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Lloyd Center Awarded $35,000 Braitmayer Grant

Dartmouth, MA – The Braitmayer Foundation has awarded the Lloyd Center for the Environment a grant of $35,000 to support its Science Curriculum Reform and Development initiative. This award will directly fund the expansion of two innovative environmental science curricula, the fifth-grade Turn-the-Tide Education Program and the third-grade Feathery Focus, into the Fairhaven and Fall River public schools, patterned after programs that have proven so successful in Dartmouth and Westport. Working in collaboration with each school system’s Director of Science Curricula, Lloyd Center staff will ensure that town-specific issues become an integral part of each program.

The Braitmayer Foundation, located in Marion, was established in 1964 through a gift from Marian S. Braitmayer. The Foundation seeks to support K-12 education programs throughout the U.S., particularly those involved in curricular and school reform initiatives. The Foundation also provides support of activities in Marion, and its surrounding communities, which will improve the quality of life for residents in the area. Currently seven members of the family direct the Foundation’s activities.

In today’s schools, standards-based assessments increasingly continue to define the important ideas and skills necessary for achievement in science and other subjects, resulting in a growing need to identify focal points for organizing school programs and curriculum. Locally relevant topics can effectively connect concepts and skill development across subject areas and grade levels in ways which school children can understand and identify with. With the success of the Turn-the-Tide and Feathery Focus programs, the Lloyd Center educational staff has repeatedly proven that these science programs provide instructional focus for active learning in science, mathematics, social studies, environmental education, and other subject areas.

Given the comprehensive demands of current curriculum planning, these programs fill significant gaps in science education at the elementary school level in the towns they serve, particularly in learning to apply critical thinking and the scientific method. The Turn-the-Tide Education Program and Feathery Focus are carefully aligned with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks in Science and Technology/Engineering.