{"id":45900,"date":"2016-12-06T14:27:20","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T21:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=45900"},"modified":"2016-12-06T14:27:20","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T21:27:20","slug":"nau-program-expands-science-education-opportunities-flagstaff-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/nau-program-expands-science-education-opportunities-flagstaff-families\/","title":{"rendered":"NAU program expands science education opportunities to Flagstaff families"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAU\u2019s Adventures in Biodiversity Program will provide summer camp scholarships and free family-centered science events to Flagstaff\u2019s underserved children and families thanks to recent grants from the Arizona Community Foundation of Flagstaff and W.L. Gore & Associates.<\/p>\n

The program was developed by NAU\u2019s Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research<\/a> in partnership with the Willow Bend Environmental Education Center<\/a>. It grew out of existing efforts, including the NAU Summer Bug Camp, which offers campers the opportunity to learn about insect natural history, behavior and ecology through a series of projects and activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cScience-based camps and events can change children\u2019s lives and put them on the path to a career in science,\u201d said Lindsie McCabe<\/strong>, an NAU doctoral candidate and the program\u2019s manager. \u201cI know because the summer bug camp I attended at age 8 is the reason I am working toward my Ph.D. and studying the role of bees as pollinators.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Adventures in Biodiversity Program emphasizes populations that traditionally have been underrepresented in the sciences, including Hispanics, Native Americans and girls. This program will use bugs, fungus and other topics that engage children as the \u201cgateway\u201d to science literacy and potentially a STEM career. Currently, only 16 percent of American high school students are interested in STEM careers.<\/p>\n

\"Grant<\/a>
Moran Henn (left), executive director of the Willow Bend Environmental Education Center, and Lindsie McCabe, Adventures in Biodiversity Program manager, accept a grant from the Arizona Community Foundation of Arizona and W.L. Gore & Associates.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Children 6 to 12 years of age will receive scholarships to attend NAU\u2019s Summer Bug Camp through the program, which will also provide families with a Biodiversity Passport that gives them free access to Family Science Day events at Willow Bend for the year. The program will bring the Traveling Arthropod Show<\/a> and live insects\u2014hissing cockroaches, tarantulas and centipedes\u2014to area classrooms at no charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn interest in science starts at a young age, and we have a unique opportunity to share the wonders of science with kids who might otherwise be excluded from science camps and educational activities because of cost,\u201d said Neil Cobb<\/strong>, director of NAU\u2019s Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research. \u201cWe are very proud of the program and deeply grateful to the Arizona Community Foundation and W.L. Gore for their support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Information about Summer Bug Camp scholarships and the Biodiversity Passport will be available on\u00a0the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research website<\/a> no later than January 1, 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAU\u2019s Adventures in Biodiversity Program will provide summer camp scholarships and free family-centered science events to Flagstaff\u2019s underserved children and families thanks to recent grants from the Arizona Community Foundation of Flagstaff and W.L. Gore & Associates. The program was developed by NAU\u2019s Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research in partnership with the Willow Bend Environmental…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":45902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}