Awards up to $1,500 to teachers who offer new, hands-on, authentic, experiential learning opportunities in the classroom and pilot new approaches that reflect the latest educational thinking. These grants are awarded in November and the projects should be completed in the same school year.
Recent Idea Lab projects:
Idea Lab: established in 2012
The Brookline Education Foundation Idea Lab Initiative began in 2012 seeking to promote the 21st Century classroom and to pilot new educational approaches that reflect the latest in educational thinking. In 2023, the Idea Lab Grant Committee voted to increase the award ceiling to $1,500 in response to feedback from educators about increased costs around implementing their projects.
In 2015, the BEF announced an additional incentive to innovative approaches to teaching through an Innovation Catalyst Award – $500 Prize. In 2024, to honor outgoing BEF Executive Director Elizabeth Ascoli, this award was renamed the Elizabeth Ascoli Award for Innovation in Experiential Learning. The award is presented to the Idea Lab grant recipient whose proposal best supports a creative, pioneering approach to teaching.