FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
For further information contact: Paula Schaper, Vice President
Mat Bevel Company
520-604-6273
pschaper@matbevelcompany.org
[Patagonia, AZ, July 30, 2020]—Mat Bevel Company has been awarded a $24,745 grant by the Fund for the Common Good, a component fund of the Arizona Community Foundation. The purpose of the grant is to address a significant education challenge in rural Arizona. Participation in the grant process was initiated through Arizona Community Foundation of Cochise, located in Southeast Arizona’s Cochise County.
“Our nonprofit, in partnership with Patagonia Public Schools and University of Arizona School of Mathematical Sciences, has developed The Universe Within, a science, technology, engineering and math curriculum during the last 3 years,” Vice President Paula Schaper said. “The generous grant from the Arizona Community Foundation will give us additional resources to transition this traditional classroom world-building curriculum into a self-guided blended learning edition with a physical classroom setting and digital materials.”
Key areas that this grant will fund are production of sequential multimedia elements to motivate and prepare students to participate in hands-on activities including opening cinematic videos, a Teacher Curriculum Guide and The Daily Doodle Student Activity Book. Test pilots will serve students in Cochise County and eastern Santa Cruz County.
The curriculum uses Mat Bevel Company President Ned Schaper’s magical world of Beveldom as the framework for students to create their own magical worlds. They develop positive alter-ego characters and make functional headdresses, tools, gadgets and machines from recycled materials to help them solve real-world problems. Lessons align with Science, Math, Engineering, Visual Arts, Theater Arts and English Language Arts Arizona State Standards.
The Patagonia Regional Community Fund, an affiliate of the Arizona Community Foundation, also awarded Mat Bevel Company a $2,970 grant this year for The Universe Within. Board member Nancy McCoy, who came to one of the classes at Patagonia Elementary School, was impressed with the creative thinking that the kids had to do. She said, “The Universe Within activities stimulated students’ imaginations yet were still very organized and focused. Students were being creative within a structure. I liked how the kids were all interested in each other’s creative work. They participated and contributed to each other’s ideas.”
As a former teacher, Nancy knows how much children enjoy really creative activities where they get to stretch their imaginations. She earned a Bachelors in Elementary Education and a Masters in Gifted Education.
Mat Bevel Company was founded in 1993 and has served thousands of children and adults from Pima and Santa Cruz counties in Southern Arizona, as well as visitors from around the country through Museum Of Kinetic Art tours, Surrealistic Pop Science Theater live productions and the School of Intuition workshops. The School of Intuition, a charitable Single Member LLC of Mat Bevel Company, manages the collaborative activities of Mat Bevel Company, Patagonia Public Schools and University of Arizona School for Mathematical Sciences. For more information on Mat Bevel Company visit: https://www.matbevelcompany.org/. To learn more about The Universe Within visit: https://the-universe-within.org/
Established in 1978, the Arizona Community Foundation is a statewide family of charitable funds supported by thousands of Arizonans. More information is available at https://www.azfoundation.org/.