$125K Biogen Idec Foundation Grant Boosts Science Ed

The Research Triangle Park-based Biogen Idec Foundation is once again boosting science education in North Carolina, this time giving $125,000 to three innovative programs aimed at promoting science literacy and nudging more than 2,400 students toward careers in science.

Specifically, the grants to strengthen K-12 STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education in North Carolina include:

• A $50,000 lead challenge grant to help open a high school in August 2012 as part of the 7-year-old Contemporary Science Center in RTP, targeting an enrollment of 400 students and impacting many more students and teachers across the state through virtual and professional development programming.
• A $50,000 grant to the Boston University School of Medicine’s CityLab to connect a select group of teachers and 18 students from Bertie County with 80 Greater Boston-area students through the school’s 2011 SummerLab program and to continue the partnership during the academic year virtually through monthly lab challenges. The grant to the rural eastern N.C. area badly damaged by recent tornadoes doubles one awarded by the Foundation last year.
• A $25,000 grant to the North Carolina New Schools Project for its Modeling Biology Instruction program, an intensive 10-day summer program to help 20 biology teachers from around the state learn new, more-effective ways to enliven lab and classroom work for some 2,000 students a year.

The Biogen Idec Foundation has awarded $11 million in grants to science education and community-based programs in Biogen Idec’s U.S. operating areas since its incorporation in 2003.

That included $1 million for the North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s James B. Hunt, Jr. Leadership Annex, to help support the Center’s educational outreach programs such as the annual summer workshops that also help biology teachers enhance biotech lab and workshop experiences for students.