Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation

Catholic High School was the proud recipient of a grant from the Irene W. and C. B. Pennington Foundation. The grant will allow the Science Department to expand its collection of instructional items. The school will also purchase 30 ClassVR headsets. In addition, the STREAM Department, as well as the Engineering Department, will benefit from the grant.

The Pennington Foundation was established in 1982 to support organizations in the community. During their lives, Mr. and Mrs. Pennington were noted philanthropists and volunteers. Today, family members, who serve as the foundation’s core trustees, gladly carry on the Pennington legacy of generosity.

The CHS Science Department will purchase a Human skeleton model allowing students to view the human skele- ton at its proper scale. A hydroponics center that will give the students an opportunity to grow crop plants from seed using only water and nutrients will also be purchased. By altering the chemical makeup, students can explore the necessity of different levels of different chemicals. They could also introduce pollutants to directly see their effect. This will allow for exploratory rather than recipe type labs.

Other items will include an incubator, an autoclave, allowing proper disposal of hazardous waste and sterilization of lab equipment, a hook weight set, and a benchtop water distiller. The department will no longer have to purchase distilled water which will ultimately be a savings for the school.

Additionally, the department will purchase a spectrophotometer allowing the demonstrations of wave lengths of light in chemistry and physics, four colorimeters, a desiccator and a Go Direct Temperature Probe teacher pack, which will allow measurement and direction of graph temperature on laptops.

With the ClassVR headsets, the students will be able to tour ancient sites, outer space, or the human cells with this technology. As an administrator and faculty member expressed, “in a quarantine environment, it will be the only museum experience my students will get…”

The goal of Catholic High School, in the tradition of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, is to equip young people with the skills they need to participate fully in and contribute to the building of the reign of God.

This grant helps the school to realize that goal, in part, by extending learning communities within the school and throughout the world.

While the content of instruction in each discipline will remain essentially unchanged, CHS teachers will utilize these new instructional pieces of equipment, to even more intentionally promote critical thinking and creativity along with content knowledge. The school is confident that student achievement, as measured by standardized tests and college readiness, will continue to improve as it has in recent years.

The school will continue to obtain funds from alumni, friends, corporations, and other foundations for donations and grants to fund departments that will advance the teaching and learning environment at Catholic High School.

IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS INTERESTED IN AWARDING A GRANT, PLEASE CONTACT MRS. MARGIE ALEXANDER AT MALEXANDER@CATHOLICHIGH.ORG.