Wiley and Canterbury schools receive grant to fund IB activities

Wiley Middle School students constructed six rain barrels to catch rain water that they will then purify, bottle and ship to children in three African villages in the spring.

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Wiley Middle and Canterbury Elementary schools received a $2,000 Global Competency Grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation (www.mhjf.org) on Oct. 11, to fund International Baccalaureate (IB) activities.

At Wiley, the grant monies will go towards funding the schoolwide “WATER Initiative”—an inquiry-based project—where students collect rain water in barrels (donated by the Avon Lake Water Department) and use purchased chemical lab kits to learn about the process of water purification. For the global collaboration part of the initiative, Wiley students send self-made and labeled plastic bottles and PUR packets (sponsored by Proctor & Gamble) to distill water, as well as other parcels of necessities, to Wiley’s sister school in Liberia. 

At Canterbury, the monies will go towards funding two concerts within the Canterbury Concert Series, which annually celebrates diverse, global artists in our community.

Desiree Caliguire-Maier, IB Coordinator for Wiley and Canterbury, presented at the statewide Ohio Global Institute this summer. Those who presented qualified for the Global Competency grant monies. “This grant gives schools and their communities an opportunity to focus on excellence in teaching and/or deep learning for students with the theme of educating for global competencies,” said Caliguire-Maier.