Virginia Commonwealth University has received a $100,000 gift from the Alcoa Foundation to enhance its summer education program for K-12 teachers at the VCU Rice Center.
The gift, which will be funded over two years, allows for the development of two new weeklong, summer residential teacher training workshops in 2007 and two more in 2008. The workshops will focus on wetlands restoration with an emphasis on sustainable waters.
On Nov. 16 at 8 p.m., "Virginia Currents" will air a segment showcasing how “school teachers get hands-on experience with wildlife conservation at the VCU Rice Center, VCU’s vast life sciences living laboratory on the James River."
On Saturday, Nov. 11, the VCU chapter of the American Chemical Society Student Affiliates took soil and water samples from a variety of locations at the VCU Rice Center. The samples will be tested for heavy metal content and the results will provide a baseline for a variety of metals such as mercury, arsenic and lead. The work is part of a new and exciting collaboration between the VCU Department of Chemistry and VCU Life Sciences that has great potential to give even more students hands-on experience in environmental monitoring and laboratory methods, adding to VCU Rice Center’s role as a “living laboratory.�
