21 November 2005

Longwood University's new Science Center to be dedicated Dec. 6

Longwood University’s new science center will be dedicated Tuesday, Dec. 6.

The “grand opening celebration” will include a lecture by psychic investigator James Randi at 4 p.m. in Jarman Auditorium (see news release) and a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5:30 p.m., followed by self-guided tours and a reception. The ceremony – in which the ribbon is a 16-foot long model of a portion of the DNA double helix – will take place outside the High Street entrance to the building, located near the corner of High Street and Griffin Boulevard.

The four-story, 70,822-square foot building will be occupied by the Department of Natural Sciences beginning in the spring semester. It replaces nearby Stevens Hall, built in 1951. The new facility’s state-of-the-art educational technology will enable the science program to provide students with greatly expanded research opportunities, Longwood officials say.

“The building has leading-edge classroom technology and dedicated research space to help us emphasize collaborations between faculty and undergraduates,” said Dr. Charles Ross, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, who formerly chaired the Department of Natural Sciences.

Dick Bratcher, vice president of facilities management and public safety, called it “the most complex building that Longwood has ever built.”

Each lecture room and teaching lab has a “sympodium,” an interactive pen display that doubles as a computer monitor and A/V control panel.  Using a pen, the instructor can write on any application, take notes, or just highlight information, all of which is projected onto a screen. Other technology amenities include:

• Eleven teaching labs have cameras mounted over the student experiment tables, which can be selected by the instructor and projected onto the screen.  The cameras can pan, zoom, and rotate. Each table has AC power and network connectivity.
  
  
• Each of the 11 teaching labs and 14 faculty research labs will have a “flex camera” (it resembles a desk lamp), which can be plugged into a computer from a USB connection and can take photographs and video (even of slides in microscopes), which can be edited and recorded onto DVD or CD.   A built-in microphone enables audio to also be recorded. In addition to the flex cameras in the labs, students will have access to 12 additional flex cameras, which can be hooked to their laptops.
  
  
• A Geographic Information Sciences lab with 16 computers with 19-inch flat screen monitors to run cartographic, remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) software, three printers (one of which prints posters on 42-inch wide rolls of paper) and a large-format scanner. Thanks to the lab, a GIS course will be taught at Longwood for the first time in the spring semester.
  
  
• A computer room with 24 computers and software specifically for the sciences, as well as general software.
  
  
• 28 miles of network cabling, 768 network connections and 47 wireless connectivity access points, and over nine miles of telephone wiring and 154 phone connections.
  
  
• A sophisticated heating, air-conditioning and ventilation system that works in conjunction with the fume hoods and exhaust systems in the labs.

The T-shaped brick building has a rooftop greenhouse overlooking Wheeler Mall, site of Longwood’s commencement exercises. Directly underneath the greenhouse are faculty and student lounges on the third floor and a balcony area on the second floor. The High Street entrance features a curved façade of glass panels behind six brick pillars. There are 18 lecture rooms (one holds 96 students) and teaching labs, 14 research spaces, and 36 faculty offices.

“The research spaces will make it easier to involve undergraduate students in faculty research projects,” said Dr. Michelle Parry, chair of the Department of Natural Sciences and associate professor of physics, who will cut the ribbon along with Longwood President Patricia Cormier.

The science center was built by Suitt Construction Company of Raleigh, N.C. The project cost $17.6 million. Construction began in August 2003.

The Department of Natural Sciences is Longwood’s second largest academic department, with 23 full-time tenure track positions. Two members of that faculty, Dr. Consuelo Alvarez, assistant professor of biology, and Dr. Gary Lutz, assistant professor of chemistry, designed the DNA model that will be used to officially open the building. It was made of four four-foot dowel rods, 39 foam panels (representing nucleotides) and two ribbons whose colors represent not only Longwood’s colors but also the colors of the four disciplines within the Department (biology, chemistry, physics and earth science/geography).

James Randi, a former magician and escape artist who calls himself “the world’s leading psychic investigator and skeptic,” has attracted both devoted followers and bitter critics for his longtime efforts to investigate — and  subsequently, debunk — psychics, faith healers and others he views as charlatans. For 31 years he has offered an award, which started at $1,000 and now is up to $1 million, to anyone who demonstrated a paranormal power under satisfactory observational conditions. He is a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship and heads the James Randi Educational Foundation, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which is “dedicated to critical thinking about the paranormal” and funds “carefully selected original parapsychological research.”

In his talk, Search for the Chimera, he will give an overview of how science has pursued magic and miracles in the 20th century and into the 21st century, including such topics as UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle, Erich von Daniken’s “Chariots of the Gods” theory and the lost continent of Atlantis. Admission is free, but a ticket, which can be obtained at the Jarman Box Office, is required.