Early environmental education is an important aspect for creating environmentally conscious adults, but it is often neglected in underfunded public schools. PVF’s Science Resource Grant Program aims to address this by making our popular immediate response teacher grants available for environmental and conservation-focused projects in Alameda and San Mateo County public school classrooms.

The Science Resource Grants became our 8^th teacher grant program available for the 2015-2016 school year. Despite being a new program this year, it was so popular among teachers that funding became exhausted within three weeks.

Submitting teachers sent in a range of inventive requests for how to teach environmental education in a fun, hands-on way. For example, one Kindergarten teacher requested funds to participate in the CuriOdyssey Museum’s Adopt a Beehive program so that her students can embark on a project-based learning activity about bees: “California is going through a bee crisis. Millions of bees are dying off and the consequences affect everyone. Our students have a desire to learn about the role of bees in our environment, and join the community to take action to give bees a chance. Students will be developing ways to educate our school and community about the declining bee population in California, promote the protection of bees, and discover the products and benefits of bees.”

Other unique projects we have funded through the Science Resource Program include a tour of Merritt College’s gardens, gardening supplies to expand a school’s community garden, and an aquaponics system to teach students about natural ecosystems.

Teaching young children about the environment is as important as ever in our changing climate, and we are proud to play our part by providing small, immediate-response grants to expand environmental learning opportunities for Bay Area youth.