Elkhart, Indiana

The birthplace of Making Science Make Sense, Bayer HealthCare's Elkhart facility has supported local science education for more than 30 years. Specifically, MSMS components include:

• Bayer Science Forum - a corps of employee-volunteers who oversee and implement all MSMS activities in the area.
  
  
• Explorations in Science - a program that teaches students the scientific method in two-hour lessons centered around physics, chemistry and biology by actually performing experiments.
  
  
• Building Relevancy in Developing Genuine Education (BRIDGE) - a program providing a shadowing experience for teachers with Bayer employees. The new hands-on activities include a Starlab experience (inflatable planetarium) with 10 different curriculum units, a wind tunnel and a ground water/river ecosystem room.
  
  
• Employee Volunteers who mentor and judge local science fairs, event coordinators for Science Olympiad, sponsorship of Lego Mindstorms teams and several science scholarship competitions.
  
  

Bayer HealthCare has been collaborating with the Elkhart Community Schools to create ETHOS (Encouraging Technologies Through Hands-On Science), a science education reform initiative that will bring National Science Resources Center curriculum modules to elementary school classrooms. This initiative will lead to:

• Enhancement of schools' science and math curriculum.
  
  
• Donations of laboratory equipment, materials and other supplies.
  
  
• Availability of Bayer scientists to serve as consulting resources for individual teachers