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closePSEF breakfast raises funds to support schools
Teacher uses grant to purchase GPS equipment for kids
Hugh McMillan
Special to the gateway
The 15th annual Peninsula Schools Education Foundation fundraising breakfast at Canterwood Golf & Country Club earlier this month was attended by nearly 200 people.
PSEF President John Purbaugh credited donor support and hard work by the foundation’s board members for the event’s success.
Keynote speaker Frosty Westering, the legendary Pacific Lutheran University football coach who’s now an inspirational speaker, told the crowd to, “make the big time where you are,” which is the title of his latest book. Westering’s sense of humor ensured the crowd went away inspired.
As is customary, a teacher recipient of a PSEF grant spoke about the effect it had on their students.
“Without your generosity, none of the exciting projects my students have been doing would have been possible,” Harbor Ridge Middle School science teacher Shira Stark said.
Stark said she co-wrote a PSEF grant two years ago with KPMS science and NASA teacher Kareen Borders for an after-school club called STEMco, a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math cooperative between KPMS and HRMS.
Stark asked for Global Positioning Satellite receivers to help students better understand the wealth of information scientists collect from satellites by using the receivers to geocache, a technological version of a scavenger hunt using the GPS receivers to locate the exact longitude and latitude of hidden items called caches.
“I hid items around the school campus, gave students their coordinates, and they delighted in finding the hidden boxes,” Stark said. “I also created a variety of other learning activities using GPS receivers with my science and reading classes. Students struggled through the operating manuals and then received immediate feedback on the success of their reading strategies as they used the GPS units around the school grounds.”
Stark said more than 370 students have benefited from the grant.
“They have received learning experiences that could not be financed by the school district alone, especially in our current budget crisis,” she said.
Stark said she also bought a portable Vernier LabQuest unit and probes to give students a deeper understanding of the scientific process.
“Students use the probes to measure temperature, ultraviolet radiation and light intensity in their study areas at Donkey Creek Park and around school,” she said. “The instant measurements from the unit allow a huge increase in the amount of data that can be collected during a class period. In just minutes, students are asking more questions and conducting on-the-spot investigations to answer their questions as they observe temperature and light trends.”
To learn more about the PSEF, e-mail Purbaugh at JPandJB@comcast.net.