Lakeshore Excellence Foundation Awards Innovation Grants

Innovation Grant Recipients 2005/2006

The Lakeshore Excellence Foundation (LEF) Innovation Grant Committee selected 11of the 19 proposals submitted this year. All of these projects provide educational experiences above and beyond the school supported curriculum.

1. “In Design & Photoshop” software purchase: These software programs allow students to produce and improve documents faster and easier than former software. By utilizing this software, Journalism/Advanced Journalism students, LHS yearbook “Driftwood” and the school paper “The Drifter” will be created more efficiently and accurately.
Grant Applied for by: Suzanna Reifschneider & Mark Ring, High School

2. Maximum Adventure Xperience (MAX): Students attend the MAX program to promote group interaction and individual growth. The program supports the Alternative Education program goals of improving self-esteem and social interaction skills.
Grant Applied for by: Robert LaManna, High School Alternative Education

3. Portable Easels: DECA urgently needed easels/stands for presentations as part of their competitions. They will be used at local, state, and national DECA Competitions.
Grant Applied for by: Tonya Jahnke, High School

4. Artist in Residence: Randy Duncan, nationally known choreographer, will work with advanced dancers and teach beginners. He will be in residence at Lakeshore for one week. This project will benefit 30 Lakeshore student dancers and 10 other dancers from other high schools.
Grant Applied for by: Theresa Graziano, High School

Lakeshore Light May 2006 --Berrien County Dancers Randy Duncan, a three-time recipient of Chicago’s prestigious Ruth Page Award for Outstanding Choreographer of the Year, was here to visit our very own Berrien County Dancers. Mr. Duncan has worked with wellknown companies such as the Joffrey Ballet, River North Dance Company, and Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago. He has traveled to England, France, Amsterdam, Israel, and Mexico teaching guest classes in Jazz with an African influence. Randy’s first major motion picture (by Paramount Pictures), Save the Last Dance, starring Julia Stiles, earned him a nomination for the American Choreography Award for dance on film. Randy worked with our students for an entire week. He set an eight-minute dance on the advanced level class, which will be performed in our Spring Dance Concert on May 13 at 7:00 P.M. During this intense week, Randy will be working with the advanced students in 5th and 6th hour as well as two-hour rehearsals each evening. All classes will experience a two-hour guest class with him at one point during the week. Our sincerest thanks to the Lakeshore Excellence Foundation as this fabulous experience has been sponsored in part by their generous support. We also thank Lakeshore Public Schools for their support in this event as well as all people who have come to our concerts to help raise money to bring in notorious choreographers and teachers like Randy throughout our school year. Come and see the dancers perform A Path, choreographed by Randy Duncan, in our concert on May 13!

5. Science Show: The goal of the Science Show is to spread enthusiasm for science to the 5th and 8th graders and encourage chemistry students to take AP chemistry. The AP chemistry students will research, demonstrate, and explain a chemical concept to all 5th and 8th grade students in the form of a science show.
Grant Applied for by: Mike Whitesell , High School

6. Artist in Residence: Stan Secrest, who has served as an AIR previously, will work with students in actual Djembe Drum building. The drums will then be used in class for rhythm projects and assignments. This project will impact music theory students from Lakeshore, Eau Claire, Coloma, and Bridgman as well as the Lakeshore Choir Program.
Grant Applied for by: Lori VonKoenig and Kelly Ann Westgate, High School

7. Digital Blue: QX5 Computer Microscope: A software package and a microscope with video and editing on CD-Rom allowing for detailed magnification of images as well as serving as a multi-function digital camera for taking digital still images and creating time-lapse movies. This will benefit 6th grade level immediately and eventually impact 6th and 8th grade.
Grant Applied for by: Gina Urban, Wendy Nelson, Judy Thomas, Middle School

8. Pedometers and Certificates of Accomplishment: Project goals: 1) For students to participate in the Presidential Active Lifestyle Program as part of the Presidential Challenge Program; 2) To get students active at least 60 minutes per day/5 days per week for a total of six weeks. This project will impact about 150 students or more.
Grant Applied for by: Gail Gebhard, Middle School

9. Create Landscaping and Care for Garden: This project will involve designing landscaping and motivate students to take care of the Middle School garden for a “hands on” experience with plant life that will support the student’s Earth Science Unit.
Grant Applied for by: Steve Graziano, Middle School

10. Discovery Garden: This project will integrate art and science with horticulture to improve and revive the courtyard garden at Roosevelt Elementary School. Many donations have been made including tadpoles, frogs, and turtles. The final goal will be to create a visually stimulating and inspiring outdoor learning space for students to get hands on experience.
Grant Applied for by: Nancy Anderson, Michelle Ellis (Parent), Roosevelt

Lakeshore Light June 2006 --The Discovery Garden welcomes its first robin family this Spring with a nest of four eggs that we are patiently waiting to see hatch. The fourth graders made stepping stones for the garden to create a pathway for the future. Projects for the garden are starting to get underway and will continue through the summer, in hopes that it will be completed by the beginning of the next school year. Some of the summer projects will be: working with Ms. Siewert on training a few flowering vines, expansion of the pond so all students can have a view, and starting and finishing the perennial garden area with a water feature of its own. We look forward to finishing the garden so staff and students can enjoy it next year.

11. Authors of “A Stranger in the Woods”: The authors of this book will show how writing can be transformed into different media. The book has been produced as a film. The goal is to excite young writers and help them to connect real life uses of the written word. Students will create their own stories using the incorporation of technology via a digital camera. We will have 3 presentations (K-1, 2-3, 4-5). This will impact 400 students, staff and family members.
Grant Applied for by: Sara Masten, Casey King, Hollywood Elementary