Amgen Doubles Support of Summer Science Institute at CLU

A $135,000 grant to assist middle and high school science teachers to improve science education in their classrooms has been awarded to California Lutheran University by the Amgen Foundation.

The grant will support the second Amgen Summer Science Institute, which was held for the first time last year on the CLU campus. "One of the Amgen Foundation's major goals is to strengthen science teaching in our schools," points out Barbara Bronson Gray, Amgen's associate director of Corporate Communications. "We were pleased with the results of last summer's institute and what teachers were able to take back and apply directly in their schools. We've listened to feedback from teachers, however, and modified the program to make it more financially feasible for teachers."

The 2003 Amgen Summer Science Institute will consist of four individual science workshops, each a week in length, according to Julia Sieger, Ed.D., and Andrea Huvard, Ph.D., CLU's co–directors of the Institute. Workshops will include physical science, marine science, essentials in modern life science and earth science. Each workshop will be team–taught by two CLU faculty members – one from the science division and one from the CLU School of Education. In addition to on–site classes, participants will be given instructional materials to use in their classrooms and share with other teachers.

A major shift in this summer's institute, Sieger notes, is that teachers will be given grants to attend. Each participant will receive a total of $1,000 including a personal stipend of $500, $300 to purchase science supplies for their schools and another $200 for attending a follow–up workshop.

Participants will be selected on a competitive basis. California secondary school science teachers are welcome to apply. For further information about the workshop or to request an application package, contact Andrea Huvard at huvard@clunet.edu.