The Indiana Academy of Science, Mathematics, and Humanities received a $378,279 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to begin a three-year Mandarin Chinese program. The Mandarin Chinese lessons will be filmed in the classrooms, then be made available for distribution across the country. The Academy will also produces an educational DVD for fourth graders and a “Chinese I” DVD for high school students, followed by DVDs for fifth and sixth graders. The grant is part of U.S. National Security Language Initiative which will invest $8.7 million to increase the number of Americans studying Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi, and other languages.

Jill Blocker of DN Online reports:

he Indiana Academy of Science, Mathematics, and Humanities received a $378,279 grant from the U.S. Department of Education Friday to begin a three-year Mandarin Chinese program. The Academy, located on University Avenue, west of the L.A. Pittenger Student Center, is overseen by Ball State University.

The Academy requested the grant through the U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Language Assistant Program, Kevin Burke, director of University Communications, said.

“A distance learning modular will be produced in classrooms at Burris Laboratory School and the Indiana Academy,” said David Williams, executive co-director and director of Academic Affairs of the Indiana Academy. “Then, they will be formatted for distance learning that will allow any school to use them.”

Burris is a K-12 school and part of the Muncie Community School system, while the Academy is a high school for gifted Indiana juniors and seniors.

Read the full report.