LOUISVILLE, April 21, 2009 – Area preschool children, teachers, parents and caregivers will have more opportunities to learn science basics and experience hands-on scientific investigations through a two-year grant of $382,607 to the Louisville Science Center from the PNC Foundation announced today. The second year of funding is contingent upon completion of first-year project goals. The announcement was held in the Science Center’s KidZone exhibit, a special exhibit area for children 7 and younger, and the new early childhood lab in the center’s new Science Education Wing – located in the adjacent building – was showcased.

The effort is part of Grow Up Great with Science, PNC’s new initiative to help foster a foundation in science for preschoolers at a time when many educators have sought increased emphasis on the discipline. A study by the National Research Council recognized that providing young children with research-based mathematics and science learning is likely to pay off with increased achievement, literacy, and work skills in these critical areas.

“Young children are natural scientific thinkers, full of curiosity and uninhibited inhibitions,” said Joanna Haas, executive director of the Louisville Science Center. “The PNC Foundation grant greatly enhances our ability to expand programming we have for young children and to help our local teachers, schools and child care centers become more comfortable teaching science so that they can harness their preschoolers’ innate curiosity and encourage development of scientific inquiry skills that will benefit them throughout their lives.”

The Louisville Science Center will collaborate with six diverse early childhood education programs, reaching over 350 Louisville-area children and their families, at Dawson Orman Education Center, Mini-Versity Downtown Child Development Center, St. Benedict Center for Early Childhood Education, California Area Family Development Center, Wesley House Community Services and Friends School.

The Grow Up Great with Science grant will allow the Science Center to guide children in exploration of science in everyday life through hands-on activities. Teachers and caregivers will receive inquiry-based training and, in partnership with Community Coordinated Child Care, best teaching practices will be modeled firsthand with children to help increase teachers’ comfort level with science. At-home science experiences will be provided to parents and guardians, children’s “first teachers of science.” These experiences will be enhanced through Science Center family memberships, Family Science Nights and science festivals at each partner site. Project partner Kentucky Educational Television will help communicate the “science is everywhere” messages to children, parents and teachers statewide. PNC employee volunteers will participate in many of these activities, providing guidance and mentorship to the children and their families.

“Our support of the Louisville Science Center is another strategic investment to help our non-profit partners, preschools and caregivers develop stronger, smarter and healthier families and communities,” said Chuck Denny, PNC regional president for Kentucky/Tennessee. “Through these grants, we expect children will have experiences that would not otherwise be possible.”

The investment by the PNC Foundation, which receives its principal funding from The PNC Financial Services Group (NYSE: PNC), was among 14 grants in seven states and the District of Columbia announced today in celebration of the fifth anniversary of PNC Grow Up Great, the 10-year, $100 million investment in early childhood education. The PNC Foundation has pledged up to $6 million in grants to fund regional science centers over three years and conduct an independent evaluation of the program’s success.

The event included recognition of the fifth anniversary of PNC Grow Up Great, which has contributed more than $17 million in grants to enhance preschool programs, 102,000 hours in PNC employee volunteerism, and donated more than 100,000 items from mittens and gloves, to materials for science and arts projects, books and toothbrushes for preschool children across eight states and the District of Columbia.