El Rincon Elementary School, which has adopted global science as a focus to enhance the pursuit of academic excellence, was scheduled to open its new Science Discovery Laboratory with a celebration this morning at the south Overland Avenue campus.
The El Rincon Science Discovery Lab will be the catalyst for change in how science is experienced at the school.
Students and teachers will be involved in hands-on experiments on a weekly basis. The activities and materials that are available in the Science Discovery Lab will give students knowledge and insights far beyond what a regular classroom experience can provide.
In addition, the experience of weekly science activities in their own state-of-the-art Science Discovery Lab will demonstrate the importance El Rincon School places on science education.
For the Entire District
The learning center, adjacent to the Science Lab, provides a space for integrating science into all other aspects of the academic curriculum. Writing in student interactive journals is an integral part of that process. Both the Science Discovery Lab and Learning Center will be utilized as a site for School District-wide professional development for teachers.
“There is no substitute for hands-on learning,” said Superintendent Myrna Rivera Coté. “The lab will enable El Rincon students to take part in experiments and experience science in a bold new way. And that is something books alone cannot teach.”
In preparing to create the lab, the El Rincon school science team spent most of the last school year researching the ideal science lab. The eight-person team, composed of one teacher at each of the six grade levels, the team leader and principal, visited nearby elementary school science labs to study them.
The science team also worked with Dr. Mark Moldwin, a UCLA professor of space physics and a parent in the School District, to develop the optimal science lab.
The guiding motto for El Rincon is, “Every teacher a science teacher.”
Everyone Participated
Patty Krause, Executive Director of the Culver City Education Foundation, said funding was a community project.
It was made possible by funding from the District’s special facilities funds, the Fineshriber Family Foundation, Symantec Corp., Westfield, LLC; other businesses, parents, neighbors and friends. The Education Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports all the Culver City public schools, spearheaded the fundraising.
