DIllard science teacher receives $10,000 grant
By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on April 25, 2008 1:45 PM
Dillard Middle School science teacher Darrell Coston has been awarded a $10,000 grant for excellence and innovation in science education.
Coston and Katie Tatum, a science teacher at Terrell Lane Middle School in Louisburg, were two of 50 teachers acrosss the nation to receive the Toyota TAPESTRY grant, presented during the National Science Teachers Association conference on science education in Boston.
An eighth-grade science teacher at Dillard since 2002, Coston said the project has already been mapped out, with plans to start in the fall. His students will study the duckweed plant and its ability to clean up contaminated soil and water samples. They will then monitor a small freshwater insect to see if it can survive in the water.
The funding provides an expansive opportunity for his students, Coston said.
"It gives them definitely firsthand exposure to do research, which doesn't happen at this level. It gives us support to buy equipment, modernizes the laboratory, and hopefully will allow us to develop some lesson plans to enhance the curriculum," he said.
"I'm hoping it will be such good work that we'll be able to go and win at some state and national levels, in science fairs."