For the Love of Learning

Gateway to Science has been teaching kids through interactive exhibits and programs since 1994. Now, the organization is hoping to build a new facility to expand its offerings

BY LISA GIBSON

Beth Demke has been a part of Gateway to Science in Bismarck since it opened in 1994. It started as a community service project, run by volunteers for the first year until it became clear the organization needed an executive director on staff. Demke applied and still serves in that position today.

The nonprofit was established to expose children early to science, technology, engineering and math concepts, Demke says. Local teachers and college professors had noticed their students weren’t prepared when they came to the next grade level of science instruction. “It all goes back to exposure to science early on so the kids can build on that foundation,” Demke says. “So if the foundation isn’t there, then, at every level, you’re kind of playing catch up.”

Gateway to Science, just north of Bismarck State College, provides interactive science exhibits in its gallery, as well as weekend programs, summer camps, family events, field trips and more. Recent programs have included: crime scene investigation labs; Gadget Girls, an engineering course for girls; legos; robotics; and nature programs. The gallery, open to the public six days a week, includes well over 90 exhibits that explore energy, basic physics, human anatomy, biology and much more. “It’s very much a walk-in and self-exploratory kind of place,” Demke says. “Kids get a chance to explore all types of science. About 95 percent of what we do is hands-on. You don’t just read a panel; you don’t just look at an exhibit. You actually are interacting with the exhibit.”

The goal is not only to engage children in science, but also to show teachers that books are not the only way to teach STEM subjects. Lisa Potts, seventh-grade Life Science teacher at Erik Ramstad Middle School in Minot, says Gateway to Science achieves both of those goals. She stops in April every year with about 32 Minot students in grades 6 through 8 from Erik Ramstad and Jim Hill middle schools on their way to North Dakota state Science Olympiad in Fargo. “We really make sure to give them another science opportunity,” Potts says. “It takes everything we teach, hands-on; it takes things we don’t teach, hands-on. It’s right there. It’s interactive. I’d take all my kids if I could.

“The kids go in there and we have to drag them out,” Potts adds. “An hour isn’t long enough. They’re experiencing science. They’re experiencing lots of new adventures.”

New Home

Gateway to Science is planning a new $30 million facility on the edge of the BSC campus that will expand its gallery floor from 2,500 square feet to 27,000. “What it will allow us to do then is really explore some of those areas of science that, right now, we sort of dabble in,” Demke says. The land was donated by the City of Bismarck to BSC, specifically for the purpose of building the science center. BSC, one of Gateway to Science’s partners, will be the owner of the property, Demke says.

With all its services, the nonprofit currently engages about 30,000 people per year. “We anticipate serving anywhere between 70,000 and 100,000 every year going forward in the new facility,” Demke says.

She hopes the organization will break ground on the new site this year, and be open by the end of 2018. “It’s a dream come true,” Potts says of the planned facility. “I’m so envious. It’s unbelievable.”

Demke says Gateway to Science is in the process of raising the money needed for the new facility. The nonprofit’s funding comes from admissions to the gallery, memberships, fundraisers, grants, and private and corporate funding, she says.

The biggest challenge at a nonprofit is, of course, funding, but also staffing. “Attracting the right people to the job and then keeping them, for a nonprofit, can be difficult,” Demke says. The center now has three full-time employees, including Demke, as well as part-time student staff made up of high schoolers and college students.

Gateway to Science has been successful because it offers incredibly useful, interactive programs and exhibits that also are fun, Demke says. Each time a new program or exhibit is added, experts, partners and community members from the applicable field are brought in to help develop it. PB

Lisa Gibson EDITOR, PRAIRIE BUSINESS 701.787.6753

LGIBSON@PRAIRIEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.COM