$750,000 grant means laptops and more for county students

Discussion

June 28, 2010

Carnell Hawthorne Jr. Suwannee Democrat The Suwannee Democrat Mon Jun 28, 2010, 07:09 AM EDT

Live Oak — The Suwannee County School District was recently awarded a $750,000 science grant to aid students and teachers at the district's secondary schools.

The grant, which will fund the Life in the Suwannee River Valley project, will provide four science technology carts for Branford High School, seven carts for Suwannee High School and six carts for Suwannee Middle school. The project will give students hands-on experience in Florida science standards and hopefully decrease absenteeism and dropout rates, while increasing student achievement.

Each technology cart will include 25 shared student laptops, four flip video camcorders, one digital microscope and four GPS receivers. Science teachers will be equipped with a laptop of their own, a document camera, a seamlessly-wired sound system for the classroom, DLP projectors and television receivers. Furthermore each instructor will have use of an interactive pad, laser printer, and a shared student response system (one per four teachers).

Norri Steele, principal at Suwannee Middle School, said enthusiasm in her science department is hard to contain.

"We are just thrilled and looking forward to working on these projects," she said. "We already have designated some classes to make the most of the grant. Our teachers are on board. We're ready, we're charged and we're excited."

As grant documents note, to further transform district classrooms into model science classrooms, instruction areas will include science probe kits, higher-level productivity software and lab equipment specific to each science content field lab. All teachers and students will receive thorough training to use the new equipment in the classroom and during fieldwork.

Superintendent Jerry Scarborough was also pleased with the grant award.

"We're excited about the possibility of what it is going to do to increase our student's knowledge and comprehension in science," he said. "There is over $500,000 in technological equipment alone, which will propel our students to the cutting edge of science and technology."