Toyota USA Foundation Announces $1.3 Million in New Grants

Foundation Continues to Support K-12 Education Programs with a Focus on Math, Science and Environmental Science

NEW YORK – August 8, 2012 - The Toyota USA Foundation today announced more than $1.3 million in new grants to support innovative K-12 math, science, engineering and environmental science education programs, with a focus on programs that serve diverse and underserved communities. These new grants, combined with the more than $3.8 million in multi-year commitments, total to more than $5 million that the Toyota Foundation has disbursed to nonprofit organizations this year.

Toyota USA Foundation grant decisions place a high priority on programs that value diversity, incorporate inter-disciplinary learning and are built around “real-world” classroom applications. In addition, the Foundation focuses on innovative and cost-effective programs that help students and educators develop their abilities.

The new 2012 grant recipients are:  

• American Indian Science and Engineering Society, Food for Thought- Feeding Young Minds with STEM Enrichment offers fun, interactive workshops to motivate and excite young students about science.

• American University, Lab2Class offers an accelerated training process for midcareer scientists who want to shift into the teaching profession.

• California State University Bakersfield Foundation, Families for STEM aims to increase the number of students from diverse backgrounds who are entering and successfully graduating from STEM fields.

• Colorado Seminary, University of Denver, Kids Play Math will expand the development, implementation, and teacher training for Kids Play Math, a bilingual, research-based computer game system designed to teach mathematics skills to children.

• Fremont Education Foundation, Education, Challenge, Inspire will build on the Foundation’s efforts to provide math and algebra teaching kits for California teachers, as well as calculators and science lab equipment for fourth- through eighth-grade students.

• Mills College, Lesson Study will train elementary school teachers through an innovative Japanese teaching strategy to improve mathematics instruction.

• Mobile Area Education Foundation, Engaging Youth through Engineering will train STEM educators in southwest Alabama to expand and reform STEM curricula to additional schools.

• O’Neill Sea Odyssey, Community Oceanography Program will provide 750 youth and 25 teachers with an ocean field trip, hands-on restoration projects and in-class curriculum to improve student understanding of ocean science and environmental conservation.

For additional information about these and other grants from the Toyota USA Foundation, please visit: http://bit.ly/O3etoy

“We are proud to support these organizations and educational institutions, and to help further the important work they are doing to help our country’s young people excel in mathematics, science, engineering and environmental science,” said Patricia Salas Pineda, group vice president of national Philanthropy and the Toyota USA Foundation at Toyota Motor North America. “Toyota is deeply committed to supporting the next generation of America’s leaders in these critical fields, and we look forward to seeing each of these programs – and the students and teachers they serve – make an even bigger impact in the years ahead.”

“This grant from the Toyota USA Foundation provides the opportunity to advance our mission and dedication to high quality STEM education for students in Washington, DC” says Sarah Irvine Belson, Dean of American University’s School of Education, Teaching & Health. “Toyota’s support will help us increase the number of middle school and high school science teachers in diverse communities and encourage more students to pursue science-based careers.”

Over the past 20 years, Toyota and the Toyota USA Foundation have contributed nearly $600 million to nonprofits across the United States.