2013 Grants in Action

Check out the stories coming in from some of the 2013 grant recipients! To see a complete list of 2013 awarded grants, click here.

Meet the Robockets!

REF provided a start-up grant for RMHS first robotics team, the “Robockets,” who debuted in the nationally recognized, regional FIRST Robotics Competition this past spring. The 25 student, mulitgrade, co-ed team worked tirelessly with dedicated staff, parents and sponsors from Kurrig and Textron to complete an amazing inaugural year.

At the Boston Regional FRC competition the Robockets and their robot Penelope placed 12 out of 50 teams and qualified as captain of their playoff team. This resulted in the Robockets taking home both the Highest Ranking Rookie and the Rookie All Star awards, in addition to receiving an invitation to compete at the national competition in St. Louis in April.  They were chosen out of 254 teams and they competed against teams from 37 countries.

Watch their video of how Penelope came to be!

Visit the Robockets website and watch video streams from their competitions last spring!

Joshua Eaton AuthorFest

Joshua Eaton Elementary celebrated the incredible writing that every child had done throughout the year in a school-wide AuthorFest last June. Thanks to two REF Grants, one in 2012 for materials to pilot the Columbia writing program created by Lucy Calkins (now adopted district-wide), and one in 2013 for a teacher workshop on “Writing Behind the Scenes” by renowned writer Ralph Fletcher, the students have been writing vigorously throughout the year.

A remarkable total of 605 books written by approximately 450 students were assembled by parent volunteers in the school’s publishing center. On June 7th, students spent the morning sharing their work with each other in small, mixed-aged groups with volunteer adults, leaving them on display for parents and peers to admire throughout the day.

Finch Robots for RMHS Computer Science

These cute, programable robots, purchased through a grant from REF, are being used in introductory Computer Science classes at RMHS.  Finch Robots support varied learning styles and talents while offering a rich and accessible learning experience, regardless  of the student’s background or experience. Designed to allow aspiring programmers to create interactive programs in over a dozen different computer languages, the Finch’s functionality ranges from having light, temperature and obstacle sensors, to the ability to access and report from the internet.