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EPA Grant Fosters Environmental Stewardship in NYC

Release Date: 04/05/2006
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(New York, NY) Queens College wants more New York City students to get their hands dirty while learning about the environment, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is helping with a $50,000 grant. The funding will expand the Queens College’s use of the nationally-renowned Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program to bring hands-on science into schools across the city and foster an appreciation for the environment. Teachers and students in 20 schools in the Bronx and Queens will benefit from the grant presented today to Queens College of the City University of New York by Bill Sanders, Interim Director of EPA’s Office of Children’s Health and Environmental Education and Alan J. Steinberg, EPA Regional Administrator.

“By encouraging the students to practice science, not just learn about theory, GLOBE engages kids’ imaginations and makes them excellent future stewards of the environment,” said Alan J. Steinberg, EPA Regional Administrator. “It also makes kids citizens of the world as they network with other participants from around the globe.”

Bill Sanders added, “This project will help fire up the imaginations of our future environmental scientists and equip our citizens with an understanding of the impact of their choices on the world around them.”

Queens College faculty will train 80 teachers to carry out scientific age-appropriate studies on the environment using the kinds of instruments that engage kids, such as Global Positioning System receivers. Students will use their school neighborhoods and local parks as open-air labs and share their observations with scientists and other students around the world via GLOBE’s Web site.

“We are proud of our long partnership with the GLOBE program,” said Queens College President James L. Muyskens. “I am very gratified that the EPA values our ongoing work with science teachers and has awarded us this educational grant. For Queens and Bronx students who think that their surroundings are just concrete and asphalt and isolated from nature, this grant is particularly important because it will give them a broader knowledge of the urban environment and of science in general.”

Queens College of the City University of New York was founded in 1937 and offers a liberal arts curriculum with over 100 undergraduate and graduate programs and a variety of specialized honors programs. Located on a beautiful 77-acre campus in Flushing, the college enjoys a national reputation for its liberal arts and sciences and pre-professional programs. Queens College’s 17,000 students come from more than 140 nations, speak scores of languages and create an extraordinary diverse and welcoming environment. Queens College’s Web site is http://www.qc.cuny.edu/ .

EPA’s environmental education grants are awarded annually through a competitive process at the regional and national level. Environmental education grants focus on environmental career development, improving teaching skills, education reform, community and health issues and increasing the ability of educational organizations and agencies to deliver environmental education programs. For more information, go to https://www.epa.gov/enviroed/grants.html.