University Communications and Marketing
July 24, 2018
The following press release was issued by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. It features Dr. Sarah Friedman, assistant professor of earth sciences at Montana State University Billings. Friedman was awarded a grant to fund her research.
Montana State University Billings awarded $15,000 from M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust’s Partners in Science program
Contacts:
University Communications and Marketing, 657-2266
BILLINGS, Mont. — Montana State University Billings (MSU Billings) was recently awarded $15,000 from M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust’s Partners in Science (Partners) program. The grant will give a local high school teacher at Rosebud High School the opportunity to engage in research with an outstanding mentor at MSU Billings.
“The importance of the collaboration between MSU Billings and high schools in our local community is essential. This grant, and the Partners program as a whole, equips science teachers with the research experience to implement better practices in their own classrooms,” said Montana State University Billings Chancellor Dan Edelman.
The grant was awarded to Sarah Friedman, assistant professor of earth sciences at MSU Billings, and James Manley, teacher at Rosebud High School, to research chromitite seams across stillwater complex.
2018 marks the 28th year of M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust’s participation in Partners and more than 500 teachers have been awarded this grant throughout the Trust’s five-state funding region. As a part of the program, the Trust hosts an annual national conference where teachers present their research results, hear presentations from renowned researchers, and network with other teachers and researchers from across the United States.
“Our goal is to improve science education and encourage best practices of teaching to be more inquiry focused,” said Steve Moore, executive director of the Murdock Charitable Trust. “We are honored to be involved with such a vital program at MSU Billings that supports student learning at Rosebud High School.”
For more information on the Partners in Science program or how to apply for grants, go to murdocktrust.org.
About Partners in Science (Partners) Program:
The Partners in Science Program (Partners) was founded by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (Research Corp) in 1988. The Trust joined Partners in 1990, and in 1999 became the administrator of the program. The program pairs high school science teachers for two summers with a mentor doing cutting-edge research in an academic lab or a lab associated with another nonprofit institution. Teachers are given the opportunity to present the results of their research at an annual national conference of peers. The Trust awards approximately 25 Partners in Science grants each year to fund these teacher-mentor research opportunities in the Pacific Northwest.
About M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust
M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust, created by the will of the late Melvin J. (Jack) Murdock, provides grants to organizations in five states of the Pacific Northwest – Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington – that seek to strengthen the region’s educational and cultural base in creative and sustainable ways. Since its inception in 1975, the Trust has awarded nearly 6,400 grants totaling more than $938 million. It is one of the most active regional or national foundations working in the Pacific Northwest.