The mission of the Merck Institute for Science Education is to improve the quality of science and mathematics education from kindergarten through eighth grade. The Institute works closely with faculty, administration and community leaders in four school districts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania to enhance science education in the elementary grades. The IBM Corporation and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District in North Carolina have developed a community partnership which encourages increased parental participation in their children's education. By providing state of the art technology equipment, the partnership has increased home-school communication via electronic mail that can be used to check homework assignments, review work completed by the children, as well as monitor a child's overall progress. Families who don't have computers at home can use school computer labs which are open days, evenings and weekends.
Computers are also available at neighborhood sites, such as the library or public housing projects.
IBM provides training on using the computer equipment.