"Let's Get Dirty!" Illinois Students Learn About Composting

Pam Evans is a sixth grade teacher at Jefferson Elementary School in Charleston, Illinois, and she is a 2016-17 Grants in Place recipient. Pam's project, Let’s Get Dirty, received $1,000 to support student investigations into the soil quality of this downstate Illinois farming community. In addition, the students learned how to make compost.

Ms. Evans reported that her students were eager participants, as the pictures certainly indicate. "We have enjoyed the activities a lot," Pam said.

The 2016-17 Rural Schools Collaborative Grants in Place program was truly a collaborative venture. The combined efforts fund 33 projects serving 54 communities, supporting the good work of more than 60 teachers from seven states. Twenty-two funders and individual donors came together to invest more than $105,000 in rural place-based education initiatives and projects. The groundbreaking work of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks’ Rural Schools Partnership certainly led the way, but others are truly beginning to see the real value of supporting student learning that is imbedded in the community and serves a public purpose.

Please check out the projects listed below. They were selected from more than 70 applications from 12 different states. We hope you will join us in our ongoing endeavor to enlist additional funders and create even more place-based opportunities for teachers and their respective communities.

For a glimpse of our 2015-16 Grants in Place recipients, please click here.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this wonderful initiative.