Thoughtful Problem #3

Think of a project for a real or imaginary school. Use the Grantwriting exercise sheet to help you plan a grant to fund your project.
1. Describe the project, its purpose, its intended participants and its expected goals/objectives
2. Explain the division of funding sources you would like among budget, e-rate and grants
3. Find a suitable grant agency and describe why that agency would be interested in funding your project.

My project will be 'Community Atlas Project' in which middle school students will produce a community profile, an electronic project containing maps and information showing important aspects of the community with the help of Geographic Information system (GIS) software. The middle school students will need to explore the data and discover patterns and characteristics of their neighborhoods. They will need to build their spatial and analytical skills. They will need to develop the process of geographic thinking. Those are – think about a place, ask a question about it, gather information, explore the patterns, analyze the data and act on the analysis. This process goes around the circle.
Goals- The middle school students will have proficiency using GIS software and will develop spatial thinking and critical thinking capability as well as an awareness of their community.
Objectives: Through the US community Atlas project teachers and students define the nature of their community, post description and maps about it. These presentations are combined in the web server, can be served by characteristic and explored for similarities and differences.
The division of funding sources: A part of funding comes from school budget, like GIS training for the teachers. Licensing and cost for GIS software comes from ESRI (Environmental System Research Institute) grant funding and the cost of networking service comes from E-rate funding.
ESRI grant agency will provide funding for this project. ESRI announces the grant option for the ESRI GIS grant program to support geospatial outreach, education and community involvement efforts. The goal of the program is to foster and support the integration of the geographic information system.