Hall-Dale High School draws students from both suburban and rural communities in the mid-Maine region. We are a small high school pioneering a student-centered, standards-based curriculum. I teach Chemistry to about 90 sophomores and freshmen; Chemistry is a required course. Having once been a professional scientist, I believe that inquiry-based activities are critical when teaching any science course. Inquiry science lets students do the discovering; not always easy in Chemistry! Even more important in my class is any resource that gives students the ability to visualize the invisible world of atoms and molecules and their interactions. This is my second year at Hall-Dale and I love teaching in a student-centered environment! In ten years of educating students, I feel I have finally found my niche! I am constantly growing again as a teacher and learning how to re-create an environment where students are guiding themselves towards a deeper level of knowledge. As a small school, our resources are limited. Laboratory-based science classes regularly use disposable materials that need to be repurchased each year. Expanding becomes difficult when you are constantly worried about maintaining the lab experiences you already have. Molecular model kids allow students to guide themselves through a series of activities that visually demonstrates how chemical bonds can be formed and how built molecules exist in 3 dimensional space. Most all of my lectures are on a white board and 2 dimensional After the initial purchase, these kits will provide years of service. Replacement parts are minimal in cost and easily included in a yearly budget. These model kids will serve all of my Chemistry students. In addition, they will provide a valuable resource for an Advanced Placement Chemistry class to be taught next year. They are also very usable for modeling in our BIology classes.

Our high school is instituting a 4th year science requirement for our students beginning with next years senior class. One of the new courses that we are going to be offering is forensics. Our governor has cut the amount of monies available to schools for the 2009-2010 school year in a dramatic way which is going to drastically limit the supplies that we are going to be able to purchase. It is going to cost around $1000 to buy all the necessary equipment and supplies to effectively teach this new forensics course. From what students are saying, this particular course, which I will teach, is going to be a big hit and there will be a large number of students signing up to take it. Any funding that I could get would impact a large percentage of the senior class and would consequently leave more budget money available for all our other science classes that we teach. I would be so grateful for any help that I might receive in bringing to fruition the best forensics course possible. Thank you so much for your consideration.