Friends Central School to Unveil New Teaching and Research Center Rivaling University Labs

A new state-of-the-art classroom and laboratory building opens its doors this fall on the City Avenue campus of Friends Central School. An inauguration ceremony will take place Thursday, September 18 at 5:30 p.m. Outfitted with advanced research and teaching facilities, the Fannie Cox Center for Science, Math and Technology gives upper school students learning tools on par with those at colleges and universities. The $17.5M project also revitalizes the Main Line campus by providing a scenic new green and landmark architecture.

CONTACT: Rageshwar Wilcox, Director of Communications, 610-645-5037 or rwilcox@friendscentral.org.

WYNNEWOOD (PRWEB) August 18, 2003 -- A new state-of-the-art classroom and laboratory building opens its doors this fall on the City Avenue campus of Friends Central School. An inauguration ceremony will take place Thursday, September 18 at 5:30 p.m. Outfitted with advanced research and teaching facilities, the Fannie Cox Center for Science, Math and Technology gives upper school students learning tools on par with those at colleges and universities. The $17.5M project also revitalizes the Main Line campus by providing a scenic new green and landmark architecture.

The 45,000 gross square foot Fannie Cox Center unites the three disciplines of technology, mathematics and the sciences to encourage intellectual curiosity and interdisciplinary learning. It includes sophisticated resources such as fume hoods, growth chambers, interactive whiteboards and a 265 square foot greenhouse for botany. The Center houses seven teaching laboratories, six mathematics classrooms, two computer laboratories with a total of 48 workstations, a 100-seat multimedia lecture hall and an outdoor classroom.

In modern universities, industrial labs and research institutes, experience with laboratory procedures, experimental design and data analysis are tremendously important and valuable assets. Todays students merit a modern well-equipped facility where they can design, perform and analyze their own experiments," states Lydia Martin, Capital Campaign Director.

Upper School Science Head, John Gruber, believes, The new Center will allow Friends Central to advance our educational curricula and create exciting new opportunities for student involvement in genomics, environmental chemistry, ecology, or engineering."

The new building will not only benefit the sciences, math and technology. The central location and flexible facilities will foster opportunities for the school to integrate its curricula across all disciplines. Throughout the year, the community will enjoy the Fannie Cox Film and Lecture Series presented in the multimedia lecture hall.

The facility was designed by the award-winning firm, Graham Gund Architects, of Cambridge, MA. The building echoes the campus traditional stone mansion and adds modern glass elements to maximize natural daylighting. Renowned sculptor, Stacy Levy, has designed an environmental art installation for the outdoor classroom depicting the Delaware River watershed. The new green centers the campus and opens up views to the schools historic arboretum.

Friends Central School is a coeducational Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 school of 1000 students established in 1845 by the Religious Society of Friends. FCS continues to provide academic excellence and a 9:1 student to faculty ratio while maintaining the highest financial aid budget in the area. ]

The school offered over $2.8M of need-based assistance in 2003-2004. Graduates include Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, Barry Sharpless 59; Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, Nancy Sanders 83; noted HIV researcher and Director of Denver Public Health, Franklyn Judson 60; Center for Disease Control researcher, Jocelyn Patterson 93; and Microsoft engineer, Lindell Michael Donnelly 71.

A downloadable press kit is available at www.friendscentral.org/PressRoom/release.htm.

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