The Lloyd Center for the Environment has received grants from the Island Foundation and the Bristol County Savings Bank in support of the Center’s Climate Science Learning Project (CSLP).

Over the past four years, the Island Foundation has donated a total of $60,000 in support of the Lloyd Center’s Climate Science Learning Project.

In addition, the Center announced that the Bristol County Savings Bank has joined the Center’s list of CSLP supporters with a $5,000 grant.

The CSLP focuses on the projected effects of climate change on local biodiversity, while introducing age-appropriate math, writing, critical thinking and life skills into core climate science lessons.

The Lloyd Center’s CSLP engages students in original research on climate change in their watershed. The Center’s hands-on learning method integrates ecological research techniques into lessons about watershed health, aligned with state and national STEM teaching standards.

Students are directly engaged in original scientific research, making first-hand scientific discoveries about how nature works. Fifth-grade classes do their fieldwork at the Lloyd Center or at a barrier beach field site, where they collect biodiversity data. These students participate as citizen scientists alongside Lloyd Center research scientists, gathering baseline data to document the impact of climate change on local watershed wildlife over time.

This year, the Lloyd Center is expanding and improving the CSLP’s interactive elementary school science teaching model by reaching 81 classrooms in Fall River and Greater New Bedford schools whose students would not be able to participate without external support.

The Lloyd Center is in the development and pilot phase to introduce interactive, web-based learning tools that will provide access to information about the effects of climate change on biodiversity in all CLSP classrooms. In the future, these tools will be offered for the benefit of town planners, local residents, and teachers statewide and nationally through professional development programs, media and targeted outreach.

The Lloyd Center for the Environment is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization founded in 1978 and situated with its headquarters and nature preserve overlooking the scenic Slocum River estuary in Dartmouth.

The Visitor Center is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays, and on Sundays, June - September, free of charge. There, aquarium exhibits offer unique views of live freshwater and saltwater species of fish and other marine critters.

Trails are open from dawn to dusk, seven days a week. The Lloyd Center for the Environment is located at 430 Potomska Road, Dartmouth, Massachusetts. For more information, visit lloydcenter.org or call 508-990-0505.