Grant helps teacher bring Galapagos to Bedford

Friday, November 6, 2009

BY KELLY McGRATH

Staff Writer

BEDFORD – A science teacher from Ross A. Lurgio Middle School traveled to the Galapagos Islands this summer, but not for vacation. She used the experience to enhance her classroom curriculum. Over 10 days, Julie Astbury traveled to four different islands where she learned about evolution, adaptation and invasive species.

The Bedford Education Foundation provided the seventh grade teacher with a $2,105 grant to cover most of the costs associated with the learning adventure.

“They provided me with the experience of a lifetime,” she said. “I’ll never forget it.”

The foundation’s 11-member board of directors volunteer their time to support academic excellence in town public schools. One of the only education foundations in Southern New Hampshire, the BEF works to encourage creativity in schools and foster an environment of involvement education through various grants provided to town educators.

The Program Grant is designed to fund initiatives during the school year that fall outside the regular school budget, while the Summer Fellowship Grant assists with the finances of attending courses, seminars or workshops.

“We’re helping hundreds of kids through providing an experience for teachers that wouldn’t otherwise happen,” BEF President Paul Mailhot said.

The BEF presents guidelines for the grants to the town schools at the start of each year. Teachers who are interested fill out a short application and provide details on how what they learn can be used to both enhance their curriculum and benefit other educators in the district.

Over the last three years, the foundation provided grants totaling $40,251 for 23 different projects.

“As (the school district) has started to hire more teachers, they see this as a competitive advantage,” Mailhot said.

Katie Curran, the music teacher at the Peter Woodbury School, received one of the most-recent grants. She used the $4,850 to bring an outdoor music classroom to the elementary school through weather-resistant instruments.

“We considered it a very innovative project, something we think is very unique to not only Bedford but across New England,” Mailhot said.

Other grants awarded through the BEF include three elementary teachers who attended the Columbia Teachers College Writing Project in New York.

The largest grant remains the one awarded to Astbury for her Galapagos Islands trip.

Astbury was searching online for different ecology study programs when she came across a class called The Galapagos Islands Experience, offered through the University of San Diego. After being awarded the grant from the BEF, she joined 14 teachers from across the country for 10 days this past June, where she visited the Charles Darwin Center and snorkeled with wild sea lions, among many other activities.

Astbury said she stood only a few feet from animals such as the Blue Footed Boobie, Marine Iguana and Frigate Bird.

“We learned how three currents came together when the Galapagos formed and that’s why there is such a variety of organisms, because they came from three different parts of the globe,” Astbury said about seeing both penguins and tortoises in one location.

But when spring comes and it’s time for her to teach ecology to students in her classroom, she said she is prepared. Astbury plans to focus on adaptation in her lesson plan by using her experience to show how traits that help animals survive are the ones that dominate and continue to exist. She also plans to teach how energy flows through an ecosystem and have a debate on whether or not humans are an invasive species.

“I just want to expand their interest in the world around them and how it works, beyond Bedford, New England and the United States – Science is all over the world,” she said.