STILES-NICHOLSON FOUNDATION DONATES $100,000 TO NAME SOUTH FLORIDA SCIENCE CENTER AND AQUARIUM’S NEW STEM EDUCATION CENTER
Gift will help fund new permanent exhibit, “Journey Through the Human Brain”
(WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.) – The Stiles-Nicholson Foundation, headed by Science Center Board member Dr. David J. S. Nicholson, has made a $100,000 gift to the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium to name its recently-completed multipurpose center building.
The new 5,000-square-foot building will be called The Stiles-Nicholson STEM Education Center. It will serve as headquarters for several STEM science education programs as well as host School District senior staff meetings, meetings of the STEM Advisory Council and other related functions. Set between a large park meadow and a pond edge, the Stiles-Nicholson STEM Education Center has been designed to become the “hub of the hub” for the Science Center’s efforts to serve as the anchor coordinating institution for informal science education in Palm Beach County. The education center features classroom environments suitable for workshops and creative spaces with 3D printers, robotics labs and computer coding andprogramming spaces.
The funds contributed by the Stiles-Nicholson Foundation to name this center will be added to funds already raised to construct the Science Center’s new permanent exhibit, Journey Through the Human Brain, a $2 million project in partnership with Florida Atlantic University’s newly-created Brain Institute, headed by Dr. Randy Blakely.
“We are enthused and energized by the generosity of the Stiles-Nicholson Foundation and are incredibly grateful for their generous donation,” said Lew Crampton, president and CEO of the Science Center. “This is a huge endorsement for our education and exhibit programs and contributes to our mission to open every mind to science.”
The Science Center’s new Journey Through the Human Brain exhibit will take a bottom-up approach to telling the story of the human brain, from the molecular and cellular level to the integrated circuitry that creates hopes, fears and memories. According to Science Center leadership, the goal is to break ground early next year on the exhibit which will be comprised of four galleries. The Introductory gallery emphasizes the theme of the exhibit and will even feature walk-through brain mist and a 3D brain projection. An immersive “Brain Room” will show how much activity goes on in the brain every second. The “Thoughts and Emotion” gallery will show how much effort the brain goes through to lie. The “Senses Gallery” will allow visitors to explore sight, taste, smell, hearing and touch. A special “Brain Bar” will play host to experts who will be able to share their knowledge with guests and demonstrate high tech and cutting-edge virtual reality technologies used to visualize brain structure and function.
Visitors of all ages will learn the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle to support brain function as well as explore careers in neuroscience. A brain sciences room will highlight advances that neuroscientists in South Florida are making in unraveling aspects of brain development, signaling and plasticity and in detecting, preventing and treating disorders of the brain such as addiction, depression, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and concussion.
The Stiles-Nicholson Foundation was formed in 1992 in memory of William John Stiles and William Nicholson, the father and step-father of David John Stiles Nicholson, with the mission to improve and enhance the education of citizens to better understand the benefits of the free enterprise system and how best to cope and succeed in the real world. The mission presently includes four major education initiatives: free enterprise and entrepreneurship, financial literacy, education reform and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).
Currently on display at the Science Center is the newest exhibit, Amazing Butterflies. Guests are invited to embark on a challenging journey teaming friends with foes revealing the unusual relationship between caterpillars, butterflies and their natural surroundings. Adventure through the leaves, learn how to move like a caterpillar, discover an ant that reaps the reward of an unusual friendship, then transform into a butterfly and take flight!
The mission of the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium is to “open every mind to science” and the indoor/outdoor venue features more than 100 hands-on educational exhibits, a 10,000 gallon fresh and salt water aquarium- featuring both local and exotic marine life, a digital planetarium, conservation research station, Florida exhibit hall, Pre-K focused “Discovery Center,” an interactive Everglades exhibit and the 18-hole Conservation Course – an outdoor putting course with science-focused education stations. For more information on these new offerings or SFSCA general information, call 561-832-1988 or visit www.sfsciencecenter.org. Like the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium on Facebook and follow them on Twitter and Instagram @SFScienceCenter.
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