Medtronic Foundation Goes Beyond Grants to Support K-12 Science Education; Partnership with State's Three Largest School Districts Revitalizes Science Programs

Business Wire, Feb 8, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS -- Medtronic, Inc., (NYSE:MDT) recently hosted an unusual roundtable of science specialists at their world headquarters in Fridley. It wasn't to talk about the latest medical device; it was to talk about best-in-class education of future scientists and how to ignite and sustain students' interest in science.

The Jan. 26 roundtable of science specialists from Anoka-Hennepin, Hopkins, Minneapolis, Osseo and Saint Paul school districts was convened by the Medtronic Foundation to give curriculum leaders the rare opportunity to collaborate on making their leading science programs better. While implementation of the new state academic science standards was a hot topic, the leaders were most animated when discussing how they are transforming the way students connect with science through hands-on experiments and teacher training.

The Medtronic Foundation currently partners with the three largest school districts in Minnesota to improve science education. Seeing the need and interest of the districts science leaders to share ideas and learn from each other, Medtronic offered to provide an opportunity for them to work together.

"For Medtronic, understanding science extends far beyond our workforce. Over the past decade, we've strengthened our relationships with Anoka-Hennepin, Minneapolis and Saint Paul and focused our education giving on impacting the way students experience science," said Penny Hunt, vice president of community affairs and executive director of the Medtronic Foundation. "In our individual conversations with school science specialists, they raised common questions on the best ways for students to learn science. Bringing them together to share ideas and learn from each other was a logical next step."

"The collaboration between all the different science specialists was sorely needed," said Jim Bickel, math, science and technology curriculum specialist for Minneapolis Public Schools. "I'm always looking for things that work when it comes to teaching and assessing science, and this gathering provided a rich and varied discussion on the issues that we, as school leaders, identified as being important."

Dave Chittenden, vice president of education for the Science Museum of Minnesota facilitated the daylong discussion and several representatives from the Minnesota Department of Education were on-hand to help answer questions. Medtronic's Toby Markowitz, a distinguished scientist in cardiac rhythm management, gave a presentation on how to use practical, real life examples in the science classroom; and Pat Ridgely, M.D, senior training/education manager, movement disorders, gave a presentation on what it takes to bring an idea to reality in a workplace like Medtronic.

"The authentic assessment example was great--to hear about how we can introduce real science problems in the classroom and then ways to assess how well students understand the content was very beneficial," said Randy Smasal, science specialist for Anoka-Hennepin School District. "Also hearing from the business side of what we are doing with students--what foundation of science skills they will need when they leave our system--will help us as we plan the science program."

At the end of the roundtable discussion, all agreed that this was only the beginning of the collaboration.

"I had the opportunity to sit down with my peers who are responsible for science in urban districts and talk about the challenges and the successes we face. We found that we each have pieces of the puzzle to share and that together we are able to address very complex issues in science education more efficiently," said Liesl Chatman, science innovation specialist in Saint Paul Public Schools. "The Medtronic Foundation has provided us a forum that would have never been possible without their organizing it. It has been invaluable and its power is expressed in the consensus that we continue the discussion into the future."

In the last 11 years, the Medtronic Foundation has invested more than $11 million into K-12 science education, with about 80 percent of that funding going directly to schools in the seven-county metro area and reaching more than one million students. During this time, the STAR (Science and Technology Are Rewarding) program has developed partnerships with Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Anoka-Hennepin school districts and has led to more rigorous, hands-on science for students.

Partnership with Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS)

For almost a decade, MPS has been focused on revitalizing science facilities and curriculum at all grade levels. Grants from the National Science Foundation aided in these changes, but it was the additional support and leadership from the Medtronic Foundation that helped ensure systemic reform. Medtronic Foundation partnership grants to MPS total $1.6 million since 1996, with the most recent grant of $550,000 in 2004 to support the district's work to revitalize science education in the high schools. The additional funds are:

--Ensuring all students experiment with and experience hands-on science by providing all high school science teachers with updated laboratory equipment and materials;