Bullis Parents Association

Faculty Enrichment Grants

Each year, the Parents Association sponsors an enrichment grant program to fund the enhancement of the School curriculum. The goal of the grants program is to provide creative opportunities to the faculty, which will directly benefit the students. For the 2012-13 school year, the Parents Association offered $13,200 to fund this program, with each grant request not to exceed $2,000.

Each fall the Parents Association reviews grant proposals from faculty in a variety of subjects, and awards grants for that school year. For the 2012-13 school year, the PA approved the following grants.

Lower School Nonfiction STEM Text Sets

Partial funding for sets of STEM nonfiction texts that will add approximately 150 nonfiction titles to support the Lower School initiative. The STEM Nonfiction Sets will remain in the classrooms and will be based on the following themes:

  • 3rd grade: Animals
  • 4th grade: Environment, Weather and Earthforms
  • 5th grade: Earth and Space

Handwork Studio Quiltmaking

Artist in Residence Grant: The Handwork Studio will come to campus for a two-week period and help each Lower School grade make thematic quilts. Four quilts will be finished and possibly auctioned off at the Bullis Gala and displayed in The Blair Center or the Learning Center. This project enables kids to utilize eye-hand coordination and small motor skills while learning a valuable tool (sewing). The activity also encourages creativity, collaboration and resourcefulness.

MS Virtual Visiting Author Series

Scholar in Residence Grant: This unique Middle School initiative will provide opportunities to have conversations with several renowned young adult authors for a fraction of the cost of one visiting author. Through Skype, our students will communicate with the authors, and in the process create excitement about literacy. We want to encourage our students to view authors as approachable and possibly even consider this career choice as attainable.

Remote Sensing in MS Science

Equipment purchase of PASPORT AirLink2 and Sparkvue HD app for the iPad. Currently, the MS has hundreds of PASCO sensors for the science classrooms. These sensors take temperature, pH, velocity, force and many more measurements. Now, with the one-to-one laptop initiative, a single sensor port will connect the PASPORT sensors to the iPad using Bluetooth and the SPARKvue HD app. With this portable tablet and Bluetooth interface, labs can be done outside of the classroom with ease. Students will benefit tremendously from this program by researching, collecting and interpreting scientific data.

MS Listening Library

pPartial funding for this pilot program for curricular enhancement. By purchasing the “core collection” to start an Audio Library, we will provide readers with a means for multiple-modality learning. Audio books allow stories to “come alive” by providing the opportunity to listen to dramatic readings. This reinforces our commitment to 21st century learning, while supporting students with alternate learning styles.

North American Slavery in Comparative Perspective

  • North American Slavery in Comparative Perspective: Professor Berlin: Scholar in Residence Grant: Professor Ira Berlin will spend two days on campus working with all 9th -12th graders. He will address the topic of slavery in the following ways: ( 9th graders) focus on transatlantic slave trade and the formation of plantations in the West Indies, (10th graders) focus on the origins of slavery from ancient times to the Middle Ages, (11th graders) focus on Prof Berlin’s most recent work, Generations of Captivity: A History of Slaves in the United States, the differentiation between slave societies and societies with slaves. The 12th grade AP students will attend a one-on-one session with Prof. Berlin to discuss the same topics.

    • GALA Hispanic Theatre Performance

    Field trip to GALA Hispanic Theatre’s Student Matinee Program to attend twoseparate productions: La Casa de los Espiritus (House of Spirits based on the novel by Isabel Allende) and The Roberto Clemente Story. This program will promote cultural literacy and language skills in a creative environment, where students can experience live theater while expanding their knowledge about history, literature and the arts.

    US English "Minimester Elective"

    Digital Storytelling: Equipment Purchase of 10 high quality microphones (Audio-Technica AT2020 Condenser Microphone). During the English minimester in the Upper School, students will explore the possibilities of storytelling in the digital age. Student work will culminate in a production of 6-8 minute recordings using voice, music and sound to communicate to the audience. In the final days of the course, the students will carefully critique the work of their peers, make final preparations and select their favorite stories to be considered for wider distribution beyond the Bullis community.

    Artistic Portable Performance Music Stands

  • Equipment Purchase of 30 portable, lightweight music stands that will enable musicians to be able to play over their stands instead of behind them.


    • Grants in Previous Years Have Included:

    • Technology in Dance: Becoming a 21st Century Dance Program: Partial funding to be used for workshop series with filmmaker and the purchase of a video camera, tripod and DVDs. The goal is to create innovative video projects to enhance and showcase the dance (and possibly drama) programs at Bullis. 
    • Compact Digital Presenters: Equipment purchase of two video presenters for middle school math and science departments. Equipment acts as a camera and allows the teacher to record actual lessons and show student’s work as they would on a chalkboard. Great way to critique and praise their efforts. Students will be able to view lessons again from their own home in order to reinforce the material. 
    • Naomi Ayala, Poet: Scholar in Residence Grant. Poet visited Bullis for three days, working with 3-12th graders on creative writing. Ms. Ayala is also highly trained as a speaker on community service, diversity issues and Spanish/English translation. 
    • Bullis MS 2nd Annual Dragster Science Project: Equipment purchase of a wind tunnel and fog injection system to enhance the third phase of the long-term CO2 Dragster Race Science project
    • Museum Exhibits, Living History and Visiting Scholars Virtually: Students learned from scholars who are widely recognized as experts in their fields and make “virtual” visits to museums that are on the cutting edge of research through teleconferencing equipment the School already owns
    • Middle School Community Day: A day when classroom-based learning was replaced with a MS-wide experiential learning program--Acceptance, Respect, Tolerance and Diversity—featuring keynote speaker Marc Elliot
    • Bullis Student Tutoring: Materials and training to help the Bullis Student Tutoring program
    • Celebrating Diversity Through Dance: Eight-day residency celebrating dances of other cultures/ethnicities, specifically Indian (Bollywood), Latin (Cumbia, Cha Cha), African (Stepping, West African), and American (contemporary/hip hop), culminating with an all school assembly. 
    • Lower School Artist-in-Residence: Playwright John Morogiello worked with the students for the month of November. The focus was on playwriting, with a Reader's Theater performance at the end. Lower  School students learned the structure and elements of writing a play, including conflict schemes, building characters, working on story structure, stage direction and dialogue.