FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 11, 2005

CONTACT: Daniel P. Finney, (515) 271-2833, daniel.finney@drake.edu

DRAKE RECEIVES $200,000 GRANT FROM CARVER TRUST

The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust has awarded a $200,000 grant to Drake University for the renovation of science laboratories in Olin Hall.

The Carver grant provides the foundation for a $2.9 million fundraising effort by Drake to rebuild three biology labs and remodel the second floor of Olin Hall, which houses Drake’s psychology, biology, neuroscience and environmental science departments. Drake hopes to begin construction in May 2006.

The remodeled educational spaces will help Drake create a new science-learning environment in which the distinction between lab work and classroom learning is diminished as students pursue inquiry-based courses.

“The traditional image of science classes is a big hall where lectures occur and then a once a week sort of ‘cookbook’ lab where the students do the experiments exactly as they’re printed in the lab book,” says John Burney, dean of Drake College of Arts and Sciences. “The new spaces will allow professors and instructors to challenge students to formulate experiments and hypotheses right in class. The students will be working the way actual scientists do.”

The Carver Trust is the largest private philanthropic foundation in the state of Iowa with assets totaling $300 million and annual grant distributions of more than $13 million. The trust was created through the will of the late Roy J. Carver, a Muscatine, Iowa industrialist and philanthropist. The trust has awarded more than $145 million through 1,200 individual grants primarily for biomedical and scientific research, all levels of education and youth program needs.
“The Carver Trust is well-known for its support in advancing science education,” Burney says. “This gift will be the foundation for a change in Drake science facilities that, with the additional support of our alumni and friends, will enable our faculty to keep us on the cutting-edge of 21st century undergraduate science education.”

For more information on Drake’s science learning initiatives, contact John Burney at (515) 271-3939. For more information on the Carver Trust, visit www.carvertrust.org.

-- 30 --