Gardens wins grant for science education work    

We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded an £11,000 grant from the Millennium Point Trust, to deliver a science education project.

The award, one of 34 Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) awards worth £410,000 from the Millennium Point Charitable Trust’s Small Grants Programme, will be used to deliver an exciting programme of bespoke, laboratory-style workshops that will enable schoolchildren to investigate plant DNA and to undertake experiments into the science behind the amazing world of plants.

James Jarvis, the Gardens’ education manager, said the funding will pay for a minimum of 35 Sensational Science workshops during the academic year 2019/20, providing opportunities for up to 1,000 primary school children from Birmingham and West Midlands.

“We would like to put on record our thanks to Millennium Point Trust for its support for our work and its important commitment to developing the STEM agenda in this region,” he said. 

“We are especially delighted that this grant will help support the prohibitive costs of travel for up to 20 of our most deprived local schools, a cost we know to be a barrier to some of our closest inner city schools.

“Thanks to the grant, we are able to provide the additional benefit to schools of being able to access the Gardens, where they can stay for as long as they choose.”

Profits from the commercial activities at Millennium Point, a multi-award-winning venue and charity in the Eastside of Birmingham City centre, are invested through the Millennium Point Charitable Trust into projects, events and initiatives which support the growth and development of STEM and education in the West Midlands region. 

The Gardens’ education department can be contacted at: education@birminghambotanicalgardens.org.uk or telephone: 0121 450 5093.