Sandy Elementary Teacher Awarded Field Trip Grant From Target
Sandy Elementary School teacher Megan Daniel has been awarded a Target Field Trip Grant. She will use the $800 grant to take the school’s 110 fourth graders to visit the John Hutchings Museum of Natural History.
Daniel says the displays at the Lehi museum, which in addition to American Indian and Utah pioneer artifacts also features collections of rocks, fossils and stuffed birds, will give students a deeper understanding of the Utah history and Earth science parts of the state’s fourth-grade curriculum. The field trip is planned for the spring.
Daniel applied for the grant late last year. Minneapolis-based Target, which boasts 1,719 stores in 49 states nationwide, is giving 5,000 grants to educational professionals throughout the U.S. The grants enable one out of every 25 public, private or charter schools in America to send a classroom on a field trip. Since the program’s inception in 2006, according to the company’s Web site, Target has provided 7,400 grants benefiting more than 729,000 children nationwide.
Like Daniel, teachers who submitted successful grant applications were notified earlier this month. Applicants were asked to outline the purpose of the field trip; the benefits to students and the tie-in to the school curriculum; the number of students who will be impacted; and the proposed use of funds. Funds may be used to cover the cost of transportation, entry fees, supplies and resource materials for the trip.
“As the American education system continues to endure the effects of the recession, enriching educational opportunities like field trips are being cut from school budgets nationwide” says Laysha Ward, president, community relations, Target, in a statement on the company’s Web site. “It is our hope that the Target Field Trip Grants program will continue to help fill this gap and enable teachers to continue using the valuable experiential learning gained from field trips to enhance students’ classroom studies and daily curriculum found in text books.”
Since 1946, Target has given 5 percent of its income through community grants and programs. Today, that giving equals more than $3 million a week.
