$100,000 Dual Credit Grant to Build Mobile Lab
Posted on
Coming soon to a high school near you: a mobile environmental science lab!
A $100,000 grant from Alberta Education Dual Credit Enhancement Fund will be used by Livingstone Range School Division (LRSD) to turn a 27-foot trailer into a science laboratory on wheels. Partnering with Lethbridge College, the lab will allow students to explore biomes across southern Alberta and do real field research, all while earning dual credit in high school and post-secondary Botany, Ecology, and Aquaponics courses.
“Environmental Science job opportunities are huge,” says Chad Kuzyk, LRSD Associate Superintendent of Curriculum and Innovation. “Offering these courses and college credit to students gives them a real advantage in their future career training.
The mobile lab is crucial to delivering a truly experiential learning opportunity to the standards required for authentic research. Students will conduct industry-standard studies in the community collecting valuable data while earning credits toward high school graduation and post-secondary.
Outfitted with microscopes, nets, chest waders, binoculars, spotting scopes, sensors, storage tanks, safety kits, weather gear, fluvial measuring software, a generator, and a canopy, the lab will allow the course to be truly experiential and increase the relevancy of the program. Course instruction will be a combination of this in-person, hands-on as well as asynchronous learning.
“This grant from Alberta Education and partnership with Lethbridge College allows us to expand our offerings of innovative and place-based learning opportunities for ‘Every student, every day’,” says Chad. “We are excited for the possibilities this opens up for our students.”
Construction on the mobile environmental science lab will begin this fall and is expected to be completed by spring 2023.
