FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 27, 2010
Contact: Anika Mitchell Perkins
(662) 329-7124
aperkins@pa.muw.edu

MUW receives $200,000 grant for Science Enrichment Program

COLUMBUS, Miss. – Mississippi University for Women recently received a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support its Science Enrichment Program.
           
The Science and Mathematics on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway grant will provide funding over a two-year period for continuing science and mathematics education opportunities for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, teachers and the general public in Northeast Mississippi.
           
MUW Science Enrichment Program outreach coordinator Kenny Langley said, "The Science Enrichment Program emphasizes fun, hands-on and field-based learning activities to increase understanding and competency in the sciences. Teachers learn new techniques to use in their classrooms and students get exposure to applied science in a variety of settings. All participants will gain much understanding and knowledge of the important role science plays in our lives. We hope our program will inspire teachers to be better educators and students to become ground-breaking scientists." 
           
The program offers workshops for students and teachers with a primary emphasis on the environment. Student workshop topics include ecology, geology, hydrology, astronomy and the environment. The same workshops are offered to teachers as well as chemistry, physics, statistics and data analysis, microbiology, anatomy and physiology, plant science and genetics.
           
Workshops, programs and activities take place both indoors and outdoors, making use of MUW’s Plymouth Bluff Center and the MUW Explorer, a 36-by-10 pontoon boat designed as a floating laboratory, acquired through a previous congressionally-funded grant.
             
Dr. Dorothy Kerzel, chair of the MUW Department of Sciences and Mathematics, said, “Receiving these congressional funds through the U.S. Department of Education allows MUW to continue providing a wide collection of hands-on science and mathematics enrichment opportunities to K-12 students and teachers in the area.”

In compliance with Public Law 111-8, the “Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009”, DIVISION F – DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2009, Title V – General Provisions, Sec. 506, March 11, 2009; 100 percent of the total cost of the program is financed with federal money. The dollar amount of federal funds for the program is $200,000. Zero percent of the total cost of this program is financed by non-governmental sources.
           
For more information, visit http://www.muw.edu/sci_math/sep/ or contact Langley at klangley@as.muw.edu.

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