TMMS sixth and seventh grade science classes have been awarded a $10,000 Toyota Tapestry Grant provided through a partnership between Toyota Motor Sales the National Science Teachers’ Association.

The grant offers K–12 science teachers the opportunity to develop innovative projects to enhance science education in the school and/or district and will fund a sixth and seventh grade environmental research investigation into Bridgeport brownfi eld sites and bioremediation during the 2011-12 academic year.

The sites, mainly factories that have been closed and are now abandoned, house petroleum wastes that leak above and below ground.

The 2009 Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection’s list of Petroleum Contaminated or Potentially Contaminated Sites lists 35 pages of leaks and spills in Bridgeport.

Through the grant, students will be encouraged to investigate and evaluate existing clean up processes and perhaps develop a more creative, environmentally responsible and inexpensive clean up solutions for petroleum spills.

The grant includes a fi eld trip to the Connecticut Science Center to view the Plant Earth exhibit and to explore a hands-on soil investigation.

Through research, experimentation and data analysis from the oyster mushroom soil remediation investigation, students will create an informative video that can be shared with a broad audience to inspire the greater Bridgeport communities, as well as local and state governments, to expand methods of bioremediation for petroleum-contaminated soils.

For more information on the grant and the environmental research investigation project, please contact Carmen Andrews, Six to Six Science Specialist, at ext. 6794

References:

C.E.S. News

C.E.S. Insider