Island Foundation & Bristol County Savings Bank Grant Funds to Support the Center’s Climate Science Learning Program
The Lloyd Center has received grants from the Island Foundation and the Bristol County Savings Bank in support of the Center’s Climate Science Learning Project (CSLP). Over the past four years, the Island Foundation has generously donated a total of $60,000 in support of the Lloyd Center’s Climate Science Learning Project.
In addition, the Center is happy to announce that with a $5,000 grant, the Bristol County Savings Bank has joined the Center’s list of CSLP supporters.
Aligned with the Massachusetts curriculum frameworks in science and engineering, the CSLP focuses on the projected effects of climate change on local biodiversity, introducing age-appropriate math, writing, critical thinking and life skills into core climate science lessons.
This year, the Lloyd Center is expanding and improving the CSLP’s interactive elementary school science teaching model. This year, the Center will reach 81 classrooms in Fall River and Greater New Bedford, schools whose students would not be able to participate without external support.
The Lloyd Center’s CSLP engages students in original research on climate change in their watershed. The Center’s hands-on learning method integrates ecological research techniques into lessons about watershed health, aligned with state and national STEM teaching standards. Students are directly engaged in original scientific research, making first-hand scientific discoveries about how nature works. Fifth grade classes do their fieldwork at the Lloyd Center or at a barrier beach field site, where they collect biodiversity data. These students participate as citizen scientists alongside Lloyd Center research scientists, gathering baseline data to document the impact of climate change on local watershed wildlife over time.
And more exciting news! The Lloyd Center is in the development and pilot phase to introduce interactive, web-based learning tools which will provide access to information about the effects of climate change on biodiversity in all CLSP classrooms. In the future, these tools will be offered for the benefit of town planners, local residents, and teachers statewide and nationally through professional development programs, media and targeted outreach.