Golf Club awards MMA $50,000 grant
The Nantucket Golf Club has awarded $50,000 to the Maria Mitchell Association for the development and delivery of "Unique Nantucket," a series of hands-on, field-based science learning experiences for Nantucket school children in kindergarten through grade 12. The grant was awarded recently to MMA Executive Director Janet E. Schulte by Tom Bressette, executive Director of the Nantucket Golf Club Foundation. Inc.

"This is what we're about - helping to develop educational programs for the island's children," Bressette said. "The Maria Mitchell Association did an amazing job putting this together."

As designed, the Unique Nantucket program will assist Nantucket teachers to address the Massachusetts statewide science Curriculum Frameworks and the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) science content. MMA will coordinate curriculum planning between teachers and Nantucket scientists and help to facilitate field trips around Nantucket.

"The field trips in the program will serve to strengthen teachers' efforts to address the need to enhance science content in the schools," Schulte said in a press release. "The key to this plan is the use of the island's natural resources and the MMA collections to connect school children to their home while nurturing their scientific curiosity about our unique island."

Bressette noted that Maria Mitchell will not only collaborate with the schools, but with other island conservation

organizations. "It's very exciting," he said. I