Environmental Education Center Receives $50K Eco-Grant

The Somerset County Environmental Education Center recently received a $50,000 eco-grant from the 3M Company to develop a curriculum about biomimicry.

The grant from 3M will be used to develop a new STEM (Science, Technology. Engineering, Mathematics) curriculum field trip program for local schools using the theme of biomimicry, according to the Somerset County Park Commission.

Biomimicry is an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-test patterns and strategies, according to the Biomimicry Institute.

Using the grant funds matched by the Somerset County Park Foundation, science curriculum specialist, Missy Holzer, and biomimicry lab coordinator, Johnny Quispe, will be developing the STEM-rich school tour program, the commission said. Holzer will develop the curriculum, while Quispe will assist in developing a classroom for students at the EEC to apply hands-on biomimicry.

The Somerset County Park Commission said the Environmental Education Center’s biomimicry curriculum will be used as:

• A new way for young people to view and value the natural world; to see nature not just as something to learn about, but as something to learn from
• A compelling way to present science, technology, engineering, and math subjects
• A tool to enhance and express creativity through design, with hands-on, minds-on, project-based activities
• A way to connect school subjects to one another, and school subjects to the real
• world beyond classroom walls
• A unique and powerful way to think and learn about sustainability

For more information about the EEC and all Somerset County Park Commission activities, visit somersetcountyparks.org.

(Photo courtesy of the Somerset County Park Commission)