FUTURES recently awarded 103 Mini-Grants to Volusia County Schools teachers during a presentation at Mainland High School in Daytona Beach. A total of $60,385 was awarded to teachers in amounts ranging from $150 to $1,500. Over 25 years of community support, FUTURES has funded more than 2,200 such Mini-Grants, totaling $1,126,681, thanks to generous sponsors. Special awards announced at the end of 2009 include:
 
Superintendent's Mini-Grant Award ($800) to Spruce Creek High School teacher Andrea White for "FUTURES Meets 'Strong Science' and 'A+ Funding' in Genetic Discovery." Twelfth-graders studying molecular genetics in higher-level biology will extract DNA from their own hair follicles and amplify it, making thousands of copies, to track whether each of them possesses a particular DNA sequence or some form of it. (This genetic characteristic has not been linked to any disease and makes no reference to relatedness among individuals.) Gene and genotypic frequencies for the class as a whole will be calculated and compared with a database in which results of this test for thousands of populations are stored. The class's data will be entered into the database so that other schools and investigators also can utilize the genetic profiles.

Creative Award ($630) to Cypress Creek Elementary School teacher Richard West for "Racing into Learning-Otter Slot Car Club." Pup Slot Car Club for kindergarten through grade 2 and Otter Slot Car Club for grades 3 to 5 will meet after school. A local business will supply the track, cars and accessories to the school. Students will use interactive notebooks in completing age-appropriate, hands-on experiments involving weight, balance, force, motion, place value, scale, design and graphing. The clubs will extend general learning concepts from the classroom, emphasizing teamwork. Students also will track improvement of their driving skills.
 
Creative Award ($1,500) to Manatee Cove Elementary School teacher Janet Gray for "Florida Weather Just Blows Me Away."  After reading up, students will do an in-depth study of Florida's hazardous weather conditions by setting up anemometers to measure wind speed and direction, thermometers to find the effects of wind on temperature changes and tornado tubes to look at tornado formation and vortex action. The weather
tracker will teach students how to graph wind chills as they read isobars.  Students also will also put together 500 emergency bags to be distributed to school families and community members.
 
Creative Award ($1,450) to Volusia Pines Elementary School teacher Debbie Hibdon for "SOS -- Sensory Observation Stations." The science lab teacher will set up observation stations with assistance from the physical education coach, art teacher and other adults from the Parent Teacher Association and School Advisory Committee. The stations will cover all grade levels, utilizing scientific process skills via sensory investigations of natural surroundings. Lab tools will be used to measure and record data.  Mentoring of younger students by older students  also will be encouraged.  Results of the observations will be published in the Science Club newsletter.
 
Creative Award ($1,000) to Woodward Elementary School teachers Marsha Cameron, Angela Grover, Kim Geist and Mary Topping for "The Return of the Glass Slipper."  Third and fourth grade students will put on a real stage musical, with costumes, makeup, scenery and choreography.  To prepare, students will focus on reading plays, writing fairy tales and becoming familiar with play genre. Art, music and physical education choreography classes will assist with the preparations along with the P.T.A. and parents.  Students will be reading, writing, dancing, singing, acting, memorizing, drawing and painting. Math and social skills also will be honed.
                      
Creative Award ($550) to New Smyrna Beach High School teachers Tina Curry and Deborah Samuels for "Caught Reading."  The goal of the project is to promote increased school-wide reading, visual literacy and an appreciation of graphic design. Photography students will study
principles of advertising photography, design, layout and copy and apply these principles to a school-wide ad campaign. Students and staff will be "caught" in "reading moments" around campus. Students will interview the reader about the book and write original copy to accompany the picture.  After digitally recording at least 30 images, students will create ad proof sheets, and peers will critique and select some for school posters.