Pfizer Foundation Science Discovery Center

Classroom spaces at the Connecticut Science Center are not school-as-usual. Sponsored by The Pfizer Foundation, the Pfizer Foundation Science Discovery Center will be the place where we take learners from the thrill of discovery in the exhibit halls to the deeper study and understanding of science. With 20’ ceilings, the Education Center facilities will be outfitted more like black box theaters than traditional classrooms. These classrooms will support a teacher and a class in an atmosphere that invites exploration and doing, rather than a passive experience disconnected from the excitement of the surrounding science center. Classrooms will support a variety of special programs such as distance learning, telepresence and remote observation, wet labs and digital production.

Education Center programs will be directly related to the science center's exhibits, providing valuable, in-depth extensions of what visitors can see and do in the less structured atmosphere of the public floors. While the exhibits are designed to accommodate relatively brief engagement with any given topic, the Education Center is a place for longer, facilitated and focused exploration, free of distractions and in the company of others who are similarly engaged.

A common digital infrastructure will allow access to resources from anywhere in the Center, providing visitors, docents and teachers the chance to make direct connections to media, reference materials and other resources from multiple locations both inside and outside the building.

The classrooms will be highly flexible, but also offer specialties, such as crime scene investigation-style forensic activities in coordination with Dr. Henry Lee, the famed Connecticut investigator. Other programming may include programming with Dr. Robert Ballard’s Jason Project, providing remote visibility to exotic underwater locations around the world. And the Center will always capitalize on its proximity to the Connecticut River, working with partners to provide in-depth programs and activities stretching from the classrooms in the Education Center to the nearby river itself.