Grants Fund Projects for Southern High, Central Special

The Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County recently announced it provided $8,000 in grants to , including about $1,000 in the Annapolis area.

See the complete story on the grants at Greater Annapolis Patch.

In southern Anne Arundel County, two schools received the grants: Southern High School in Harwood and in Edgewater.

At Southern High, Joshua Rice, an agriculture education teacher, said the students used the money to purchase a hydroponics system and are currently growing coleus, tomatoes, mint and poinsettia plants in the system. Southern High School is the location of a new agriculture signature study program.

"The agricultural science students are able to view the root systems when we are discussing plant growth and the anatomy of plants. The system truly has a positive impact on the students and the learning environment," Rice said.

As an aside, Rice added that the school's home economics classes get to use the mint that the agriculture class is growing in cooking demonstrations.

Rice sent a study paper written by one of the students using the hydroponics system. A PDF of the report is attached to this story.

Jan Hoffenberger, program director for the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County, said that Joe Van Deuren of Balanced Life Skills in Annapolis started the grants fund in 2009. She said the fund was established because Van Deuren saw teachers taking money out of their own pockets to provide special learning experiences for students.

Hoffenberger said none of the grants issued are for more than $500.

She said that the other south county project, at Central Special School, provides materials so that teachers and therapists can create adaptive devices for students with multiple disabilities to:

• become more independent
• access modified curriculum and
• increase communication.

Hoffenberger said that another round of grants will be handed out in late February 2012.

Visit the Community Foundation online to learn more about grant programs and funding from philanthropists who are giving—big and small—in Anne Arundel County.