’s Planetarium to study the life cycle of stars.  During their study unit “Investigating the Universe,” students will describe the life cycle of stars and compare and classify stars using the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.  Through images from the Hubble and recently launched James Webb telescopes, students will get a close look at the stars in the sky and learn what stars are composed of and how they produce the same elements that we find on earth. Not only does this trip enhance science education, but it also exposes students to a college campus, an experience most of them have not had.  They will have lunch in the SFA cafeteria and have an opportunity to explore the campus, experiences that the Foundation hopes will expose students to the possibility of attending college.

Nicole Isbell at Bramlette STEAM Academy received funding for $5,753.78 to take 85 fifth grade students to KidZania in Frisco, Texas.  This trip aligns with the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) curriculum by providing students with real-world applications of classroom learning, specifically financial literacy; exposure to careers in health care, aviation, and technology; opportunities to design, build, and test ideas; and role-playing to enhance communication, teamwork, and creativity.  Focusing on careers, students will create a career path project upon returning to the classroom and present them to other students.  Teachers will evaluate students’ understanding of the career they explore and their ability to communicate that knowledge effectively.  They will also complete a financial literacy project and budget based on insights gained at KidZania.  Students will also complete reflective essays and participate in discussions based on their trip experiences.

With grant funding of $4,920 for their grant titled “Discovery Quest:  Unleashing the Exemplary Jaguar Scientists,” Tashawna Carraway, Scarlet Lebron, April Mims, and Naomi Odum will take 105 fourth graders from J. L. Everhart Elementary School to study science at the Perot Museum in Dallas to experience ten different exhibits that allow a multi-sensory approach to enrich the students’ classroom learning.  The trip’s objectives are to deepen students’ understanding of organisms and their structures and behaviors that allow them to survive within their environment; recognize patterns in the natural world and among the sun, earth, and moon systems’ matter and its measurable physical properties; and to increase critical thinking skills. The Foundation was impressed that students themselves participated in the trip’s planning, including determining the number of chaperones needed based on the ratio the museum provided; comparing prices on snacks from different stores and determining the best value; creating a budget for the trip; and creating a survey to determine what students knew about the subjects they would explore and what they wanted to learn.
 
Ricardo De la Garza and Kimberly Pierson, science teachers at Foster Middle School, received $5,932.50 for their grant titled Dragon Fly at I-Fly at I-Fly in McKinney, Texas.  On this trip, ninety Foster Middle School eighth-graders will enhance their learning of math and science by applying key physical principles such as force, motion, velocity, and terminal velocity in the context of skydiving and wind tunnel simulations.  The trip will focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) concepts by providing hands-on opportunities while requiring students to work together in groups to complete challenges and hone their critical thinking skills.  Students will enhance their understanding of science and math terminology:  terminal velocity; drag coefficient; air density; frontal area; flyer’s mass; gravitational acceleration; mass; circumference; radius; sphere; flat plate; and ellipse. Not only will students enhance their science understanding, but they will also experience flying just as birds fly, an experience they could never receive in a classroom.
Allyson Morgan, eighth grade English/language arts/reading teacher, received $7,000 to take all eighth- grade students to visit the Holocaust Museum in Dallas.  At the museum, students will study primary documents, an important part of research.  The trip will not only promote empathy, understanding, and knowledge as they learn about how young people their age persevered through historical events, the museum exhibits will provide inspiration for them as they choose their eighth-grade International Baccalaureate project topics.  Students will read The Diary of Anne Frank prior to the trip.  Students will use Ten Questions for Young Changemakers as inquiry questions to drive their research, journal writing, essays, and class discussions.  Students will display their research and projects at end-of-year events for parents to see.

Led by teachers Mary Grace Avery, Jayme Burton, Darlene Chumley, Nina Herigon, and Holly Thomas. ninety-four seventh grade honors program students at Foster Middle School will travel to Arlington to tour AT&T Stadium to learn about commerce and the economy, especially the careers related to professional football beyond being a player. They will take guided tours of the stadium to learn about the architectural design of the stadium and the jobs related to operating the stadium.  To enhance science learning, students will investigate a real-world problem related to stadium domes and propose a solution to the problem. Students will be assigned one of three dome issues:  snow load and weather resistance, sound reflection and acoustics, or airflow and temperature regulation.  Students will gather information on their assigned problem and research solutions to the problem.  Students will create sketches for their dome design and create models as well as make a presentation explaining how the design will address the dome’s architectural issues.  Students will learn about the economic impact of the stadium to the DFW area while also learning about revenue bonds and investors needed to build such a stadium and determine the positive and negative effects of modifying the land for the stadium.  To enhance art education, the students will see the artwork at the stadium, especially the work created by Texan artists.  The guided tours of the stadium will offer students many opportunities to learn about a place many of them may never visit while learning about the stadium as a business rather than simply a football arena that they see on television.