The Suffolk Education Foundation will award $11,875 in grants to fund 11 classroom projects planned for the 2011-2012 school year at schools throughout the city.

The programs affect several of the city’s schools and students at every grade level.

Suffolk Education Foundation executive director Mary Donny said the organization received about 25 grant proposals, all of which were for great programs.

To select the recipients, the foundation’s grant committee evaluated different parts of the programs, such as major objectives, impact on students and the schools and sustainability.

Donny said the grant committee had to make a lot of tough decisions, but she is proud of the selections.

“I’m excited to see these programs come to fruition and see what impact they have,” Donny said.

The students at Elephant’s Fork Elementary School will literally be able to see the results of one of the programs that received funding.

Elephant’s Fork kindergarten teacher Karen Gaduyon developed a program that shows students the life cycle of a chicken.

The school received $650 from the foundation to purchase a self-turning incubator and 18 fertilized eggs.

Over the course of several weeks, the kindergartners will watch and learn about the progress of the eggs, and they eventually will witness the hatching.

Gaduyon said she had the idea for the program after her classroom watched the life cycle of butterflies this year.

“The kids really enjoyed seeing the caterpillar going into chrysalis and becoming a butterfly,” she said. “I thought it would be a good idea if we could do that with chicks.”

Gaduyon said she thinks the hands-on experience helps the students better grasp the concepts of the life cycle, which is a Standard of Learning for kindergarten.

“If the kids get to do something and actively be a part of it, they are going to remember it better than if they read it in a book or even see it in a film,” she said.

John F. Kennedy Middle School teacher Kathy Applebee had the same idea of making learning more interactive when she developed the Science on Stage program.

Applebee said the program, which will receive $1,085 in grant money, will combine several subject areas, including science and English, to help students absorb content. The program will impact students at all grade levels at the school.

In science, students will create photo stories with narration of the science experiments they conduct, which Applebee said will help them master the topics.

The program will also integrate science into their other courses, such as English and music. For example, students will perform and record energy-related Readers’ Theater skits in English class.

“It going to be great with science, but it’s also going to help the kids with oral skills,” Applebee said.

The money for the programs comes from various fundraisers the foundation has done throughout the year.

Donny said a large portion of the funds comes from the money raised during campaigns for the foundation completed by all the public schools.

She said by using these funds, the money the schools raised goes back to them to help fund enrichment programs.

Nine other programs received money to fund new programs.

• Booker T. Washington Elementary School’s Reading is Believing program received $1,400 to help fifth-graders absorb American history topics through Readers’ Theater plays.
• The foundation awarded $762.67 for the creation of a centralized Readers’ Theater depository for all of the elementary schools to use.
• Driver Elementary School received $1,977.25 to start a performance band for all grade levels.
• King’s Fork High School will start a children’s theater with $1,300 it received. Students will travel to elementary schools and perform plays relating to Standards of Learning material.
• A phonics-based tutorial program at Booker T. Washington Elementary School received $500 and will address the reading skills of fourth graders who are at least one and a half grade levels behind in reading.
• Forest Glen Middle School sixth-graders will learn about water quality by working with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to build an oyster float in Bennett’s Creek. The program received $1,000.
• Letter People Puppets, which received $952.20 in funding, will help Early Start students learn letter recognition, sounds, language skills, vocabulary and phonological awareness.
• Nansemond River High School’s library was awarded $1,800 to purchase new instructional DVDs that cover new Standards of Learning and subject areas marked as needing improvement.
• A Lakeland High School math teacher received $398 to develop videos for technology-enhanced Algebra II lessons.