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More
about A Time for Celebration
Science is a verb
at Manchester College.
 It’s
a tradition.
Ask any of the 190 science students, or their faculty members, grinning
with excitement over the roomy $17 million Science Center that opened
for classes Aug. 31.
They are striding into the large, bright laboratories, classrooms and
Flory Auditorium. They are stretching their legs out in comfortable
study areas throughout the building. They are talking about the
ever-changing colors cast by the dazzling 2½ story artwork in the
towering Physician’s Atrium. They are doing science.
Friday, Sept. 16, hundreds of alumni, friends and officials will see for
themselves when they travel from throughout the United States to join
the dedication of the Science Center at 3:30 p.m.
The festivities follow a daylong symposium of presentations about
science education and its manifestation in the Science Center. Response
is so tremendous, the symposiums must be held in the larger Cordier
Auditorium, next door to the Science Center. Registration for the
symposiums is at 10 a.m.
Click here for
Symposium
schedule.
The speakers include:
Jeanne L. Narum, founding director of Project Kaleidoscope, a
national alliance working to build strong learning environments for
undergraduate students in math, engineering and science.
Alumnus Gene E. Likens, founder of the Institute of Ecosystems
Studies, who with his colleagues discovered acid rain in North America.
Alumna Jane E. Henney, M.D., former Commissioner of Food and
Drugs of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Also addressing the anticipated large crowd will be Science Center
architect Andrew Costlow, Physicians Atrium glass artist
Kenneth vonRoenn, and the College’s building “shepherd,” James T.
Streator, professor emeritus of chemistry.
The Science Center, 13 years in the planning, was construction without
debt through the generosity of 682 donors, including Lilly Endowment
Inc.
The award-winning building provides much room for science, with 60 fume
hoods lining laboratories, scores of fully-equipped lab tables, walk-in
constant-temperature chambers, a special room for beakers and other
glassware, and massive cases for specimens. The space within is
adaptable, from small labs for faculty-student research projects to
large bright laboratories, from comfortable study areas to lecture rooms
designed for communicating and note-taking. All are faculty- and
student-inspired.
Mathematics and physics classrooms and labs are on the first floor,
biology is on the second floor and chemistry takes up the third floor,
with the physical plant of the building. On each floor, faculty offices
face the campus mall. A three-section greenhouse is on the third floor,
within the Physicians Atrium.
And, while the Science Center is a dynamic teaching space filled with
equipment and tools for the hands-on study of the sciences, other
disciplines – from business to history to English to psychology – also
are learning in its classrooms.
The south end of the building contains the 150-seat Flory Auditorium and
classrooms/seminar rooms that even can be separated from the science
wing, offering private meeting opportunities for the community and
summer conferences. (Larger science classrooms also are located at the
north end of the science wing.)
Casting spectacular colors within the Physicians Atrium is a 2½-story
aluminum, stainless steel and dichroic acrylic sculpture of
international glass artist Kenneth vonRoenn Jr. of Architectural Glass
Art Inc. of Louisville, Ky. The 50-foot sculpture puts on a mesmerizing
light show that changes depending on the position of the viewer and the
position of the sun. It is art in harmony with structure, glass animated
with light.
Already, the three-story Science Center is award-winning. Associated
Builders and Contractors of Indiana will present general contractor R.L.
Turner Corp. of Indianapolis with its Award of Excellence for
Construction on Sept. 28.
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