Lloyd Center Receives $50,000 Grant from Motorola Solutions Foundation

Award to spur innovative thinking and advance interest in science, technology, engineering and math among youth.

SCHAUMBURG, IL – August 26, 2011 – Lloyd Center for the Environment, a highly regarded environmental research and education institute headquartered in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, has been selected as the recipient of a $50,000 grant from The Motorola Solutions Foundation, the charitable arm of Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: MSI), through Motorola Solutions Foundation’s signature Innovation Generation Grants program for 2011. Now in its fifth year, the program awards $5.5 million to 100 non-profit organizations across the country that foster and support science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) initiatives for teachers and U.S. preschool through university students – especially girls and under-represented minorities.

STEM education can help career prospects. Two recent studies by the U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA) focused on the benefits of pursuing a career in STEM fields. The first report notes that those who pursue a science career both enjoy lower rates of joblessness and earn 26 percent more than their non-STEM counterparts, and the second report notes that women hold less than 25 percent of the jobs in STEM fields but earn 33 percent more, on average, than do women in other fields.

The proposals of this year’s grantees support distinct focus areas of the Innovation Generation program, such as the Lloyd Center’s new Climate Science Learning Project, which has been carefully designed to engage students and teachers in innovative, hands-on activities, as well as develop innovative thinking and creative problem-solving skills.

“We are grateful to the Motorola Solutions Foundation for its dedication to STEM education and are pleased that our grant will enable so many bright elementary and high school students, and their families, to engage in climate-change research and to monitor the effects of such change on their local environment,” said D’Arcy MacMahon, Executive Director, Lloyd Center for the Environment. “Empowered by this Motorola Solutions Foundation Innovation Generation Grant, the Lloyd Center will be strengthening science education and an understanding of the region’s ecology among students and families living in diverse South Coast communities.

Launched in 2007, the Motorola Solutions Foundation’s Innovation Generation program has provided more than $25.5 million in STEM funding. These strategic grants support hands-on, interactive after-school programs, science clubs, math clubs, camps and mentoring. The Foundation has a long-standing commitment to its grantees. Eighty-two percent of 2011 recipients have received funding for at least two years. In addition, the Innovation Generation program looks to support new partners, like the Lloyd Center, with 18 percent of recipients new to the Innovation Generation Grants program.

“The future of American innovation depends on a diverse pipeline of critical thinkers who are well versed in STEM principles,” said Matt Blakely, director of the Motorola Solutions Foundation. “It is a privilege to work with innovative educators, like those at the Lloyd Center in Massachusetts, to boost American students’ participation in math and science through their quality programming and pioneering engagement techniques and to provide students and teachers with the necessary tools to explore their STEM interests and pursue innovation.”

Innovation Generation is a part of Motorola Solutions’ larger commitment to engaging youth in STEM education. By virtue of this grant, the Lloyd Center for the Environment becomes part of the Innovation Generation network, where it can create vital connections with hundreds of other organizations with the common vision to make a greater impact on STEM education.

Additional information can be found online about t the Motorola Solutions grant program at www.motorolasolutions.com/giving.