2 Pearl River Teachers' Innovative STEM Projects Win O&R Grants

PEARL RIVER, NY — Talented, hard-working, thoughtful teachers including Alyson Fishman and Shauna O’Flynn in the Pearl River schools have crafted ambitious, interesting, ingenious, sparkling lesson plans that sizzle. These out-of-the-box proposals are designed to challenge students to think, plan, act and achieve — and have fun doing it. And O&R is supporting those proposals to an unprecedented degree.

O&R awarded grants throughout its service area on Wednesday totaling over $30,000 to support 34 cutting-edge classroom projects that focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This year’s winning proposals were designed to engage, entertain and inspire as well as educate, guide and train. They included projects featuring robotics, hydroponics, solar studies and research on sustainability and algal biofuels.

In Rockland, 12 grants were made totaling almost 11,000. The winners are:

• ASHAR - New City – Jenna Schuh - $261.07
• Clarkstown North High School – New City – Matthew Schuchman - $1,000
• Fieldstone Middle School – Garnerville – David Guerrieri - $1,000
• Franklin Avenue Elementary School – Pearl River – Alyson Fishman - $995.74
• George W. Miller Elementary School – Nanuet – Mary Rose Palumbo - $959.84James A. Farley Elementary School – Stony Point – Letitia Politi - $977.92
• Nanuet Schools – Nanuet – Vinny Garrison - $900
• North Rockland High School – Thiells – Marc Pritsky - $1,000
• North Rockland Central School District – Garnerville – Michael Brondolo - $973.30
• Pearl River Middle School – Pearl River – Shauna O’Flynn - $1,000
• Stony Point Elementary School – Stony Point – Jennifer LaBier - $997.74
• Viola Elementary School – Suffern – Lynda Hammond – $817.75

“It’s not just the application of science and technology in these projects that is so striking,” O&R President and CEO Tim Cawley, who has visited classrooms where previous years’ projects were funded, said. “It’s more the subject knowledge that the individual students absorb from the experience. They’re obviously very much at home with some challenging concepts. That comes from engagement, enthusiasm and a real understanding of the science. That’s a successful project.”

Since the program’s inception three years ago, O&R has awarded 89 grants totaling $85,000.

This year’s competition was open for STEM Classroom Grants of up to $1,000 each to educators at schools (pre-kindergarten through grade 12) and youth group leaders for the 2017-2018 school year in communities located within O&R’s service area. That encompasses: Rockland and parts of Orange and Sullivan counties in New York and parts of Bergen, Passaic and Sussex counties in New Jersey.

Any creative classroom project designed to improve, advance and enrich student learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics was considered. Grants were awarded based on a review by the O&R STEM Education Advisory Council, a panel of educators and engineers assembled by O&R expressly for this process.

So, teachers there’s no time like the present to start thinking about your proposal to capture that “Oh, Wow” moment in your classroom next year. For more information, including an application, go to www.oru.com/STEM. The program re-opens for applications on Jan. 1, 2018.

PHOTO: Third-graders in Jennifer LaBier’s class at Stony Point Elementary School are hard at work on a STEM-oriented project funded by O&R’s STEM Classroom Grants program. Pictured here are from lower left: Olivia Stewart, Layla Subasic, Chase Perini, Chris Forenza, and Daniel Cassese.