 Headlines
Pew Partnership Announces National Program to Share
Successful City Solutions
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Receives
$25 Million Gift
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gives $91.1 Million to
Undergraduate Sciences
Eli Broad Donates $18 Million to California Institute
of Technology
Arnold O. Beckman Donates $14.4 Million to Science
Education in California
1998 Lasker Awards Recognize Medical and Scientific
Achievements
Milken Family Foundation Honors Educators With Awards
Milken Foundation Donates $10 Million for Jewish High
School
University of Southern California's School of Education
Receives $20 Million
David and Lucile Packard Foundation Gives $1.4 Million
to Arts Program in California
$1 Million Donation Provides Home for Emotionally
Troubled Foster Children in California
• • • • • • |
PHILANTHROPY NEWS DIGEST
Inventor and entrepreneur Arnold O. Beckman, 98, has
donated $14.4 million to improve science education in the
school districts of Orange County, California. Money will
go toward teacher training, direct grants to districts,
and the creation of hundreds of hands-on kits for children
to perform experiments.
Under the grant program, titled Beckman@Science, individual
school districts can apply for as much as $200,000 to
improve the science curriculum at elementary schools. The
Discovery Science Center, a children's science museum due
to open in Santa Ana in December, will receive about
$3 million to train the county's elementary-school teachers
in science and to provide classroom materials. The third
component of the gift is a series of hands-on science kits
— 140 so far in 14 science subjects — that will be
rotated among elementary schools for classes to conduct
their own experiments.
News of Beckman's latest project won praise from national
science leaders and educators. "This is a real rarity,"
said Cindy Workosky, spokeswoman for the National Science
Teachers Association. "In the
sciences, we're always looking for added support and
funds to help teachers."
"Science, I think, is extremely interesting, and I want to
stimulate that interest in young people," said Beckman,
the founder of Beckman Instruments, who said he first
became fascinated by science while reading a chemistry
textbook at age 10. Through his foundation, Beckman has
contributed some $300 million to the advancement of
research and education.
Nguyen, Tina. "Beckman's $14.4 Million Science Project;
Education: O.C. Schools Are Petri Dish for Entrepreneur's
Three-Part Program." Los Angeles Times Online 9/15/98.
FC002328
|
