Grants in Action

Good things come to those who wait! The NEF was pleased to provide funding to the NPS Science Center to purchase a StarLab portable planetarium through a $15,000 grant in our 2015 large grant cycle. It took a while longer than anticipated, but the StarLab was up and...

Earlier this year, George Vallatini, music teacher at Eliot Elementary School, started implementing the use of ukuleles into his music classrooms. This all-grade-level program was created to provide a richer musical experience for every student at Eliot. The grant...

Samantha Bookston, Technology Integration Specialist at Needham High School, was awarded a grant of $4,700 in the Fall of 2016 for virtual reality teaching equipment.  Here she tells us how this new technology has been used in classrooms to enhance learning across...

By Laura DrinanHometown Weekly Reporter Reprinted from the Hometown Weekly, February 8, 2018 Have you ever finished a book that just left you so astounded and inspired to write your own novel? It has certainly happened to some of the students at Needham High School....

Last Spring, the Technology Integration Specialists at each elementary school collaborated on a grant to bring Spheros to the elementary schools and were awarded $10,000 from the NEF. What exactly are Spheros? They are robotic balls, about four inches in diameter,...

Hillside kindergarten and first grade students could not contain their giggles in response to Jerry Pallotta’s audiovisual antics on a recent Thursday morning. Pallotta is a former Needham native and the author of the Who Would Win? series along with multiple alphabet...

Last spring, the NEF approved a small grant written by Erin Mack, High Rock’s Technology Integration Specialist, to transform the technology lab into a Creation Lab.  We had a chance to sit in on a class in the Creation Lab in March, where everything that Ms. Mack...

In Spring 2016, NEF funded a $12,000 multi-school grant for math backpacks in every kindergarten classroom across all five elementary schools. With three backpacks per classroom, students take home math-related activities they can do with their families.  Elaine...

Eighty students in Mitchell School’s fifth grade classrooms are undertaking a year-long “study in courage” thanks to a $3,500 grant from the NEF. The goal of the grant, written by Mitchell Assistant Vice Principal Barbara Hayden and the 5th grade teachers, is to...

NEF was proud to award the “Blues in the Schools” grant to Needham High School to fund a visit from Toby Walker, a Master Blues Artist and member of the NY Blues Hall of Fame. He provided an engaging presentation to the African American Studies classes that follows...