Mobile Lab Arrives in Refugio, TX
On May 7, MdBioLab returned to Texas thanks to a new grant from the Rebuild Texas Fund, a partnership between The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and the OneStar Foundation. Refugio, Texas – about 50 miles northeast of Corpus Christi – was devastated when Hurricane Harvey stalled over the town for several days in August 2017, with sustained winds of more than 140 miles per hour.
MdBio’s team is providing the lab space, supplies, curriculum, and enthusiasm that the high school needs to help speed the recovery efforts in this town where nearly every building was damaged or destroyed. Since Harvey, Refugio ISD has been struggling to provide science laboratory space for its students – a critical component of the Texas science curriculum. Refugio has been in the national news thanks to the role that its high school football coach and team have played in the town’s recovery process.
Two Rebuild Texas grants, totaling nearly $180,000, provided funding for two of MdBio’s educators to travel to Refugio to teach science classes and train teachers on how to operate the mobile lab. The MdBioLab will remain in Refugio through the end of the school year and also allow the school to offer three weeks of summer school as make-up days for students who were unable to complete their school year. The lab will then travel to Wharton, Texas, for four weeks of summer camp.
Said one teacher at Refugio High, “Again, I can’t thank you enough. The kids all enjoyed this week so much! They are talking about the experiments in the other classes and they are rejuvenated! It’s like we have all gotten a B-12 shot of Science!”
The Rebuild Texas Fund was formed to help Texas communities devastated by Hurricane rebuild as thriving communities in the future. Learn more about the impact that MdBio and Rebuild Texas had in Port Aransas last fall: https://www.rebuildtx.org/stories/first-grade-class-port-aransas/
