Wheaton awarded Alden grant for science equipment

Wheaton has received a grant from the George I. Alden Trust to fund a variety of science equipment priorities. The $75,000 grant supports curricular plans to make the sciences more central to the experience of every Wheaton student and gives Wheaton science faculty tools to illustrate critical connections between the sciences and other disciplines. Members of the faculty, in the science department and across disciplines are employing new technology to enlarge the depth and breadth of current courses and to enrich new courses.

Priority items being funded through the Alden grant include equipment for DNA analysis in Wheaton's new molecular biology teaching lab; an infrared spectrophotometer for identifying chemical compounds; new telescopic equipment for Wheaton's astronomy program and observing software for animal behavior studies.

Other grants to the college this year included nearly $400,000 in grants from the National Science Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to establish a digital imaging facility and to support curriculum transformation across the disciplines, respectively. Wheaton was awarded a total of $1,031,225 in grant funding in the last fiscal year ending June 30, 2002.

For more information on science education and grant funding at Wheaton, contact the Office of Communications at 506-286-8235.