E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center on target for September 12 opening
One-of-a-kind educational research center soon to be subject of French documentary film
BRUCE -- When Walton County students visit the E. O. Wilson Biophilia Center this fall they should not be surprised if they find themselves the envy of their counterparts on at least one other continent. Media coverage of the innovative center's opening by both Florida Educational Television and a French documentary producer will offer exposure to the center's goals and environmental philosophy far beyond the borders of the county.
"This is a phenomenal opportunity to take information about this ecosystem to a global level," said Brenda Couch, consultant to Florida Learns Academy, one of several educational organizations involved in the development of the Biophilia Center.
"Our mission is to reach every school-aged child in America, at least through our media." said M.C. Davis, founder and primary sponsor of the Center. "We're working with the Panhandle Area Educational Consortium on a European partnership to take the message out to an even wider audience."
Walton County elementary, middle and high school students will participate in the center's curriculum currently being developed in accordance with Florida Sunshine State Standards. Fourth and seventh graders and high school biology students will spend five full days at the Center. Walton County school superintendent Carlene Anderson has been an enthusiastic supporter, collaborating with M.C. Davis from the beginning and now serving on the board of the non-profit organization.
"The STEM subjects -- science, technology, engineering and mathematics - will be interrelated," said Anderson. Well beyond preparing students for the science portion of the FCAT, however, Davis and E.O. Wilson, for whom the center is named, hope to spark the development in these students of a lifelong love affair with the natural world.
"You cannot love what you have not experienced, and you cannot fully experience what you cannot understand," said Davis.
With a full week to absorb the offerings of the Biophilia Center, Walton County students will constitute the inaugural class testing out a new science curriculum designed specifically for this purpose. They will also be testing new exhibits, classrooms, labs, equipment, hiking trails, multimedia and bathrooms.
The multi-level learning approach combines art with science, hands-on play and living plants and animals. It is designed to engage the student/teacher/visitor in a personal experience that doesn't merely illustrate learning but draws the student into a deep relationship with the natural world.
"We're going to encourage and insist that everybody get out and walk it, wade it, swim it, and crawl through it. Every child will leave our system feeling a little bit like a naturalist," said Davis. "Rather than showing a chart of photosynthesis, we will plant, grow and measure asparagus."
The exhibits, laboratories, classrooms and multi-media facilities of the new center include living exhibits and participatory experiences and well as didactic examples of conservation in process. Part museum, part classroom and part research facility, the 40,000 square foot facility houses rooms named after famous and less famous conservationists -- including one called Sequoia -- a 200-seat theater, meeting spaces equipped with the latest technology and a suite of offices to house staff presently occupying a trailer on the site. All rooms, including laboratories, feature huge windows offering wide views of the surrounding natural landscape.
ON THE WEB
Learn more about the E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center at www.eowilsoncenter.org.
Learn more about the Nokuse Plantation at www.nokuse.org.
