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Bermuda Elementary Receives STEM Grant from Monsanto
Bermuda Elementary in the Ferguson-Florissant School District now will have enhanced STEM educational opportunities in the classroom next year thanks to a $2,500 Dannette Ward Science Education Grant from Monsanto’s STEM Education Outreach Program.
Sarah Nash, Monsanto outreach communications specialist, presented Kimberly Berry and Sara Tehan, both teachers at Bermuda, with the grant. The grant will be used to purchase science materials to enhance Bermuda’s newly created outdoor classroom to offer more hands-on experiences in order to prepare students to be creative thinkers and to eliminate the nature deficit. The nature deficit, coined by the writer Richard Louv in a 2005 book, “Last Child in the Woods,” is the idea that when children are exposed to more time outdoors, mental health and behavior improves drastically. In addition to the school’s outdoor classroom, they are also planning to add an outdoor community garden.
“The benefits of connecting to nature have been well documented in numerous scientific research studies and publications. Collectively, this body of research shows that children’s social, psychological, academic and physical health is positively impacted when they have daily contact with nature,” said Kimberly Berry, Kindergarten teacher.
About the Dannette Ward Science Education Grant
The Dannette Ward Science Education Grant was formed by Monsanto’s Science and Agriculture Education Outreach Program volunteers to honor the accomplishments of retired Monsanto scientist Danette Ward, who has made numerous contributions to youth through science and agriculture education.
This past year, Volunteers of the Monsanto STEM Education Outreach Program (formerly the Science and Agriculture Education Outreach Program) donated 725 hours in area classrooms to earn a $9,000 award from The Monsanto Company to support STEM Education in area schools.