Writing a Successful Toyota TAPESTRY Proposal

If you’ve reached this site, it’s obvious that you are interested in writing a proposal for a Toyota TAPESTRY grant. Congratulations on your desire to reach beyond the classroom door for your students and your willingness to go that extra mile.

Some basic things you should consider as you contemplate writing your proposal include the following:

• First and foremost, take a look at the TAPESTRY tips page. It will guide you relative to the types of things you might develop a project around.
• Allow yourself time … time to think and re-think your project, time to talk with others about the ideas in your project, time to write (and revise) your project proposal, time to allow others to read your project proposal and provide input, time for you to listen to and consider their input, edit and make clarifications where needed, while staying true to your projects’ goals
• Make sure that your project is unique and includes science learning that you feel is important and that you and your students, are excited and enthusiastic about. (When someone writes a grant purely to get money for supplies versus to fund a real learning opportunity for students it is often evident in the proposal.)
• Talk to others about your project and include community partners whenever possible. They serve to enhance your project, give important background and information, and provide invaluable input to your proposal. Furthermore, when these partners are members of the science community, they often become cohorts in the classroom and you expose your students to “real scientists” in their world around them.
• Make sure your project “tracks all the way through.” This is extremely important. You are actually reiterating and clarifying your project throughout the different sections of the proposal, stating similar things throughout, but looking at them from different lenses. For example, in writing about your goals, part of your summary might succinctly point out the goals of your project, part of your description would tell how you’d achieve those goals, part of your rationale would describe and explain the importance of the goals, and part of your evaluation would tell how you’ll measure achievement of those goals.

Writing a TAPESTRY proposal is not really as difficult as you may think. In fact, it allows you to truly think as a classroom teacher. Do you remember the unit plans you had to write back in those college classes? Well, writing this proposal asks you to think in many of the same ways with a deliberate focus on science education. Read ahead for a section-by-section walk-through of the proposal.

Proposal Summary: Just as the proposal directions say, this is the first exposure the judges have to your project. Start off with something that will “hook” their attention, relative to your project. Then, briefly give the key points to your project in paragraph format. As an educator, think “key objectives.” That’s what this will really be about. Remember too, that like key objectives in any classroom unit, these objectives drive the rest of your project. Here, simply put, you tell what the objectives are (but be ready to recall these and write to these in the next parts of the proposal). Additionally, make sure the objectives build upon each other to achieve the end goal of your project.

Project Description and Scientific Inquiry: Let the judges know what inquiry question the students will be striving to seek an answer to. In an interesting but concise way, you might also include how this question arose and how it is connected to the students who will be involved in the project. Then, write the largest part of the proposal … the description. As a classroom teacher, think about what you will do (activities, experiments, lessons, field trips, research and data collection, speakers, etc) to achieve the objectives you wrote in the summary section. Make sure you tie the activities in this section to the objectives from the Summary section and to the Inquiry Question above. Again, as with the objectives in your Summary, make sure these activities build upon each other to achieve the end goal of your project.

Rationale & Potential Impact: Here’s your chance to share why this is such an important project to your students and your community. Provide a very brief, but interesting and impassioned, background to your project. Next, succinctly describe the goals and how students will benefit from achieving these goals. (While the Proposal Summary asks you to list the important parts of your project, here you are describing the goals and how students will benefit. This may sound similar, but it really is looking at a different aspect. The Proposal Summary section lists what the learning goals of the project are, while the Rational and Impact section describes these goals and tells why this learning is important, who will benefit from the project and how. )

For me, contemplating the rationale was actually the starting point of our project. Why, exactly, was the project important to the students and the community, and from a science-learning standpoint? What were, ultimately, its goals? If the project is important enough to you, at a gut-and-soul level, this question will be the easiest to answer … and it will provide your impetus for writing the rest of your proposal.

Evaluation Plan: As a classroom teacher, this is where you think “assessment.” Again, return to your original objectives set forth in your Proposal Summary. How will your students show that they have progressed towards achieving those objectives? It may be one large assessment or a combination of things … for example, a pre/post assessment, a monitoring of logs and diagrams … and perhaps most essential, some measurement that shows that the ultimate goal set forth in your project has been met.

Calendar: Now, go back and look at the description of your activities. When will you work on these activities? What preparation as a teacher, will you need to schedule? What time-frame will you need to wrap-up the project? Will you include any community education in your project? These are all the things you include on your calendar, giving approximate dates.

Budget: Again, go back and look at your description of activities. Think about the equipment, supplies and funds you will need to accomplish these activities. What will you need to purchase? Include the things you need to purchase in your budget, as well as things you may need funds for (i.e., funds for a bus for a field trip, a speaker’s cost, etc.). Make sure that the things you include in your budget are truly pertinent to your project.. Be able to truly justify what you ask for … making sure the supplies you include match the activities, research, etc. being conducted in your project.

Vitae: Writing the vitae provides you an opportunity to share your background, both academically as well as your involvement or experiences in activities relative to science education and/or innovative projects. Include things that show you have the capability to direct and carry out a project, can work successfully with students and have an enthusiasm for learning and discovery.

Letters of Support: One letter must be from your school’s principal (or headmaster). This letter must indicate confidence in you and support for your project in the school, as well as explain how funds will be set up so that you have access to them. Additional letters of support should come from outside agencies that you have indicated will be involved in your project in significant ways. The letters should show that the agency supports your efforts and explain how that agency will be involved in your project.

Now that you know the steps involved … think big and get started on your proposal! Your students, and science education, are worth the effort! Let the future unfold … and your project become a reality!