Curriculum Project Grants

Jenna Amireh, Santa Maria High School, Santa Maria Joint Union High School District
Project: Voices of Resistance: A Student Rhetorical Writing Anthology

Yesenia Munoz, San Marcos High School, Santa Barbara Unified School District
Project: Frame & Flex: Exploring the Musculoskeletal System

Mandi de Witte, Carpinteria High School, Carpinteria Unified School District
Project: Santa Barbara Channel Food Web Activity

Audrey Rogan, Carpinteria High School, Carpinteria Unified School District
Project: Your Changing Brain! How to Hack the Adolescent Mind

Alyssa Prieto, Lompoc High School, Lompoc Unified School District
Project: Math, Modeling, and Musicals

Sophie Brunnquell, Miller School, Santa Maria-Bonita School District
Project: Creating Recycled Paper

Halima Hamel, Manzanita Public Charter School, SBCEO/ Lompoc Unified School District
Project: Creating Our Rain Garden

Maureen Granger, La Colina Jr. School, Santa Barbara Unified School District
Project: Beautify LC with Native Plants and Succulents

Julia Ambat, Lompoc High School, Lompoc Unified School District
Project: Career Pathways Simulation: Bridging School and Real-World Skills

Paul Cuthbert, San Marcos High School, Santa Barbara Unified School District
Project: Sound Engineering with Wind Chimes

Gregory Eisen, Cabrillo High School, Lompoc Unified School District
Project: Discovering Ocean Biodiversity

Sharon Gallagher Tashjian, Manzanita Public Charter School
Project: C.A.R.E Conservation Adaptability Recycling Exceptionalities... Gardening on Wheels

Phoenix Plotner, Santa Barbara Unified School District
Project: Media Literacy Through Interactive Gaming

Katie Nimitarun, Montecito Union School, Montecito Union School District
Project: Street Art for Activism

Ally Vellem,a El Camino Junior High School, Santa Maria-Bonita School District
Project: NGSS Mastery through Data-Driven Instruction and Hands-On Science Labs

Julia Grigorian, Lompoc High School, Lompoc Unified School District
Project: Multicultural Project on "Persepolis"

Marianne Kruidenier, Santa Barbara Charter School, Santa Barbara Unified School District
Project: Penicillin STEM Activity

Riccardo Magni, Pioneer Valley High School, Santa Maria Joint Union High School District
Project: What Plants Our On My Campus?

Jennifer Rasmussen, Refugio High School, Santa Ynez Valley Union High School District
Project: Parking Lot Beautification

Kat Ross, Santa Barbara High School, Santa Barbara Unified School District
Project: Stop-Motion Animation

Donna Todaro & Belinda Vaj, Clarence Ruth School, Santa Barbara County Education Office
Project: Growing Our Vegetable and Pollinator Garden

Ally Vellema, El Camino Junior High School, Santa Maria-Bonita School District
Project: Exploring Forces and Fields: A Multifaceted Science Curriculum Project for 8th Grade

Terri Cecchine-La Honda STEAM Academy, Lompoc Unified School District
Unit Cost with Coupons: Decimals, Percentages and Fractions
If students are struggling with the application of ratios, adding, subtracting and multiplying decimals, or reducing fractions, using these coupon activity as a way to apply the desired skill. The students will use coupons and the challenge prompt given to solve a problem related to the content standard.
Sponsors- ExxonMobil

Wendy Culver-Clarence Ruth School, Lompoc Unified School District
Persuading A Community: The Snowy Plover vs. Surf Beach
This unit teaches students to make a claim and support it with a persuasive essay. It takes as its lens the issue of Surf Beach's seasonal closures in protection of the Western Snowy Plover. By investigating the plover in its habitat, students learn about making conservation choices that will appropriately engage the local community. 
Sponsors-The Towbes Foundation

Jacob Gustafson-Ernest Righetti High School, Santa Maria Joint Union High School District
Biography Documentary 
Students will research, write, record, and edit a biography on a person of their choice, relevant to the class to practice informational writing, historical research, and technology use in an artistic way. 
Sponsors- Santa Barbara Teachers Federal Credit Union

Ian Moore-Goleta Valley Junior High School,Santa Barbara Unified School District
California Native Botanical Garden
Students will  began a California Native Plants garden to enrich
their program and enhance the biodiversity on campus. NGSS Science standards relating to evolution, plant, biology, ecology, and human impacts on biodiversity will all be supported by students interacting with this native garden space in hands-on, phenomenon-based activities as the garden becomes a showcase. 
Sponsors- Santa Barbara County Water Agency

Alyssa Prieto-Lompoc High School, Lompoc Unified School District
Shhh! It's a Secret
Students will practice encoding and decoding secret messages. Those messages then get intercepted and students attempt to break the code using their knowledge of inverse matrix multiplication. This lesson includes historical connections to Enigma machines and WWII. 
Sponsors- Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians

Caitlin Voss-Ralph Dunlap School, Orcutt Union School District
Stacking to Success                   Sport cup stacking gives students of all ages the opportunity to practice the skills of dexterity, concentration, agility, and quickness. While cup stacking, younger students focus on gross motor skills and pattern recognition while older students emphasize teamwork and confidence building. Sport cup stacking offers many physical, mental and social benefits that other more traditional sports do not.
Sponsors- Altrusa International Foundation, Santa Maria

Kelly Boyle-Roosevelt Elementary School, Santa Barbara Unified School District
We Dream of a World
Following in the steps of Martin Luther King Jr., each student will choose a change that they think will make our world better.The students will write an opinion essay persuading others to help make the change and an art project to go with it. The students will publish all the work in a class book!
Sponsors- The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Foundation

Gloria E. Garcia-Clarence Ruth School, Lompoc Unified School District
STEM Water Conservation Unit, Grade 5
Using their knowledge of water conservation and rain harvesting, students will design and create a rain harvesting device using a 3-D pen. They will also write a three-paragraph proposal where they explain why their design is the most effective.
Sponsors- Santa Barbara County Water Agency

Jacob Gustafson-Ernest Righetti High School, Santa Maria Joint Union High School District
Using Storytelling to Demonstrate Understanding
Students will demonstrate subject content mastery by writing simple stories that utilize the content that is being summatively assessed. After writing the story, students will then take the story and produce a short film.
Sponsors- Santa Barbara Teachers Federal Credit Union

Laurie Moore-Santa Barbara County Education Office
The Rhythmic Arts Project
The Rhythmic Arts project will teach important life skills including reading, writing and math, social, emotional and speech. That integrates drums and percussion instruments as creative learning tools to teach children with autism.
Sponsors- Towbes Foundation

Allan Viscarra-Peabody Charter School
Outdoor Learning Space Design
In the Outdoor Learning Space Design Project, first grade students work as teams of architects to collaboratively design their ideal outdoor classroom on their school campus and write proposals using opinions and explanatory writing. At the culminating event for this project, each team publicly presents their design proposal to be reviewed by their peers and school leaders.
Sponsors- Deckers Brands

Robert Goettler-San Marcos High School, Santa Barbara Unified School District
Measuring PM (from a.m. to p.m.) with PurpleAir
Sponsors- Santa Barbara County Air Pollution

Jennifer Perez-Mary Buren School, Guadalupe Union School District
The Air from Me to You
Students will work in groups of four to select a city in California where they track the weather and air quality for two weeks. Students will research to find out information about their city and then use the information plus the data they have collected from the Purple Air Sensor, as well as their weather graph to help them draw a connection between human impact and air pollution. Students will also utilize the information collected to compare and contrast the six cities they are learning about with the data collected from our community. 
Sponsors- Santa Barbara County Air Pollution

Marna Ford-Los Berros School, Lompoc Unified School District
Watching Water Within Our School Garden
Using the Los Berros School garden, the students will learn about the water properties, water cycle, and water conservation. Students will measure rainfall, plant seedlings, watch local fauna while developing water conservation practices and using drip irrigation..
Sponsors- Santa Barbara County Water Agency

Robert Gottler-San Marcos High School, Santa Barbara Unified School District
From Green Waste to Black Gold
Students build and use a simple "worm hotel" method of Vemi-composting. They will be able to use this small footprint, low odor system either indoors or outdoors to compost fruit and vegetable scraps (green waste) into highly nutrient-rich worm castings (black gold fertilizer) through the digestive activity of red wiggler worms..
Sponsors- The Towbes Foundation

Joseph Inverso-Crestview School, Lompoc Unified School District
California Native Plants Demonstration Garden
This class will build, plant and maintain a California native plant demonstration garden through researching the native plants of the area and complete a list of compatible herbs and flowers in order to promote water conservation at VAFB..
Sponsors- Santa Barbara County Water Agency

Kristen Lohr-Ontiveros School, Santa Maria-Bonita School District
Every Drop Counts, Inside and Out
JPO Condors learn the value of water for their health and the health of all living things on our planet. Condors learn to safely access hydration stations on campus and the routine of staying hydrated while using this valuable resource..
Sponsors- Santa Barbara County Water Agency

Rene Medina-Alvin Avenue School, Santa Maria-Bonita School District
Hockey Unit
This is a hockey unit based on the instructional model " Teaching Games for Understanding". The student will acquire and demonstrate the necessary skills and strategies to effectively participate in hockey games/activity, while learning respect, personal and social responsibility, as well as appropriate behavior..
Sponsors- Altrusa International Foundation/Santa Maria

Jason Naczek-Santa Ynez Charter School, College District
Successful Student-led Vocabulary
This is a student-led mini-unit where the students interact with vocabulary words through a variety of exercises..
Sponsors- The Santa Ynez Valley Foundation

Jennifer Rasmussen-Refugio High School, Santa Ynez Valley Union High School District
Eagle's Victory Garden
The students will create an organic vegetable and fruit garden, where they will learn skills, work together on a common goal and connect the community through hands-on projects..
Sponsors- The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Foundation, The Santa Ynez Valley Foundation

Sarah Schaupeter-Adams Elementary School, Santa Barbara Unified School District
Social Skills on Zoom Through Partner Reading and Book Clubs
The goal for this project is to get students talking with one another through book clubs and partner reading.
Sponsor- The Towbes Foundation

Dawn Schroeder-El Camino School, Goleta Union School District
Fun Friday Virtual Fieldtrips
Every Friday the students are surprised with a virtual field trip! After reading, writing, and learning about a theme/topic, the students will locate a local resource to reinforce their knowledge in a "real" way and use their responses as an authentic assessment.
Sponsor- Deckers

Kirra Stankoski & Aldous Pabon-Goleta Union School District
Cardboard Craftsmanship
Students will explore different types of cardboard attachments to design and assemble their own arcade-style game by asking, imagining, planning, creating, and improving each step of their creation.
Sponsor- ExxonMobil

Allan Viscarra-Peabody Charter School, Santa Barbara Unified School District
SB Kids Local Treasures
This project allows students a platform to show support for parks, businesses, and organizations by writing positive reviews about places in their community. Students learn to give and receive feedback so that all learners can strengthen and publish their informative texts, opinions pieces, and artwork.
Sponsor- Deckers

Lara Wooten-Cold Spring School, Cold Spring School District
Rain Catchment Barrels for Campus Food Forest
Students are in the beginning stages of establishing a sustaining farm. The students will install two rain catchment barrels to create a catchment system that will model how to maximize rain water and emphasize the preciousness of this resource.
Sponsor- Santa Barbara County Water Agency

Performing Arts Curriculum Project Grants

Donna Beal-Joe Nightingale School, Orcutt Union School District
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
The students will learn new vocabulary and develop oral language as they prepare for a performance of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Sponsor- Santa Barbara Bowl

Sarah Barthel-Lompoc High School, Lompoc Unified School District
Music Matters: Using Musical Theatre to Process the Pandemic
Using musical theatre songs by many different composers as their inspiration, students will craft a performance that helps the performers and their virtual audience process the pandemic.
Sponsor- Santa Barbara Bowl

Sharon Gallagher Tashjian-Clarence Ruth School, Lompoc Unified School District
Ready, Set, Van Gogh
Students will participate in a comparative study of artist Vincent van Gogh's paintings from Central France to the Central California Coast. Students will create an original painting in a van Gogh style, depicting Santa Barbara County scenes.
Sponsor- Santa Barbara Bowl

Bree Jansen-Lompoc High School, Lompoc Unified School District
"The Show Must Go On: Creating Community Connection through Virtual Performance"
This dance team has found new ways to continue to perform through technology! Using Zoom as a meeting platform, students meet to learn and rehearse new choreography. They record their performances with their instructor who shares them on YouTube to be shared with the world.
Sponsor- Santa Barbara Bowl

Jennifer Peterson-Cabrillo High School, Lompoc Unified School District
Sing in a Virtual Choir with Cal Poly SLO Choirs
The Madrigal Singers will learn a choral piece(s) over Zoom and submit recordings to be pieced together with the Cal Poly Choir recordings. This will be a whole new choral tool for those participating.
Sponsor- Santa Barbara Bowl

Laura Branch- Ernest Righetti High School, Santa Maria Joint Union High School District
STEMMING Our Way into Energy Resources to Learn How they Drive the Yield
Petroleum is the “perfect” resource and it results in a high energy yield. Throughout this project, students will use STEM to learn about the different energy resources that exist in the world around us and how they drive the energy yield.
Sponsor- ExxonMobil

Mandi de Witte & Audrey Rogan- Carpinteria High School, Carpinteria Unified School District
Constructing Careful Coastlines! Nitrogen Runoff and Erosion Lab
Students will first analyze how humans impact the nitrogen cycle through erosion from community development and fertilizers washing into local waterways and causing algal blooms. They will then work in teams to design their own mini coastline model and use various Earth materials to prevent erosion and Nitrogen runoff, and test their efforts with a mini rainstorm!
Sponsor- ExxonMobil

Sharon Gallagher Tashjian- Clarence Ruth School, Lompoc Unified School District
"A B "CD's": Recycle "CD's" to Protect our SEAS
This recycling project is multi-faceted, utilizing recycled CD’s to create fish abc’s for the primary students, California Ocean Current lessons, culminating with an ocean pollution awareness campaign, collecting CD’s for recycling at school and in our local community.
Sponsor- Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians

Marilyn Garza & Chris Hammon- Santa Barbara Junior High School, Santa Barbara Unified School District
Urban Heat
Students will explore the phenomena of urban heat islands through hands-on measurements, readings, first sources, and the analysis of graphical data. Using their experiences, the students will then redesign a neighborhood park that not only implements solutions to reduce the effect of urban heat islands, but also serves the public needs of their community.
Sponsors- Deckers Brands and Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians

Karen Hamner- La Honda STEAM Academy, Lompoc Unified School District
Survival Challenge
After reading and studying Hatchet and Island of the Blue Dolphins, students will create their own survival challenge by choosing an uninhabited location and creating a narrative of how they will survive for two weeks. The students will  present their learning in a project that illustrates their survival, its challenges, and their adventure.
Sponsors-Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians and The Towbes Foundation

Melanie Honeycutt- Cabrillo High School, Lompoc Unified School District
Paper Recycling Entrepreneurial Project
Students will start a paper recycling company by creating new paper from shredded paper on campus. This will result in less waste on campus and create a renewable source for a sell-able product.
Sponsor- Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District

Ryan Hubbard- Arellanes Junior High School, Santa Maria-Bonita School District
Modeling Conservation of Matter
This unit will introduce students to the idea that matter is conserved during ordinary chemical reactions. They will learn how to model atoms and molecules with colored circles. They will then be able to use this method to model how matter is conserved during chemical reactions.
Sponsor- Deckers Brands

Francisco Mujica- Bruce School, Santa Maria-Bonita School District
Ride Safe and Caring
Exposing 1st-6th grade students to bicycle riding as a means to not only help reduce greenhouse gases but also to keep each other safe and healthy. Students will present their knowledge on greenhouse gases and will also present the rules of the road and proper bicycle maintenance skills.
Sponsor- Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District

Alyssa Prieto- Lompoc High School, Lompoc Unified School District
Using Trigonometry and Clinometers to Calculate the Height of Our School Flagpole
Students use handmade clinometers (both physical and a digital app), indirect measurements, and trigonometry to calculate the height of a flagpole.  Student teams then compete to see who is closest.
Sponsors- ExxonMobil and Deckers Brands

Sean Reish- Pioneer Valley High School, Santa Maria Joint Union High School District
Computer Literacy Using the Google Platform
Financial Literacy will help students acquire skills in digital organization, email, document formatting, calendars, spreadsheets, and digital task management, all using the free Google Technology Suite.
Sponsors- Deckers Brands and The Towbes Foundation

Graciela Romero- El Camino School, Goleta Union School District
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
In this project, students will learn about the impact of plastic pollution in their community. They will be challenged to recycle plastic bags to design something new and useful, and to see themselves as empowered individuals who can make a difference.
Sponsors- Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians

Nora Zwehl Quintero- El Camino & La Patera School, Goleta Union School District
Nature is Competition: The Role of Plant Structures in Pollination and Seed Dispersal
Students will work through lessons on pollination and seed dispersal and then write a descriptive narrative tied to the newly opened world of botany. This began as preparing for a field trip to Lotusland and is now a complex unit on competition, botany, plant structures, vocabulary, and writing a descriptive narrative; it includes specific strategies for many different types of learners, including those identified as gifted.
Sponsors- Deckers Brands

Performing Arts Curriculum Project Grants

Dylan Aguilera-Santa Barbara High School, Santa Barbara Unified School District
Beginning Drum Integration and Achievement in the Big Band Tradition
Integration of a professional Big Band Jazz Drum Set teaching artists into classroom curriculum and activities to increase the rate of growth in our Novice Drum Set Students so that they can perform on par with their colleagues at various jazz festivals.
Sponsor- Santa Barbara Bowl

Sarah Barthel-Lompoc High School, Lompoc Unified School District
Mounting a Musical (Putting Practice in Action)
Led by students in Directing class, a combined class of Musical Theatre 2 and Advanced Musical Theatre students will jointly mount a production of a 60 minute musical (pending licensing approval, the musical will be Moana Jr.).  With a condensed “junior” title of a musical, high school theatre students will be able to put on a full-scale production with rehearsal occurring only within the daily theatre class, thereby allowing access to all enrolled students.
Sponsor- Santa Barbara Bowl

Marna Ford- Los Berros School, Lompoc Unified School District
Disney's Frozen JR.
The school’s production of Frozen, Jr. will be a culmination of the school’s mission to integrate the arts into the students’ education. With almost 100 students and six teachers involved, we will collaborate with our local high school to present a full production (with actors, music, sets, costumes, and choreography) to our local community and local schools while including arts integration lessons including theater, science and writing.
Sponsor- Santa Barbara Bowl

Roxana Maldonado-Pioneer Valley High School, Santa Maria Joint Union High School District
Paris Is Burning; A Fashion Show For Everyone
In this unit students from all high schools in the district who are members of the Gender and Sexualities Alliance Clubs will present a fully realized fashion show production which will reflect both aesthetic development as well as personal identity expression through movement, fashion and music.  They will further deepen their sense of identity as it relates to race/ethnicity, ability, gender/sexuality, age, education, and socio-economic status while promoting social growth in others by using stage craft as activism and their own ability to live and work cooperatively with their peers.  They will gain respect and appreciation for the diversity which exists all around us.
Sponsor- Santa Barbara Bowl

Jennifer Peterson- Cabrillo High School, Lompoc Unified School District
The Gift of the Magi
The Advanced Musical Theater Class will perform theater outreach to the local elementary schools. The class will put together a one act play, “The Gift of the Magi”, that the local elementary schools can attend. After the show, there will be time for a talk back with the actors and tech crew about what it is like to do a play in high school. We will also talk about the theme/message of “The Gift of the Magi” (IE: Being thoughtful of others, giving to those you love.)
Sponsor- Santa Barbara Bowl