BOISE — The World Center for Birds of Prey is expanding, with its official groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday, December 17, for the Power Global STEM classroom.
The larger, indoor facility gets students up close, and personal with the work scientists are doing.
"This classroom is just the beginning of an expansion for the World Center for Birds of Prey," said director of the World Center for Birds of Prey Tate Mason.
The new Power Global STEM Classroom will be 900 square feet and able to accommodate more kids and demonstrations than ever before. The classroom space will also have access to the outdoor areas, creating a smooth transition from one learning area to the next.
Part of the update is adding teleconferencing technology for kids to interact with projects all over the world.
"We can tap into our field projects, meet the scientists that are in the field collecting the research, that are collecting the data, that are actually doing the research that's going to be essential to saving species worldwide," said Mason.
The center says the current space could not accommodate the number of people they serve.
"We host almost 5,000 kids annually on field trips," said Mason, "We've almost doubled our visitation in the last six years."
They're not just expanding for the people; after this construction project, the center plans to expand the space for the birds.
"We're going to rebuild the outdoor bird exhibits in phase 1 of our expansion, so they're going to have more space, more sunlight," said Mason.
The World Center for Birds of Prey partnered with the Idaho STEM action center to implement STEM ideas coming soon to the space, and the Power Engineers to get the classroom up and running.
