Nuvance Health Taconic IPA Science Education Grants
Deadlines:
December 15, 2024. Awards will be announced in January 2025.
ELIGIBILITY – All public, private, and parochial secondary teachers (Grades 7-12) in all New York State licensed and certified schools in Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster Counties.
APPLICATION PROCEDURES – Online grant application. Click here to access the Grants Portal.
EVALUATION AND SELECTION PROCESS – All applications will be reviewed by the NuvanceTaconic IPA Committee of the Community Foundations.
Funding priority will be given to requests that are well-written, for equipment that is durable and will serve a large number of students. Requests that include information relative to how the lessons using the equipment will positively impact students, spur their interest in science related careers and provide a strong educational foundation for college level curriculum will receive special consideration. Requests that note equipment sharing across schools within the same district are also encouraged.
AWARD AMOUNTS – Grants will be awarded in amounts ranging from $500 – $1,000.
COOPERATIVE VENTURES – Applications/requests in excess of the $1,000 limit will be considered for cooperative ventures across different fields/disciplines that affect a large number of students.
NOTIFICATION – Applicants will be notified in January 2025.
FINAL REPORT – An online report accounting for expenditure of grant funds must be submitted to the Community Foundations no later than June 30th of the year following the award. This report should also include information on how the equipment purchased enhanced learning opportunities in the classroom laboratory. Unused funds must be returned to the Foundation.
OWNERSHIP OF EQUIPMENT – Equipment purchased with grant funds is deemed to be the property of the school.
EXAMPLES OF PAST PROJECTS FUNDED:
Without suggesting the kinds of activities to be funded, the following are examples of projects funded in recent years:
Arlington High School, $992.87
Exploring the Problems of the Heart:
Lab activities on blood pressure and pulse rate will be expanded to enhance students understanding of how the heart works. Students will use models to master workings of the heart and then move on to real hearts that they will dissect to reveal the anatomy of the heart and learn how to perform medical procedures such as by-pass surgery. Students will work with local cardiac surgeons. Students will also learn how to conduct to conduct EKGs on themselves. Working with the models and the EKG probes will enable the students to have a more direct experience with the heart to better understand their own bodies and to better ascertain if the medical field is one that they wish to pursue.
Middletown High School, $1,020.50
Urban Turbine: Wind Power:
The purchase of the Rutland 503 Windcharger, a basic wind-powered electrical generator, will provide students will a hands-on introduction to a renewable energy source. A student research project will be conducted that collects weather and wind generator power output to use in a feasibility study for a larger wind power installation at the school. It will demonstrate the capability of wind generation to power a small pump/ filtration system that will filter water at a small pond on the high school campus. With the conclusion of this project, it is hoped that students will be encouraged to plan their “energy future.”
Poughkeepsie Middle School, $2,350.00
Basic Laboratory Glassware:
Grant will be used to purchase standard laboratory glassware used during student laboratory activities and projects. Items include test tubes, funnels, beakers, Petri dishes and microscope slides/coverslips, to name a few. This equipment is essential to provide hands-on, inquiry based lab activities mandated by best practices in science education and the NYSED. Twelve hundred middle school students will benefit from the use of this equipment.
