A science program was poised to reach kids across Philly. Then DOGE killed the funding.

In 2023, Historic Germantown received word that it had won a two-year grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to pilot a new hands-on science program for middle schoolers called Science Sleuths.

The size of the award was relatively modest — $108,812 — but the impact promised to be enormous. If the initiative was able to prove its worth, it could be replicated, bringing accessible science education to thousands of Philadelphia students.

Today, the program is calculating its losses. Historic Germantown recently learned the grant was one of hundreds across the country approved by the IMLS and the National Endowment for the Humanities that have been canceled by the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by billionaire Elon Musk.

If leaders of Historic Germantown cannot find replacement money, in the next week or so, to fund the program through the rest of the school year, they say they have no choice but to shut it down.

Continuing Science Sleuths without special funding “would put us over the cliff financially,” said executive director Tuomi Joshua Forrest. “I am scrambling to find philanthropic resources to keep it running.”

The story of Science Sleuths illustrates a larger truth playing out at many cultural organizations whose IMLS and NEH grants have been canceled by the Trump administration. This was one award to one organization. But there is a ripple effect to every grant, and at Historic Germantown the ripples went far and wide.

The program involved four schools — the John F. McCloskey School, Anna L. Lingelbach School, Wissahickon Charter School, and DePaul Catholic School.

It was set in historic sites, so the program introduced new generations to Awbury Arboretum, Historic Fair Hill burial ground, Grumblethorpe, Historic Rittenhouse Town, and Stenton.

The grant enabled employment of five teachers, six teaching guides, two curriculum writers, one evaluation consultant, a graphic/web designer, and others. An advisory group of 22 people was engaged.

Then there is perhaps the most significant ripple of all.

“These programs are the pipelines for the next generation of scientists and problem solvers, and not investing in them means that our future workforce, our communities, and our country’s ability to lead in science and technology and innovation are in trouble,” said Larry Dubinski, president and CEO of the Franklin Institute.

He called the cancellation of grants like these — long considered bedrock funding — “a direct hit on this American exceptionalism that we have in science and technology.”

Science Sleuths has served about 175 students this school year, but Forrest expected the program would expand and follow the path of History Hunters, a social studies program administered by Stenton for Philadelphia fourth and fifth graders that has served more than 45,000 students from dozens of schools over two-plus decades.

Science Sleuths brings students out of the classroom for hands-on experiences in places where history and science commingle.

At Awbury Arboretum, whose 55 acres in East Germantown include a pond and meadow, lesson plans include learning about the importance of a watershed in maintaining biodiversity. At Historic Rittenhouse Town, steps from Lincoln Drive, students learn about flowing water turning mill wheels, a time when flax was grown in Germantown for use in linen, and how, when the linen was worn out, it was brought here to be made into paper sold in Philadelphia and New York.

“As much as we do in the classroom, to expand it where [students] can take that knowledge to things that are happening outside is just really powerful,” said Brian Gallagher, who teaches science to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders at the Lingelbach School.

“The great thing about IMLS was they were willing to fund a pilot,” Forrest said. “Others want something that’s proven.”

Grants from the federal government also play an important role in leveraging private philanthropy. The one to Historic Germantown came with a matching component, so the group raised an equal amount in other donations, bringing the entire budget to about $217,000.

“These public-private partnerships set us apart in the world,” Dubinski said. “It’s one of the reasons why this country is such a leader in science and technology.”

That loss, he said, is “pretty devastating.”

Forrest said Science Sleuths needs about $30,000 to finish out the year, and that would be with shaved expenses. “Ideally we’d have 50% more than that.”

More ripples are all but certain. Forrest is conscious of the fact that all these grants dropping out at the same time means that private funders are being approached for replacement funding; and that the need for emergency funding likely puts those requests in competition with the more routine grants and gifts groups normally count on.

“The entire philanthropic landscape in Philadelphia will be changed, if not already, then in a couple of months,” Forrest said.