Funding for this project was used to purchase flexible seating, sensory lighting, and calming activities to make a more welcoming space for students who need to practice mindfulness, relieve stress, and complete assignments. The goal is to provide a comfortable setting for students who need extra help/support to graduate.

The purchase of Adult/Child CPR and Infant CPR Anytime Mannequins allows the health department at Auburn Junior High School to teach CPR during health classes. Every student will receive training to perform hands-only CPR which will give each child the lifesaving knowledge/skill that can be used anytime and anyplace. 

Sensory activities were purchased to create sensory “toolkits” for inclusion teachers at Genesee Elementary School. The kits were filled with items offering different colors, textures, sounds, and smells. These types of activities help to calm students allowing them to become more mindful, better behaved, and able to focus on learning. 

Golf mats simulating Par 3, Par 4, and Par 5 golf holes are used in Seward Elementary School physical education classes to expose students to golf. The curriculum includes/encourages teamwork, goal setting, honesty, and perseverance. This equipment can be shared with other physical education teachers desiring to teach this sport.

The Auburn Junior High School Coffee Cart is manned by a group of students who are cognitively disabled, other health impaired, and/or autistic who may struggle to be actively engaged in the learning process. Every week, these students discuss, list needed ingredients and then make baked goods for the Friday Coffee Cart where staff can purchase coffee and baked goods. The students also deliver to staff unable to visit during times when The Cart is open for business. This endeavor provides hands-on learning experiences, with a focus on physical, cognitive, and emotional support to develop various skills and confidence through planning, preparing, and running the Coffee Cart. The grant funded a commercial brewing system, a mixer and curriculum materials.

Students taking Advanced Transportation in the technology department learned about the engineering, design, and fabrication techniques used in building motorcycles. Students developed higher-order thinking skills to build high-performance custom motorcycle frames and expressed their creativity in designing every aspect of their mini motorcycles. Learned skills help prepare those students attending technical colleges or starting positions in the industry.

Casey Park Elementary School created calming areas within classrooms for students who needed a safe and effective place within the classroom setting to regain control, reflect on behaviors, and rejoin the class. The goal is to decrease disruptive behaviors and increase student engagement. The sensory hallway is a series of pathways that students follow using different types of movement (skipping, hopping, jumping, etc.) allowing students to burn off excessive energy.

In collaboration with Kevin Burke of Accredited Art, a local art company, a coloring book was created that featured many of the people and sites that have played important roles in Auburn’s history. Because fourth-grade students learn about local history, each student was given a book and then in conjunction with the Fourth Grade Passport Program, students were able to visit several of the sites mentioned in the book. 

The library at Auburn High School is a gathering place for students and is open throughout the school day. With the relaxation of Covid guidelines, the librarian introduced board games as an alternative to students interacting constantly with screens. Research shows that board games alleviate stress, reduce social anxiety, and improve interpersonal skills. A variety of board games including chess, Rummikub, Mancala, Backgammon, and Trivial Pursuit Decades, were purchased for student use in the library. 

Root Coding Robots, an instructional technology tool with a supportive curriculum that can be leveraged for coding, were purchased for each of the five elementary schools and the junior high school. These devices involve scaffolding computer programming that can be used by our youngest learners and progressively advances with grade levels. The implementation of coding also allows students to advance their skills in communication, collaboration, and team building.

This project incorporates wrist-based heart rate monitors into the already established Physical Education program at Auburn Junior High School. The monitors allow students to track their individual progress in physical health based on their personal data. Students learn the healthy benefits of physical activity.

Yoga mats were purchased for a first-grade classroom at Herman Avenue where yoga is practiced daily as a calming technique. Students learn self-regulating skills to use when they need to calm down due to frustration or anger. The mats are shared with other classrooms.

Funding was provided to create student-centered access to sensory activities including an alternative break space to help those children having difficulty regulating environmental stimuli due to sensory system deficits. Use of these tools increases student self-regulation, decreases disruptive behavior and promotes a caring community of learners.

Math puzzle packs provide students with a fun and effective way to develop computational fluency. Teachers at all grade levels in all the elementary buildings have access to worksheets that use puzzles as a more engaging way to learn and practice math facts. The puzzles are designed to challenge students at their own level and can be modified for those who need additional help. 

Movement pathways were created inside the buildings and outside on school grounds at Seward and Herman Avenue Elementary Schools. Large, permanent stickers were placed in specific hallways and students who needed a quick break from academics could follow the path of movement activities. The outside pathways are used during recess as another way to engage children in physical activity.

Students at Genesee Elementary School learned about computers by physically building a computer from start to finish. The project was designed to teach problem-solving skills and computer literacy, including knowledge of hardware and programming languages, along with collaboration and communication skills. These kits can be reused to increase student involvement.

Funding was provided to elementary schools and Auburn Junior High School to support the district’s Positive Behavioral Interventions Support (PBIS) program. This program is used nationally to help schools manage behavior and provide clear instruction of rules and procedures in schools. Students earn points/school currency when PBIS behaviors are demonstrated/seen and can then use accumulated points/currency to “purchase” prizes. To accomplish this, book vending machines were purchased for Owasco, Herman, Casey Park and Genesee (Seward already had one). Students earned currency and could then go to the machine and choose a book. This also increased an interest in reading. At the Junior High School, this grant funded the prizes for the program. Teachers handed out Maroon Bucks to students who followed the principles “Be Dedicated, Be Respectful and Be in Control”. Students use their Maroon Bucks to “purchase” prizes including skateboards, gift cards, art supplies and other gifts desired by this age group.

Auburn Education Foundation and Herman Avenue Elementary School have a friend in Jay Goldman, a 1974 Auburn High School graduate. Jay, and his friends, John Callahan and John Marshall, all of whom attended Herman Avenue School, supported Jay’s idea to make a monetary gift of $5500 to AEF designated solely for the benefit of students at Herman. The three friends asked that the money be for programs/equipment needed by the school that would support the greatest number of students, especially those with social and emotional needs now two full years into the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Twenty-five pairs of snowshoes were purchased for Herman Ave Elementary School to be used in gym classes. These snowshoes provide opportunities for outdoor exercise and additional learning opportunities for students. Outdoor activities are needed during these times when children are spending much time inside and will serve as a chance for children to recharge and refocus. These snowshoes can be used in other grade levels as the snowshoes fit a range of boot sizes.

The students involved in the production learn how to work together in a fast-paced, high-stakes situation where things need to be completed correctly in a designated, set time. The stage crew learns how to set each scene change so that the correct set pieces/drops/props/costumes are ready for the next scene. Each actor on stage is responsible for learning not only how to be an individual performer by memorizing their lines and their staging, but also how to support each other in the scene. They also learn how to improve upon their character by delving into the sub-context of what the character says and their physical mannerisms throughout the performance. Students learn to work cooperatively by relying on one another for strength in a large group, as well as small ensemble performance numbers. They are also learning to be confident public speakers and gain presentational skills in not only using their vocal articulation appropriately, but also skills in stage presence and physical mannerisms that translate to a variety of situations.

Research has shown that the implementation of yoga practices improve student resilience to stress, as well as show improvement in student concentration, self-awareness, behavioral and emotional maturity, and self-confidence (Hagen & Nayar, 2014). The goal of this project is to implement short weekly or bi-weekly yoga practices with the materials provided by the grant and in doing so, increase student achievement not only in AIS class, but with the hope that these positive behaviors will carry over into the rest of their school day.

The kits are designed to meet the needs of multiple learning styles through their clear representations of motion and tactile components. Students will be able to collect data samples easily as the materials come with built-in sensors that export the data to a spreadsheet program. This will make data analysis by students easier allowing the instructor more time to assess students’ understanding of the material. This project meets the district goals of using strategies that engage students by encouraging them to use higher order thinking skills, collaboration, and creativity. The project will also meet the New York State Science Learning Standards that require students to focus on modeling of scientific concepts.

Students will learn how to work collaboratively together to develop a space that they will maintain. Students will improve their public speaking skills and their ability to convey information in a well-thought/well-informed and responsible way.

A classroom set of “Refugees” by Alan Gratz will be purchased for student use. Students will then hear from a speaker, a refugee from Sudan who has recently been elected to the Syracuse Common Council. Students will actively engage in classroom discussions during the speaker’s visit. This project will help students develop a social-emotional understanding of the refugee crisis on a more personal level.

Authors Miranda and Baptiste Paul, along with Cameroon farmer Tantoh Nforba, the subject of the Paul’s book, I Am Farmer, visited each elementary school and shared how Tantoh solved water problems and developed community gardens in his country. Auburn Education Foundation funded an evening event where parents, students, and community members could learn about the experiences of the authors, illustrator, and Farmer Tantoh. The event also featured a Maker Faire in which students in grades 3-6 shared environmentally focused projects. Students, individually or in groups, identified an environmental problem and developed a solution to this problem using the design process taught in the Innovation Lab located in each elementary building. The seed money for these Labs was also funded by Auburn Education Foundation. Chosen projects were displayed at the evening event, and the students discussed their projects with attendees.

Stephan Kowalski
A series of math games will be housed in the library of each elementary school. Teachers will be able to sign out the games for use in small group instruction. The games enhance the existing curriculum and engage students in fun and relevant learning activities.

High school students collaborated with engineers, architects, and builders. These students had the opportunity to take on leadership roles, mentor other students, and work with one another.

Marie Jesinski, Anne Mlod, Cinda Gilmore
All district fourth graders in the Auburn School District participate in the Passport to History program. Because finding primary source material written at a fourth grade level to introduce the historical sites to students has been a challenge, the students in Mrs. Gilmore’s and Ms. Jasinski’s fourth grades, working with Mrs. Mlod, will write, illustrate and publish an alphabet book of Auburn. The book will be shared with all schools and used to provide background knowledge of Auburn’s cultural and historic sites. This project is part of a larger unit with the essential question, “How does caring about the place we live, appreciating historical and cultural environments, and appreciating the past and present help us to be better citizens?”

Kathleen Austin
Nearly 120 high school students explored and investigated lake ecology while aboard the Scandling research vessel on Seneca Lake. Students worked collaboratively, collecting biological, chemical, and physical data from the lake water and bottom sediments. The data was compiled and sent to Fingerlakes Institute to become part of the EPA project monitoring the health of the lake. Researcher Nadia Harvieux from the Institute of Hobart College assisted in leading student research.