Digi-Block Grant Program
The Digi-Block Annual Grant Program offers teachers and teacher groups the opportunity to apply for materials and training for their school or classroom. These may include curriculum development and implementation projects, staff development and training, after-school programs or co-curricular activities and innovative assessment techniques using the Digi-Block Program.
Digi-Block, Inc. Accnounces 2009 Grant Recipients
Grants will place materials in three Montgomery County VA schools, Buckingham Elementary School, Worcester County, MD
June 2, 2009 CAMBRIDGE, MA - Digi-Block, Inc. announces recipients of two grants for $2,000 in Digi-Block materials
Montgomery County Public Schools
Christiansburg, VA
Digi-Block is happy to announce Montgomery County (VA) Public Schools as a 2009 Annual Grant recipient. The proposal, "Intervention for At-Risk Students in Grades 1 and 4: Developing Student Understanding of Place Value Concepts Using Digi-Block", identified four classrooms in three schools where the materials received from the grant will be used for targeted intervention for at-risk students. Two first grade classrooms and two fourth grade classrooms will participate in the pilot program.
First grade was chosen because of the recognition that place value understanding is a necessity for success with both whole-number and decimal operations. Montgomery County also saw the opportunity to alleviate a common problem in fourth grade classrooms: "Our fourth grade teachers report that struggling students have great difficulty 'changing the whole' when using base-10 blocks to represent both whole numbers and decimals."
The proposal outlined an Implementation Plan that included opportunities for cross- school collaboration, instructional design and analysis, and implementation support from the County. The Mathematics Supervisor will provide professional development and will cover each teacher's classes four times per year to allow the teachers the opportunity to co-teach.
Pre and post-intervention assessments will be administered after each instructional unit and data will be used to continuously shape and refine the program during the school year.
Buckingham Elementary School
Worcester County Public Schools
Berlin, MD
Buckingham Elementary School's proposal, Using Digi-Block, to See the Math, Touch the Math, and Understand the Math, is the recipient of the second 2009 Digi-Block Annual Grant. Also a pilot program, Buckingham will use the grant to expand their planned third grade and fourth grade implementation to include one first grade classroom and one second grade classroom, and become a "Digi-Block Showcase School" for the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland.
See official press release here.
About the Digi-Block Program:
The Digi-Block Program is based on the Digi-Block model of the base-10 number system. By interacting with this model in specific and graduated ways, children are able to learn place value, number sense, and arithmetic in a way that they will never forget. They are able to base their understanding of arithmetic on a concrete model, allowing them to "See the Math," and giving them a strong foundation for higher mathematics.
About Digi-Block:
Located in Cambridge, Mass., Digi-Block, Inc., is the developer of the Digi-Block program, a unique mathematics program that enables students to develop a concrete and intuitive understanding of the base-10 number system. Digi-Block was founded in 1997 upon the inventions and ideas of Harvard Business School professor and mathematician, Elon Kohlberg. When teaching his nephew arithmetic, he realized that there was no suitable model of the base-10 number system, so he decided to make one. What began as marbles in plastic containers is now the elegant Digi-Block system. Launched in 1999, Digi-Block has evolved into an entire program for teaching number sense, place value and operations with whole numbers and decimals and has had tremendous reception in schools worldwide.
Grant Department
Digi-Block, Inc.
P.O. Box 380247
Cambridge, MA 02238