$200,000 to STEM from school grant

LYNN – Three city schools will share nearly $200,000 for science, technology engineering and math (STEM) equipment and supplies awarded Wednesday by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.Lynn Vocational Technical Institute has been awarded $99,908. Breed Middle School and the new Marshall Middle School have each been awarded $50,000.”We are thrilled and incredibly grateful to the Mass. Life Sciences Center for selecting not one but three of our schools to benefit from its very generous funding,” Lynn Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Catherine Latham said in a statement Wednesday. “These grants will ensure our students have the most up-to-date equipment and supplies, which will ultimately prepare them for interesting, rewarding and lucrative careers in the STEM fields.”The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) is a quasi-public agency of the Commonwealth that implements the Massachusetts Life Sciences Act, a 10-year, $1 billion initiative signed into law in June 2008. The MLSC’s mission is to create jobs in the life sciences – biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics and bioinformatics – and support scientific research.Part of their efforts is awarding the STEM Equipment and Supplies Grant Program, which has awarded more than $8.4 million to high schools and organizations throughout the state.The three schools in Lynn were among 72 grant applications the MLSC received from high schools, middle schools and training programs throughout the state. City, MLSC officials, and eight other grant recipients gathered Wednesday at Roxbury Community College for an announcement of the awards.The money for Breed Middle School will be used to buy safety equipment and basic supplies as well as equipment for the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI)’s Laying the Foundation labs. These labs enable students to learn and practice how to use a microscope, compare the structure of plant and animal cells, and learn about the cell cycle and circulatory system.”At the middle-school level, students will now be well-versed on the use of complicated electronic devices such as graphing calculators and probes to gather and analyze data, and will be better prepared for the rigors of high school science labs,” said Richard Held, Lynn Public School’s assistant director of curriculum and instruction for science.Marshall, which is opening in fall 2016, will have 10 fully functional science labs and will use the grant money for basic supplies, safety equipment, and equipment for the Laying the Foundation labs.”We want our students to enter on day one and have all of the equipment and materials that they need to perform labs,” said Held. “The MLSC grant, along with district investments in Marshall, will ensure that our deserving students will have the best science education opportunities possible.”Lynn Tech will use the nearly $100,000 grant for a three-dimensional printer and to expand its biotechnology program. This program began in 2011 with help from the MLSC to complete and equip a new science lab focused heavily on life sciences and biotechnology.The biotechnology program has nearly tripled its enrollment and the new money will help the school update and resupply lab materials, equipment and supplies.Lynn Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said the grant was “a huge victory” for Lynn and its schools.”Given our geographic proximity to Boston and Cambridge – the hub of the life sciences industry – it’s our responsibility to provide our students with a hands-on, state-of-the-art science education and ignite their interest in that career path,” Kennedy said. “We are so thankful for this investment in their futures.”Held said that the money comes at an important time for Lynn schools, which are beginning to adopt new science standards in the 2015-2016 school year.”The scope of science education in Massachusetts will change dramatically from the standard classroom lecture where teachers talk about science to a curriculum that focuses on