Arboretum receives $500,000 science education boost

The Arboretum is among 29 science museums, nature centers, aquariums, zoos and other informal science education centers that received a part of $12 million in new grants from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The awards support programs to strengthen science literacy and enhance science education.

At the Arboretum, the grant will fund continuation of the Earth Partnership for Schools program, which offers teacher training in habitat restoration for kindergarten through grade 12. The program shows educators how to conduct a habitat restoration on their school property and to use the experience to develop a restoration-based curriculum that draws on all subjects, from science and math to language arts and social studies.

“We are improving the quality of education and making learning relevant to students by using the restoration process to provide hands-on exploration using school grounds as an outdoor classroom,” says Earth Partnership for Schools program manager Libby McCann. “The experience brings schools and communities together and improves student performance.”

Agrees Molly Fifield Murray, Arboretum education and outreach manager: “By having students transform school landscapes into natural habitats, their studies of science, math and related subjects can show them why learning is important and that they can make a difference.”

The Arboretum’s Earth Partnership program began in 1991 as an outgrowth of the Arboretum’s focus on ecological restoration as a way of establishing a positive relationship between people and the land. The Arboretum’s world-famous pioneering restoration work, initiated by Aldo Leopold and his colleagues in the 1930s, provides living laboratories for restoration-related research and teaching.

“We are so pleased to have this kind of support from theHoward Hughes Medical Institute, because it permits us to further the work we have begun in providing educational experiences for schoolchildren on how to develop a new and positive relationship with nature,” says Arboretum Director Greg Armstrong.

This is the fourth round of HHMI grants for science education programs originating outside the traditional elementary or secondary school setting. A panel of scientists, educators and museum program specialists reviewed 235 grant applications.

The objectives of the program include:

• To strengthen the science literacy of children and their families.
• To provide resources for better science teaching.
• To engage families and communities in science education.
• To stimulate an interest in careers in research and education.
• To foster collaborations between informal science education centers and other community institutions.

Since 1992, HHMI has awarded 125 grants totaling $30.6 million to museums and other informal science education centers. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a medical research organization whose principal purpose is the conduct of biomedical research. It employs 340 Hughes investigators who conduct basic medical research in HHMI laboratories at 72 medical centers and universities nationwide.

Through its complementary grants program, HHMI supports science education in the United States and a select group of researchers abroad.