Environmental Studies and
AP Support Initiatives

LEF is proud to announce new Grant Initiatives for the 2008-09 school year that bring together Livingston District Schools, local businesses, state agencies and community members to promote in-depth study and understanding of our local environments, promote advanced academic study for Park High students and continue to provide our high school students with job-readiness training.

The Stream Studies Project Initiative to examine and document changes in the Yellowstone River Ecosystem will involve all science students at Sleeping Giant Middle School as well as selected grades at the elementary school level in a collaborative approach, with hands-on field activities, to enhance learning while bringing relevance to lessons that instill respect for the environment. Students and teachers involved work with OASIS Environmental, Inc. of Livingston and Alaska and the State of Montana Department of XXX to help provide annually collected water quality data for stream restoration and sustainability. Your donations to LEF will provide the ability to purchase materials, scientific equipment, computer technology and software programs for implementation of this venture. For more information, check the Project website at http://sites.google.com/site/lpsstreamstudy/

The AP Support Initiative will help Park High School in its preparations to offer Advanced Placement classes in three subjects during the 2009-10 school year. To train and certify teacher eligibility to offer AP classes in English, Statistics and Calculus, the School District must purchase supplementary teaching and training materials. Your donations will be used not only to help the District acquire the required materials, but also will allow LEF to provide scholarships to Park High students wanting to take AP classes on-line in curriculum areas not currently offered at Park High School.

LEF also is continuing the Vocational and Media Technologies Initiative at the high school, by supporting the expanded construction program to better prepare our youth for the workforce with added vocational skills, for both those who will enter the job market following graduation, and those choosing to pursue post-secondary education.

Finally, LEF will continue to support our classroom teachers in their efforts to implement creative and innovative approaches to learning through our competitive, teacher-initiated Enrichment Grant Program.

In past years, LEF successfully completed a three-year Math/Science Initiative, where more than $100,000 was awarded for expansion of educational opportunities in math and science. Last year’s Vocational and Media Technologies Initiative provided nearly $35,000 for the construction class as well as additional library resources for elementary and middle school students in non-fiction and fiction basic readers, science and social studies books, books on tape, new resources for science experiments and additional laptop computers to expand students’ research capabilities.

Funding the new Environmental Studies and AP Support Initiatives is LEF’s top priority. Our goal is to raise $25,000 for the Stream Studies Project, $12,500 for the Advanced Placement class program, and $28,000 to fund this spring’s Enrichment Grants.

Please consider contributing to the LEF and helping our students discover new ideas, create new projects, and have the resources to achieve their goals!