Classroom of One's Own

Chris Matlack, who has taught biology at Exeter since 1984 and was closely involved in the design process, is excited about every aspect of the science center, but he pays particular tribute to the individual classrooms. "I'm most happy about the fact that teachers were consulted throughout the process. Science teachers understand what it means to have your own classroom that is a dedicated space. We wanted classrooms that were dedicated for use by one teacher, and we got them."

At every step, Matlack adds, the architects asked for input from the science department. "The beauty of it is that when we came up with the design, it was taken on faith by the administration, the builders, the architects and the donors." Of these collaborators who helped make the science center a reality, Matlack points to the donors as deserving special mention for their generosity and vision. Not only has the Phelps Science Center enabled Exeter to offer students a science education second to none, it will help to attract outstanding faculty and students in the future.

"We're in this Together"
Elizabeth Stevens started teaching at Exeter just as the building was being completed, and the center's excellent teaching space was a main draw. "The traditional science classroom has a demo desk in between the blackboard and the students. I was used to having that fixed table at the front of the classroom, but it separated me from my students," she says. "The change in teaching in the science center is extraordinary. Just having the Harkness table in the classroom says that we're in this together. The technology is great. I can put animations up on the screen for the whole class. It makes a tremendous difference to the students to see the phenomena in motion instead of through still pictures. There's nothing more I could want in the building."

Teachers and students utilize an array of instructional materials, from tablet PCs which support learning both in and out of the classroom to VideoPoint movies, which help physics classes capture motion, making measurements that otherwise wouldn't be possible. Physics instructor Tanya Waterman says there are dozens of ways teachers and students work with technology. "We use interactive programs, software such as Geometer's Sketchpad®, and the Internet for simulations we cannot do here. A virtual particle accelerator is one example. And the spreadsheets we use for number crunching and graphing develop skills that are not only useful in science, but in many other fields."