The Conestoga Valley Education Foundation (CVEF) awarded more than $16,252 in grants during its 2022 fall grant cycle. CVEF officially approved the grants at its Oct. 21 meeting.

Seven grants at various schools in the Conestoga Valley School District were approved. The grants were awarded for Hydroponic Plants at Brownstown Elementary School, Farm-to-Table at Fritz Elementary School, Pickleball Stress Relief at Conestoga Valley High School (CVHS), Adopt a Plant and Plant Pals at Fritz, InstaSong: Songs of Social Media at CVHS and Gerald G. Huesken Middle School, Apple Pencils for the Art Department at CVHS, and Emotional Regulation Is a Skill Worth Celebration! at Leola and Smoketown elementary schools.

The Hydroponic Plants program will enable students to grow hydroponic herbs without soil to harvest herbs and make simple recipes. Students will learn the pros and cons of growing plants without soil and apply this to real-world situations. Students will also learn about the practicality of hydroponic plants in urban areas.

Farm-to-Table will introduce fourth-grade students to a farming experience that relates to current science standards. The ultimate goal of this project-based learning opportunity will be to grow enough produce to sell, thus also providing students with business experience.

Pickleball Stress Relief is intended for use by the high school's RISE program, which supports students who are not, for a number of reasons, experiencing success in the traditional classroom. The goal is to add pickleball as a new stress management technique.

Adopt a Plant and Plant Pals will be piloted at Fritz Elementary and will be a collaborative project with Ken's Gardens, a local greenhouse, in which classrooms will "adopt" a plant. This project will promote responsibility and provide students hands-on experiences with living things.

InstaSong: Songs of Social Media will fund a custom choral arrangement for singers in grades six to 12 that will premiere at the March 2023 concert. Students will meet with the arranger to learn about the process of composing and arranging music. This grant will also cover the cost of performance T-shirts for the participants.

Apple Pencils for the Art Department will allow for the extension of art concepts through creative and communicative visual imagery. All Conestoga Valley students use an iPad, and the addition of the Apple pencils will allow for easier revisions, sketching and planning, and documenting of work.

Emotional Regulation Is a Skill Worth Celebration! will help provide emotional support students with supplemental materials designed to facilitate de-escalation while also teaching social skills. Items purchased will be intended to teach students how to use coping and emotional regulation strategies, enhance the ability of emotional support students to recognize "big" emotions and self-regulations, and decrease the number of yearly incident reports that address concerns such as physical aggression.