Media
2019 BASF Science Education Grant Recipients
BASF provides New Jersey schools $100,000 in grants to support creative STEM projects
FLORHAM PARK, NJ, November 5, 2019 – Twenty New Jersey schools received a $5,000 grant each from BASF to support innovative projects in classrooms across the state that align with the company’s ongoing efforts to enhance Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education programs.
Each year BASF invites all New Jersey public and charter schools to submit a proposal summarizing their specific STEM educational needs and how students would benefit from a grant for a creative learning project. This year, the company received 99 proposals from schools in 19 of 21 counties in the state.
“Supporting programs that enhance quality education in a fun and imaginative way is important to the future of our industry,” said Bob Nelson, Head of Site Communications & Community Relations and STEM Education for BASF in North America. “It is our desire that the grants will foster science literacy and inspire students to view STEM fields as a possible education and career path.”
Past recipients have used their grants to learn more about the environment, robotics engineering and technology. For example, students at Sayreville War Memorial High School built a school greenhouse to find a sustainable solution for ensuring food supply around the world. Clinton Public School students grades 2-8 created 3D printed kinetic sculptures to harvest rainwater to water plants and crops distributed to community members.
The 2019 grant recipients and descriptions of their projects:
Clinton Public School, Hunterdon County
Tracking Human Impact on Local Environment
Students will collaborate as citizen scientists to collect, interpret and communicate environmental data to identify human impacts on a local trout stream to make informed conclusions on how to improve and protect their environment. Ultimately, students will use data when designing solutions from detrimental human impact and share it with local stakeholders.
Colonia High School, Middlesex Country
Introduction to Citizen Science
The grant money will be used to create an outdoor classroom where students can engage in STEM-related activities to augment classroom lessons as well as collect data for various citizen science projects. Items such as a solar charging bench and assorted outdoor observation tools would be purchased. Data collected using these outdoor tools may be shared with Citizen Science Projects, such as “Project Budburst”, CoCoRaHS, and “Classroom Feeder Watch”.
East Orange STEM Academy (Middle School), Essex County
Drones for the Science and Engineering Classrooms
Incorporating drones into the curriculum in an educational way creates an interactive experience to get students excited about science and engineering. The grant money will be used to purchase 6 Discover Drone Kits. Drones provide a perfect platform to create a hands-on learning opportunity that bring STEM topics to life. Discover Drones is a project-based learning solution for 21st Century education.
Hamilton High School West, Mercer County
Pollinator Pockets
Working in conjunction with Mercer County Parks and Tulpehaking Nature Center, the district will create pollinator pockets at three high school locations using native plants to attract native and migratory insect species. Students will create the pockets and use the locations to gather authentic science data and share information on each of the three locations for comparison purposes.
Robotic Farming with the FarmBot
Students will install a FarmBot raised bed garden and outdoor greenhouse with a solar panel to learn about robotic gardening. They will grow and harvest plants for use in the school’s culinary classes. Students will also track the amount of produce grown and share this information with business classes to calculate return on investment. This project has the potential to positively affect many areas of the school’s curriculum and give students a great hands-on learning experience.
STEM for English language learners
Joseph D. Sharp Elementary School is the magnet school for English Language Learners for one-half of the Cherry Hill School District. This grant money will provide enhanced opportunities for learning by adding STEM components to lessons for all students, especially English Language Learners. Materials purchased with the grant money will provide hands-on activities to develop visual, auditory and kinesthetic skills. Having a “bank” of STEM resources will reinforce what is being taught in the classroom.
SeaPerch - The Tabernacle Way
SeaPerch is an innovative underwater robotics program that teaches teachers and students to build an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) in either a classroom or out-of-school setting. Students build the ROV from a kit comprised of low-cost, easily accessible parts, following a curriculum that teaches STEM with a marine engineering theme. Throughout the project, students will learn engineering concepts, problem solving, design skills, and teamwork.
Engineering and Design Program
The grant money would supplement and extend the Engineering and Design curriculum that takes place in the context of the current K-2 Library/STEM program. Students will have the opportunity to engage in an array of design and building challenges, as well as open exploration, with a variety of construction toys and building materials.
McKinley Estates
Students in grades 4-8 will be charged with the task of planning and executing environmentally sound green spaces on school grounds. Students will focus on plants native to the Northeastern United States, as well as plants attractive to pollinators (essential to continued human existence). Students will research green gardening techniques and survey the surrounding urban area to plan a successful garden.
Purity is attractive and quantifiable
Intermolecular forces vary between compounds and determine the unique solubility as well as vaporization characteristics of compounds. Through the BASF grant, students will use the intensive property of boiling point to purify mixtures and then analyze purity via gas chromatography. Again, through intermolecular forces, students will separate via crystallization differences of chiral diastereomers and determine purity through the use of Vernier polarimeters.
Senior Capstone Experience
This grant will support the Senior Capstone in the STEM CTE programs of Biomedical Science, Engineering, and Computer Science where students work with a mentor to plan and execute a culminating original problem-based learning project. Students conduct scientific research, design and build prototypes of medical devices, develop computer applications to meet a need, etc. Grant money will fund a large format printer and supplies for original student posters and presentations of their work to the community.
Growing Up: Engineering Vertical Farms
Students in grades 5-8 will engineer and build a vertical farm in a greenhouse purchased with the grant money which will offer a solution to the world’s limited farmland. They will learn that the vertical orientation of the farm provides more land for crop production on any given footprint. Students will also learn that production of crops in their city (where population density is highest) will decrease the transportation and cost required to deliver food, while positively impacting the environment.
Feeding our future
The grant money will empower students to conduct hands-on, minds-on investigations into sustainable food production to increase food security for all. Students will work with experts to design and build an Aquaponic System, analyzing and comparing efficiency, resource use, sustainability, and crop yield in aquaponic versus traditional soil-based farming. Students will also engage in farm-to-table production, sharing their bounty and learning with a nearby youth center.
Engineering Artifical Reefs on the NJ Coastlines
Grant funds will be utilized to assist students in collaborating with local marine biologists, environmentalists, and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council to develop plans to engineer and assist in preserving ecosystems along the Jersey shore, specifically designing artificial coral reefs. In this process, the arts will be added to STEM to inspire both boys and girls to think outside the box and become creative critical thinkers to solve the future problems of the world.
Growing to New Heights Greenhouse Project
The school’s goal is to create a program and environment where students learn about, and take affirmative steps to achieve, the development of a sustainable environment within our school. With the aid of the grant, a greenhouse will be constructed in the school courtyard. The greenhouse will be the focal point of the program as it will provide a controlled, but natural, environment within which students will learn about the delicate balance between nature and the effects of human activity.
TCR Hydro-Market
The grant money will be used to start a science and engineering program entitled, “TCR Hydro-Market.” This will improve science and engineering education for students by building upon the Next Generation Science Standards currently implemented in the school district. Students will grow vegetables and herbs indoors in the cafeteria using a student-built hydroponic system, with a goal of growing year-round using the current outdoor garden and creating an indoor hydroponic setup. In the Spring, a produce swap program will be established with residents from the surrounding neighborhood.
#TheU's Jr. Medical Academy Lab
#TheU's Jr. Medical Academy Lab will be the center for design challenges and prototyping under a health profession theme. To create globally impactful citizens with the tools necessary for college, career, and life, students will learn medical and life skills based on pre-medical and medical school curriculum scaled to a middle school level. Each student will engage in problem-based medical scenarios, culminating in a junior residency in 7th grade, and a senior residency in 8th grade.
Building a better future
The BASF grant will enable the school to continue to build a STEAM program utilizing innovative 21st century learning tools to educate students on discovering scientific reasoning through collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity. Students will create products and designs that utilize forms of renewable energy sources; they will use a MakerBot 3-D printer to create projects; and Makey Makey STEM Classroom Invention Literacy Kits to turn everyday objects into connected devices through coding.
West Morris Central High School Food Science Redesign Project
The Architecture students will redesign the current food science classroom to increase productivity and storage space to enable bulk purchases to save money, heighten student accessibility and involvement, and include a video/live feed. They will build a greenhouse with a hydroponic component to incorporate farm fresh food into their meals.
Designing Solutions Initiative
The grant money will be used to purchase instruments and materials for three STEM-based, environmentally-themed projects: Earth Science students will design and build weather instruments that can gather data to help monitor global warming; Life Science students will create and test different textures in synthetic hydroponic growth substrates to help increase food crop production; and Special Education learners will design and build growing planters for a local farm to help attract local insects and birds back to the region.