Robotics programming, virtual reality, and other digital projects were popular among those that sought funding this year from Berks County Community Foundation’s annual classroom mini-grant program.
The Community Foundation recently awarded $3,075 to seven projects in five school districts.
The classroom mini-grant program will next accept applications November 1, 2021, with a deadline of December 15. Apply at bccf.org at that time.
This program has provided more than $50,000 in grants to classrooms across Berks County in recent years.
This year’s grants:
- $500 to Reading School District to purchase virtual reality headsets for Southern Middle School.
- $500 to Reading School District to hire professional musicians to interact online with students to encourage them to play musical instruments at Northwest Middle School. The pandemic presented difficulties for online orchestra and band, which resulted in only a fraction of Northwest fifth graders beginning or even continuing instrumental studies. This online program – which is to be shared with the district’s other middle schools – is intended to help reverse that trend.
- $500 to Reading School District to purchase kits for Northwest Middle School that will allow students to see the practical applications of math in the real world by creating electrical circuits and programming robots.
- $500 to Daniel Boone Area School District to purchase robotic equipment to teach coding and computational thinking at Daniel Boone Area Middle School.
- $475 to Boyertown Area School District to purchase paint palettes with lids at Boyertown Middle School West so each student can keep mixed paints from drying out over several weeks while learning color theory and mixing instead of starting from scratch each day.
- $400 to Oley Valley School District to purchase video editing software for Oley Valley Middle School’s Vlog Squad program, which allows teams of students to create digital communication used to convey the school district’s messages to the entire community.
- $200 to Hamburg Area School District to purchase books to provide more interesting and personalized reading choices for students at Hamburg Area High School.
The Teacher Mini-Grants Fund accepts donations at https://bccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate.
