Nothing Static About Permanent Funding

Why does electricity make your hair stand on end? How do you make spaghetti dance? What’s the scientific secret behind a slam dunk? How do you build the best paper airplane ever? That’s what K-12 students across the state want to know. Fortunately, they can investigate answers to these and many other questions through fun and engaging activities sponsored by The Science House, NC State University’s premier K-12 science outreach program within the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (PAMS).

An anonymous $250,000 challenge grant, which ultimately raised over $750,000 in endowment funds for The Science House, advances the college’s mission of bolstering student enthusiasm for science by partnering with K-12 teachers to promote hands-on, inquiry-based science learning. Through student science enrichment activities, teacher training programs and curriculum-related programs, The Science House supports the state’s efforts to improve K-12 science and mathematics education.

A $53,000 gift from Charlotte-based entrepreneur Nicholas Goudes completed the challenge and finalized the establishment of The Science House’s first permanent funding. “This challenge grant encouraged many supporters, including some first-time donors, to double the impact of their contribution,” says Anita Stallings, executive director of the PAMS Foundation. In addition to the general endowment, the challenge grant resulted in many named endowments, including the Charles and Margie Case, Wesley O. Doggett, Robert A. Eason, Elizabeth B. Flynt, Mary and Kermit Freeman Memorial, Gordon Family, Christine Hemrick, Barbara King Hubbard, McHugh-Haase Family, Connie W. Moreadith, and Doris and Rush Thompson endowments.

With six offices throughout North Carolina, The Science House serves about 4,000 teachers and 28,000 students across the state each year. A model program, The Science House once depended on competitive grants to fund most of its programs. Now, as Stallings points out, the endowment funds “provide funding to fill the gaps between grant cycles, ensuring that The Science House can continue fulfilling its mission.” Specific activities include Science on the Road school demonstrations, laboratory technology workshops for teachers, long-term loans of laboratory equipment, summer student research programs, and learning materials development.