Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Creates $600,000 STEM Grant Program
The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation announced Wednesday that it has created a new grant program to encourage STEM learning in public schools.
The Young Sheldon STEM Initiative, inspired by the comedy series “Young Sheldon,” will provide two-year, educational grants totaling more than $600,000 to 19 elementary, middle and high schools in Southern California and East Texas. “Young Sheldon” executive producer Chuck Lorre will join executive producers Steven Molaro and Jim Parsons, Warner Bros. Television Group and CBS in co-funding the grants.
“‘Young Sheldon‘ is more than a television series. At its heart, it’s a story about potential. When the education of a child is supported, there is no limit to what that child might eventually achieve,” Lorre said. “We hope that in some small way, this program gives these public schools more STEM educational tools in the classroom for teachers to nurture and ignite the curiosity of students who will ultimately become our future leaders and scholars.”
Funding from the grant will go toward trips to the Houston Space Center and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena as well as robotics kits, computers, iPads, Vernier probeware, lab tables, 3-D printers, LEGO Mindstorm educational kits, general lab equipment, curriculum development and teacher training. Teachers will also be able to apply for supplemental grants at the end of each year to fund school science and robotics competitions.
Parsons himself attended three of the selected East Texas schools and Young Sheldon co-star Montana Jordan attended another Texas school recipient, which his mother also taught first grade at.
The 19 institutions selected to receive the grants are:
Burbank, California Unified School District (8)
Burbank High School (grades 9–12)
John Burroughs High School (9–12)
Monterey High School (10–12)
Burbank Community Day School (8–12)
Independent Learning Academy (7–12)
Luther Burbank Middle School (6–8)
David Starr Jordan Middle School (6–8)
John Muir Middle School (6–8)
Los Angeles, California Unified School District (1)
Van Nuys High School (9–12)
Klein, Texas Independent School District (3)
Klein Oak High School (9–12)
Strack Intermediate School (6–8)
Haude Elementary School (K–5)
Tomball, Texas Independent School District (5)
Tomball High School (9–12)
Tomball Memorial High School (9–12)
Creekside Park Junior High School (6–8)
Tomball Junior High School (7–8)
Willow Wood Junior High School (7–8)
Ore City, Texas Independent School District (2)
Ore City Elementary School
Ore City Middle School
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