Elementary school gets new science center

Thanks to the Fort Belvoir Chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, students at Fort Belvoir Elementary School will use the foremost technology to enhance their skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

The AFCEA Science Center officially opened this week for use by the students in their curriculum.

According to Joyce Matthews, technology specialist at FBES, AFCEA Fort Belvoir Chapter and their officers have given the school more than $80,000 just this school year to support their STEM focus.

The partnership began five years ago when the organization reached out to the elementary school to become a school partner. Since then, the chapter has provided funding to support any technology initiative the school has enacted.

The chapter bought smart boards for all of the school's classrooms. They also donated a flat-screen television; four iPads; laptops and robotics kits for the new science center. AFCEA also supported a National Science Center's Mobile Discovery Lab visit the school, and paid for the teachers to learn a new software program to support classroom instruction.

Each student will get the chance to work in the lab once a week, learning different science concepts and systems. The lab has eight different stations for the students. Each class is broken up into groups and visits each station.

Jessica Peterson's fifth-grade class worked in the lab Tuesday, studying, among other topics, the respiratory and digestive systems.

The smart board allowed each group of students to locate where each part of the respiratory tract is on the human body.

"They were instrumental in the development of our new science center, in addition to the recently opened Blixt Science Lab," Matthews said. "We decided to name the Science Center at Fort Belvoir Elementary the AFCEA Belvoir Chapter Science Center to thank them for all they have done for our school.

"AFCEA Belvoir Chapter has made a major difference in the educational experiences for teachers and students at FBES," Matthews said.

While the students are getting acclimated to the different gadgets available, Matthews also noted the school is hoping to get the parents involved.

"We are hoping to schedule a time for parents to come in and see the different things available to their kids here in the lab," Matthews said. "We are hoping that some of them would be willing to volunteer in the lab when they can, to properly monitor each group of students."

"So far, the kids really love the different tools AFCEA has provided for us," Matthews said.