FTPPO Overview

Through the generous support of an APS Education Foundation School-wide Impact Award, we are implementing a playground, STEMify, student-led project.

STEM Mural Begins!

Students Present at Foundation Meeting

We were treated to an amazingly delicious meal was catered by Highland High School's Culinary Arts students! Then, Cece, Heath, and Jack gave a 7-minute presentation on our grant's progress.

APS Education Foundation School-Wide Impact Award Student Presentation

Jose: Thank you for choosing us to present to you today.

Excited!

Toula: We are so excited for this project! We love our school and all the STEM things we learn each day. We love our teachers and how they make learning fun and interesting. They make us think.

Ugly & Empty

Jose: As you can see from the photos, we have some ugly spaces at school, and we need your help. We are ready to learn and make our campus more STEM-y.

Student Committees

Touala: There are many committees for students K-5 to join, and everyone can participate because everyone belongs. Some committees are "doing" committees, like gardening; and some are "thinking" committees, like planning the learning center.

Makers

Jose: Toula and I were Proposal Idea Makers for a day. Our ideas are on the posters you see in the image above.

Deciders

Toula: When a proposal comes in , the Proposal Approval Decider committee will use a rubric to rank the proposals. It's the same one given to the adoptee team when they tell us they want to submit a proposal.

Painting & Naturalists

Jose: Some kids, like Toula and me, really like art. We and our schoolmates could join an adoptee team and help paint a planter. Or maybe our schoolmates want to be Naturalists. They will shop for native wildflowers and then plant them in the planters. We could use some of our school's compost to help the plants grow.

Plaque Designer

Toula: We want to honor in a special way the people who help us learn. This committee will design a plaque. The plaque has the names of all who helped paint that planter, and it will have a logo on it, like our school's roadrunner. We will glue the plaque to the planter.

Telescope

Jose: Okay, how cool is this! We'll have our own telescopes to see the space objects from our school! Some of our 4th and 5th graders have been working with Slooh.com to learn about celestial objects. This project extends our learning so we can share it with others.

Outdoor Learning Center & Roadrunner Star Parties

Toula: We're looking forward to both the Learning Center and our Roadrunner Star Parties! We'll figure out what outdoor furniture works best for us- picnic tables and a place to store clipboards. Our Star Parties will be fun for everyone we know! We will teach our families and community what we've learned and help them to see the planets with our observatory.

Thank You

Jose: I'm one of my school's Student Ambassadors, and I like it when visitor come to our school, so I can show them around. I'll tell them to Follow the Trail of the Painted Planters to the Observatory. I'll tell them how YOU made it possible. Thank you for listening.