Kwiáht, nonprofit scientific organization based on Lopez, has received foundation grants for hands-on science activities in San Juan County schools that totals more than $80,000.

Five schools in the county will share a $69,000 grant from the State Farm Youth Advisory Board.  Half of the grant will be used to purchase lab equipment so that all students can experience college level microbiology, analytical chemistry and genetics.

“This grant means a lot to us,” said Russell Barsh, Kwiáht director. “Because it was awarded to us by a review panel of North American youth.”

Only 50 State Farm grants were made this year in the U.S. and Canada, he added.

The overall theme of the State Farm program involves grades six to 12 students directly in monitoring and understanding changes in aquatic ecosystems, both fresh water and marine. Student projects will complement monitoring activities already carried out by volunteers in Kwiáht’s San Juan Islands Marine Health Monitoring Network. The network includes the Fisherman Bay, Friday Harbor and Indian Island Marine Health Observatories, as well as the Deep Reef Observatory launched this month.

Kwiáht is consulting with teachers on Lopez, Orcas and San Juan Islands about equipment needs, and specific research activities for the 2012-2013 school year.

The State Farm program dovetails with two grant by the Orcas Island Community Foundation earlier this year: a grant to the San Juan Nature Institute for wetland science activities at the elementary level, and a grant to Kwiáht for involving middle schoolers in an effort to document, preserve and propagate heritage apples and other locally-adapted fruit tree varieties.

In addition, the Captain Planet Foundation of Atlanta, Geo., has just awarded Kwiáht $1,450 to help Orcas Island students design and build an experimental bioswale, a shallow depression created in the earth to accept and convey stormwater runoff, using their own specially adapted oyster mushroom cultures. Street-corner water quality treatment is the green technology of the future, according to Kwiáht’s landscape ecologist Nathan Hodges and design intern Sunni Wissmer, who will oversee the project.

“This is going to be a wonderful year of opportunities for island students to learn about their islands and do real science,” said Barsh.“But it will be up to each island and its philanthropic community to keep the momentum going.”

For more info, email kwiaht@gmail.com.