Congratulations to the 2011 Lenoir County Education Foundation Mini Grant winners. The Mini Grant "Prize Patrol" surprised the winners last Thursday and Friday with balloons and checks!  The list of names, schools, projects, and amounts are attached.

 

The Adult Spelling Bee, STAGES!, and a $2,500 gift from Wal-Mart enabled The Education Foundation to award close to $12,000 this year.  In years past, only $5,000-$6,0000 was able to be awarded.

 

In case you've wondered how the selection process works..... four judges (not connected to the school system), individually, read applications which do not have the names of applicants or their schools. They, then, come together to discuss their individual findings.  

 

This year they read approximately 100 applications; compared to last year's 60 or so.

 

In the coming weeks, we will be highlighting each project on the school district's website.  We will update the website, periodically, with project pictures and write-ups.  In the meantime, winners will be featured on our school district's TV Channel 12.

Second grade students at Northeast Elementary will be traveling to Camp Don Lee in Arapahoe, NC on May 25^th to explore concepts of weather, navigation, life cycles, herpetology, and coastal transportation. With this mini grant, our students will have the opportunity to board the Flying Scot, a historical sailboat, to learn about the historical importance of coastal transportation. The students will make real-world connections to how transportation has changed throughout history and evaluate what careers are involved in designing and developing new forms of transportation.