Rodgers Family Foundation awards $10,000 grant to the Lloyd Center
The Rodgers Family Foundation has generously awarded the Lloyd Center for the Environment a $10,000 grant in support of the Center’s Climate Science Learning Project (CSLP)! The Foundation’s continued support over the years has been essential to the successful implementation and continuing development of experiential Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) learning models associated with the CSLP in high-need public elementary school science classrooms in Fall River. The program now enjoys wide interest and replication statewide, due in no small part to their continued support.
Launched in 2011, the unique undertaking teaches science and mathematics by incorporating these fields into a hands-on outdoor environmental education program. 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.
As part of the CSLP, fifth-grade students from Fall River and New Bedford are assisting the Lloyd Center in the documentation of potential impacts of climate change on local wildlife, working side-by-side with Lloyd Center research scientists. The students are also helping to create a web-based climate science education tool with the data they collect as participants in the project. A key objective of this work is to involve the students in activities that inspire a passion for science, while facilitating discovery of the significant relationship between human communities and natural systems.
“The financial support from the Rodgers Family Foundation will make a significant difference in the lives of the children we aim to reach through the development and implementation of climate science curricula system-wide in the Fall River public Schools.” stated Lloyd Center Executive Director Rachel Stronach, “We are very proud to have the Rodgers Family Foundation’s support and to be able to partner with them in this unique and important way.”