Toyota Provides Grants for Innovative Programs
Now in its eleventh year, Toyota TAPESTRY is a large K-12 science teacher grant program that provides grants for innovative programs designed for the classroom. Since its inception, TAPESTRY has awarded nearly $4.5 million to 443 teams of teachers in all 50 states, including the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories of the Virgin Islands and Northern Mariana Islands. Awardees of the grant are treated to a four-day, all-expenses paid trip to St. Louis for the NSTA national convention, where the grants are presented during a dinner reception.
A look at the following winning programs reveals some interesting project ideas. Because energy problems are plaguing the country, alternative sources of energy, from plasmas to retaining ponds to soybeans, are topics of four TAPESTRY programs. Are digital cameras the new “it” device for primary school science programs? Digital cameras turned up as line items on 14 program budgets this year. Native American issues emerged as the foundation for two programs: the first addresses low-water vegetation for landscaping on reservation land of the Western Navajo Nation, and the second proposes a study of Native American DNA in Oklahoma. Toyota, (310) 468-4119, www.toyota.com/about/community-care/education/index.html.
This article originally appeared in the 06/01/2001 issue of THE Journal.