Massachusetts Life
Sciences Center
Announces Equipment and Supply Grants
For Public Middle Schools and High Schools
In Northeastern Mass
For Public Middle Schools and High Schools
In Northeastern Mass
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Date: April 6, 2015
Media Contact: Angus McQuilken, MLSC Vice President for Communications and Marketing
Phone:
617-921-7749
MASSACHUSETTS LIFE SCIENCES
CENTER ANNOUNCES EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLY GRANTS
FOR PUBLIC
MIDDLE SCHOOLS AND HIGH
SCHOOLS IN NORTHEASTERN MASS
Grants to fund new equipment
and supplies for STEM education at public middle schools and high schools
Lowell, MA – The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) today
joined local school leaders and elected officials at Lowell
High School to announce more than
$260,000 in funding to improve science courses, and provide new equipment and
supplies for students in public schools in Lowell
and Gloucester.
The four awardees include Lowell High School, Lowell Middlesex
Academy Charter
School, Lowell Makes and
O’Maley Innovation Middle School.
“Massachusetts’ flourishing life sciences
community has created opportunities and spurred economic growth in every region
of the state,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “These grants from the
Massachusetts Life Sciences Center will further strengthen our workforce in
order to meet the needs of this growing industry through enhanced training
facilities and programs at our middle schools and high schools.”
The largest grant of
$100,000 was awarded to Lowell
High School. The school
plans to establish the Lowell High School Life Sciences Maker Space at the
UMass Lowell Medical Device Development Center (M2D2). The grant will provide
incubator space to more than 800 students for hands-on life sciences training
and early exposure to life science career pathways. The Maker Space will be outfitted with high
powered microscopes, life science lab supplies, computers with technical
computing software, a 3-D printer and more. Students enrolled in the M2D2 Early
Pathways program — a yearlong internship program that connects high school
students with entrepreneurs – will use the Maker Space as their laboratory to
design their own medical devices.
“By providing a one of a
kind MakerSpace in collaboration with the Massachusetts Medical Device
Development Center (M2D2), Lowell High School can better support our students
by providing opportunities for authentic, hands-on, inquiry-based learning in
the Life Sciences,” said Roger Morneau, Head of the Lowell High School Science
Department.
Lowell Middlesex Academy
Charter School (LMACS) received over $90,000 in funding from the MLSC. The
LMACS serves the Lowell
School District’s most
at-risk students. The MLSC grant will establish a science laboratory at the
school to support the development of the LMACS Life Sciences Training Program,
which will provide students with a strong foundation for further studies and
employment in the life sciences industry. The laboratory will provide students
with equipment that they have never had access to before, including dissection
pans, scales, balances, incubators, refrigerators, stir plates, autoclaves,
microwaves, fume hoods and more.
Lowell Makes, a non-profit,
shared community workshop and laboratory that prepares Lowell Public School
students for further study and careers in the life sciences industry received a
$50,000 grant. The grant will purchase a
Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) that will provide instruction to more than
4,400 urban middle school students – an experience that virtually no public
school has the financial resources or scientific expertise to procure/maintain.
Through this innovative partnership, grade 5-8 students will visit the SEM for
5-10 class periods per year as part of their life sciences curriculum. Lowell Makes will shepherd the SEM for
afterschool programs as well as for high school life science units and other
nonprofit educational purposes.
“Receiving the Massachusetts
Life Sciences Center (MLSC) grant award is an amazing opportunity for the Lowell
Public Schools to more actively support the deep content knowledge development
of teachers in STEM teaching through their high level professional learning,”
said Jean Franco, Superintendent of Lowell Public Schools.
"Science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics are an important part of education today,” said Representative
Thomas A. Golden, Jr. (D-Lowell).
“Through the generosity of the Massachusetts Life
Sciences Center
grants students will have the necessary resources that will help to support
them in their research, development and innovation within the life sciences programs.”
“Creating pathways into the
life sciences workforce is a critical part of the Center’s mission,” said Susan
Windham-Bannister, Ph.D., President & CEO of the MLSC. “We want to make those opportunities available
to all students across the state, and we are pleased to be providing these
resources to enhance STEM education in Lowell
and Gloucester.
The MLSC Equipment &
Supplies Grant Program provides grants of up to $250,000 to vocational
technical schools, and public high schools and middle schools in Gateway
Cities, other schools serving low-income populations, schools implementing
innovative STEM curriculum, and workforce training organizations that support
such schools. Since its inception, the program has awarded nearly $12 million
to more than 100 different Massachusetts
high schools and middle schools.
Awardees provide an array of
training ranging from general STEM education curricula to biotechnology. The student
population that will benefit from these equipment grants represents a diverse workforce.
About the Massachusetts
Life Sciences
Center
The Massachusetts Life
Sciences Center (MLSC) is an investment agency that supports life sciences
innovation, research, development and commercialization. The MLSC is charged
with implementing a 10-year, $1-billion, state-funded investment initiative.
These investments create jobs and support advances that improve health and well-being.
The MLSC offers the nation’s most
comprehensive set of incentives and collaborative programs targeted to the life
sciences ecosystem. These programs propel the growth that has made Massachusetts the global
leader in life sciences. The MLSC creates new models for collaboration and
partners with organizations, both public and private, around the world to
promote innovation in the life sciences. For more information, visit www.masslifesciences.com.
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