Submitted by M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust
The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust’s Partners in Science (Partners) program recently awarded $15,000 to The Evergreen State College. The grant will give a local high school teacher at Tumwater High School the opportunity to engage in research with an outstanding mentor at Evergreen.
“The importance of the collaboration between Evergreen and high schools in our local community is essential. This grant, and the Partners program as a whole, equips science teachers with the research experience to implement better practices in their own classrooms,” said Evergreen President George Bridges.
The grant was awarded to Erik Thuesen, a faculty member who teaches biological science at Evergreen, and Josiah Price, teacher at Tumwater High School, to research biochemical adaptations of comb jellies (Ctenophora) to life in the deep sea.
“Josiah’s work will contribute to our understanding of the genetic basis for functional adaptations to high pressure in the deep sea,” said Thuesen. “This collaboration will also broaden the horizons of the students in my lab as they ponder their career options after graduation and provide me with some insight into our future students coming right out of high school.”
2018 marks the 28th year of M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust’s participation in Partners and more than 500 teachers have been awarded this grant throughout the Trust’s five-state funding region. As a part of the program, the Trust hosts an annual national conference where teachers present their research results, hear presentations from renowned researchers, and network with other teachers and researchers from across the United States.
“Our goal is to improve science education and encourage best practices of teaching to be more inquiry focused,” said Steve Moore, executive director of the Murdock Charitable Trust. “We are honored to be involved with such a vital program at Evergreen that supports student learning at Tumwater High School.”
For more information on the Partners in Science program or how to apply for grants, go to murdocktrust.org.
About Partners in Science (Partners) Program
The Partners in Science Program (Partners) was founded by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (Research Corp) in 1988. The Trust joined Partners in 1990, and in 1999 became the administrator of the program. The program pairs high school science teachers for two summers with a mentor doing cutting-edge research in an academic lab or a lab associated with another nonprofit institution. Teachers are given the opportunity to present the results of their research at an annual national conference of peers. The Trust awards approximately 25 Partners in Science grants each year to fund these teacher-mentor research opportunities in the Pacific Northwest.
About M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust
J. Murdock Charitable Trust, created by the will of the late Melvin J. (Jack) Murdock, provides grants to organizations in five states of the Pacific Northwest – Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington – that seek to strengthen the region’s educational and cultural base in creative and sustainable ways. Since its inception in 1975, the Trust has awarded nearly 6,400 grants totaling more than $938 million. It is one of the most active regional or national foundations working in the Pacific Northwest.
