Longview ISD Foundation, Inc. Awards Five John W. Harrison, Jr. Academic Field Trip Grants
 
On Wednesday, November 30, the Longview ISD Foundation rang in the season of giving by visiting Johnston-McQueen Elementary School, Judson STEAM Academy, J. L. Everhart Elementary School, Foster Middle School, and Ware East Texas Montessori Academy to award five John W. Harrison, Jr. Academic Field Trip Grants for a total of $19,735.88.
 
Foundation members Heather Hilton, Academic Field Trip Grant Committee Chair, Scott Lewis, and Julie Ford joined Kay Ray, director, to surprise the grant recipients and their students with funding for their academic field trip learning experiences.
 
The Foundation funded three elementary school academic field trip grants.

Ninety fifth graders from J. L. Everhart Elementary School will travel to the Perot Museum in Dallas as part of a cross-curricular field trip that will cover math, science, social studies, and reading.  Students will visit the Texas Instruments Engineering and Innovative Hall, the Discovering Life Hall, the Gems and Minerals Hall, the Dynamic Earth Hall, the Energy Hall, and the Life Now and Then Hall.  Students will complete presentations over the combined skills when they return to class, including creating electronic greeting cards to prove their understanding of electrical circuitry. Winning grant recipients are Aura Djurisic, Bitia Saravia, TaShebra Walker, Bryan Warren, and Shanekwa Wrighten.  They received $5,468.00 in field trip funding.

Ninety fifth graders at Johnston-McQueen Elementary School will enhance their classroom science instruction on a trip to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. Monique Holleman and Rhonda Small, fifth grade teachers, wrote a grant titled “A Science Exploration at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science” and requested $4,752.00 to take students to the Perot Museum so students can make connections and apply science concepts through critical thinking, focusing on the earth and its changes over time and the history of fossil fuels and energy that led to the development of industry and today’s technology.  To prepare for the trip, students will complete a “Know” and “Want to Know: Google slide presentation after they research and choose three or the eleven Perot exhibits.  Students will explain what they already know and what they wish to learn while touring the exhibits.  Upon return to the classroom, students will complete the slideshow with what they learned at the Perot.  Teachers will evaluate the students’ slide presentations with a rubric.  All students will present their slide presentations to their classmates.

Eighty-three fourth graders at Ware East Texas Montessori Academy will travel to the Sci-Port Discovery Center in Shreveport, Louisiana to engage in hands-on learning experiences in world science, engineering, and mathematics.  Prior to the trip, students will receive classroom instruction on properties of matter, types of energy, conductors, and insulators.  Students will also learn about the solar system and phases of the moon.  Students will also study energy as a physical process and as a unifying concept in many areas of science.  Upon returning to the classroom, students will write a reflection about what they learned from their adventure at Sci-Port.  Students will be able to answer fundamental questions about each area of study and apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.  Winning grant recipients Permeila Evans, Lorena Jimenez, Cristina Mauras, Melvycia Mobley, and Rosa Santos received $2,224.04 in field trip funding.
The Foundation awarded two middle school academic field trip grants.

With $6,383.00 in funding from the Foundation for their grant titled “I Fly, You Fly, We All Fly at iFly” and $500 from a Foster Middle School PTO mini-grant, teachers Kimberly Pierson, Cody Butler, Jordan Courtney, and LaShundra Rodgers will take ninety traditional eighth grade students from Foster Middle School to learn about math and physics and see both come to life in a state-of-the-art wind tunnel at iFly in Frisco.  STEM educators at iFly will guide the students through a hands-on experience that uses science, technology, engineering, and math at a grade appropriate level.  Students will enhance their knowledge of mass, circumference, radius, velocity, and acceleration before, during, and after experiencing the wind tunnel at iFly for themselves.  Students will complete lab activities provided by the iFly educators.

Judson STEAM Academy teacher Laura Johnston wrote a grant titled “Taking Our Crew to the Zoo!”  to receive $908.84 in funding to take Judson’s Life Skills class and the JSA Student Advisory Club to the Caldwell Zoo.  In her grant, Ms. Johnston noted that Goal 2 of the Campus Improvement Plan states that the campus will provide social-emotional learning to all students on campus to improve student morale, social well-being, and mental well-being.  As the sponsor of the JSA Advisory Club, Ms. Johnston teaches important character traits and asks students to put those traits in practice by visiting and getting to know the students in the Life Skills special education classroom.  Students in the JSA Advisory Club will partner with their friends in the Life Skills class and teach them about the animals, many of which the students have only seen in books,  and their habitats and the food chain.  Students will return to their classrooms to write reflections about their zoo experiences and create a PowerPoint presentation for the Life Skills students and their own classmates. 
November 30 was also a day that allowed the Foundation to see that funds raised throughout our community directly benefit students, all of whom are so appreciative. Thank you, Longview, for supporting Longview ISD educators and students through your financial support of the Longview ISD Foundation, Inc.
 
Since November 2018, the Longview ISD Foundation has funded fourteen academic field trips grants for a total of $61,733.74.
 
In total, the Longview ISD Foundation has returned $1,042,092.19 to Longview ISD classroom and campuses to enhance educational opportunities for all students.