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Congratulations to our 2021-2022 teacher mini-grant recipients!

For the 2021-2022 year, the Wantagh Foundation for Educational Excellence is helping fund and support over 10 grants for Teacher driven initiatives/programs. These grants help support our students in all 5 Wantagh Schools in the areas of Technology, Math, ELA, Science, Life Skills, and Drama/Arts.

The next recipients will officially receive their grant monies and certificates at the January 20th,2022 BOE meeting. Congratulations to Wantagh MS/HS Science Teacher Ms. Bellucci, Mandalay Math Elementary Teacher Ms. Angela Bufflaino-Morgan, Wantagh EL STEAM Teacher Ms. Humphrey, Forest Lake Elementary ELA Teachers Ms. Conway and Ms. Zipfel

Coding and Communicating

For Ms. Humphrey’s students and class, the grant will be funding the purchase of supplies to support and expand the coding and robotics program for our Wantagh Elementary, Forest Lake, and Mandalay Elementary students. The hardware (AppleTV) and software (Bitsbox, Chromecast) purchased will help enrich their learning in coding, create apps and codes during their STEAM class. This will also let our students share their work on the large screen others can learn from them, promoting communication and collaboration in the lab.

Research and Explore Their Own Curiosities in biotechnology

Ms. Bellucci’s high school science research students are completing several science research projects and investigations. They will be investigating their own questions through literature review and hands-on experimentation. The grant will help fund a field trip to the Stony Brook U Biotechnology Teaching Lab in February 2022, and the purchase of supplies to support their research projects and investigations.

Building Mandalay’s Math Lab

For Ms. Angela Buffalino-Morgan's elementary students, the grant will help build the support program to include more hands-on experiences and help Ms. Buffalino- Morgan start a Math Lab that provides students with tactile and visual representations of math concepts.

"We love to Write" Program

For Ms. Conway’s Forest Lake Class, the grant will help fund her program for her group of creative first-grade students who love to write and illustrate their own books as they work together, brainstorm ideas, and share their completed pieces. This program will further foster their expressions in personal narratives and fictional ideas in the Writers’ Workshop and continue to encourage this creative expression and collaboration.

Building Class library

For Ms. Zipfel’s Forest Lake Class, this grant will help support the Reader’s Workshop and the purchase of various nonfiction and fiction books. The key objective would be to give students an opportunity to "book shop" across genres and find books of interest and appropriate levels in order to grow as readers and further enrich the units they are currently learning in her classroom.

Dolan DNA Learning Center Field Trip

All the students in Ms. Sebastiano's AP class can now study their own DNA (with parental permission), use advanced laboratory equipment at the Dolan DNA learning center. The class plans to go on a field trip in March 2022. The foundation will cover all expenses at NO cost to our participating students. One of the largest units in the AP biology curriculum is Genetics and this trip will provide students with the opportunity to complete a real hands-on genetics laboratory experiment using their own DNA. Students will be able to use sophisticated laboratory equipment and students will also be visiting one of the most important genetics research facilities in the world where several Nobel Prize-winning scientists have worked, including James Watson.

Middle school/High School Student-run Coffee Cart

The Wantagh Foundation will help support the purchase of materials to help start up a coffee cart program for our middle school students with the goal of teaching various life skills like taking orders, handling money, and delivering the right items to the right customer.

Ms. Desson is a special education teacher in the Middle School who is starting a new life skills program. Students will help prepare and deliver coffee to teachers, then learn different facets of the retail job market and "real world. Costs will cover start-up costs for beverages supplies and special treats.

Middle school/High School Theatre Library

In Ms. Davis’s Class, The Wantagh Foundation will help support building the theatre library providing an introduction to drama and theatre resource books as well as support the curriculum of the middle school ELA classes. The Wantagh Foundation purchased books of various plays, types of acting methods, and other theatre resource books for students to now access.

Middle schoolS/High School chemistry class materials

For Ms. Pearlstein's class, the Wantagh Foundation will help support the purchase of materials used in experiments for her Chemistry Class. The items purchased will allow students to see how items in their everyday life are related to science.