With awards totaling more than $1.7 million announced today, the Texaco Foundation has bolstered early childhood music and science education programs, as well as projects aimed at preserving our diverse musical heritage. Today's grants fall under the Foundation's major areas of concentration, the Early Notes, Touch Science, and Musical Roots initiatives.

The Texaco Foundation encourages active scientific learning for children and youth through innovative approaches to science education as part of Touch Science: Hands-on Learning for Kids and Communities. Touch Science projects received multi-year awards totaling $1,015,000. By supporting education partnerships with science museums, aquariums, and other institutions, as well as school-based interdisciplinary and active environmental learning programs, the Texaco Foundation is expanding learning opportunities for young people.

In announcing the grants, Texaco Foundation President Anne Dowling said, "Young children learn science better in a hands-on, inquiry-based environment, where they can cultivate their inquisitiveness and, along the way, develop the basic educational skills they will need for studying math and science in the higher grades."

Nine multi-year awards amounting to $620,000 over three years are part of Early Notes: The Sound of Children Learning, the Texaco Foundation's signature program that seeks to expand music education in our nation's public schools, particularly in the early childhood years. "Texaco is vitally interested in the role that music plays in improving children's educational achievement," Anne Dowling said. "Early Notes derives from our conviction that the early development of musical knowledge and skills will enhance children's thinking skills, academic achievement, and social and emotional growth."

Musical Roots: Hearing Our Heritage aims to strengthen community-based nonprofit organizations and support projects that bring music to multiple audiences. Today's $56,000 in grants will support programs that exemplify and explore the traditions and heritage of diverse cultures in our communities.

Established in 1979 under the sponsorship of Texaco Inc., the Texaco Foundation supports non-profit, tax-exempt organizations both in the United States and the countries in which Texaco operates.

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