Angelo State's Biology Dept. Wins Grant For Community Science Education

SAN ANGELO, TX — Angelo State University’s Department of Biology has received a $6,918 grant from the Concho Valley Workforce Development Board to promote science education in the local community through the Angelo State Natural History Collections (ASNHC).

Using the grant funding, ASNHC faculty curators and staff have compiled K-12 Science Education Loan Boxes that will be available for checkout to local and area teachers for use in their classrooms. The boxes come with suggested lesson plans and contain models and tools that will give students hands-on learning experiences related to plants, mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles housed in the ASNHC.

There are six different Science Education Loan Boxes to choose from, including:

• Metamorphosis (Pre-K)
• Adaptations to Habitat (Pre-K – 5th Grade)
• Food Webs & Energy Flow (5th – 8th Grade)
• Dichotomous Keys (Middle School)
• Data Collection (Middle School)
• Sorting & Physical Characteristics (All-Level)

Materials in the boxes include scales, rulers, calipers and hand lenses, flash cards, real-life models of organisms, reproductions of life cycles, skull casts, life casts of primate hands, rubber tracks casts for stamps, track molds for creating plaster animal prints, and more. Certain materials and lesson plans align to Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards.

The Loan Boxes may be checked out for up to eight weeks. Educators wanting more information or to check out one of the boxes should contact Dianna Krejsa, ASNHC manager, at [email protected].

The ASNHC contains more than 100,000 specimens of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and plants from the Concho Valley, other regions of Texas, many other states, Mexico, Africa, Asia, Australia and even the Galápagos Islands.