BEND, OR -- Construction has begun on the Bend Science Station Building on the OSU Cascades Campus in Southwest Bend.
OSU Cascades' Christine Coffin says the University doesn't want to keep to itself, but instead wants to collaborate with other teaching partners in the community. "By having the Bend Science Station on campus here, it's just a wonderful public / private partnership with the University where our faculty and researchers and students may well play a role in the Bend Science Station's activities."
The Bend Science Station's Executive Director, David 'Bermie' Bermudez, says the partnership will help kids think about their futures. "We just feel really strongly that having every kid from Deschutes County have an outstanding science instructional experience in the lab, and then also be able to do that on a college campus, we feel that opens huge doors."
'Bermie' says being located on a college campus is a new way of educating younger students. "The synergies that result from being co-located with OSU Cascades on their new campus are huge and they move in both directions, because having a K-12 continuum science education in one location is sort of novel."
Coffin echoes that perspective, saying the University understands that being part of the community is the best way to augment the educational experience of their students, too. "We see the borders as being seamless and where community members come on the campus and students go off the campus, so there's much more of a partnership and an inter-relation between the University campus and the surrounding community."
The New Bend Science Station has been designed as a net zero building and 98% of the funding has already been raised to complete construction.
