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COVER STORY
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Introducing The Jim & Diane Rowen STEM Center
OOne of the brightest parts of the 2020-2021 academic year at Kellenberg Memorial was the unveiling of the brand new Jim & Diane Rowen STEM Center in January. As part of the school’s strategic plan, Spreading Our Wings: The Vision for the Future, the state-of-the-art space is a masterpiece of thoughtful design and innovation in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math education.
The new wing, which is named after generous benefactors and project advisors Jim and Diane Rowen P’16, features five separate labs: a chemistry lab, a biology lab, a physics lab, a multipurpose lab to be used by Kellenberg’s Science Olympiad team, as well as a prep room and a collaboration room. The Jim & Diane Rowen STEM Center replaces science labs which were original to the 1960s campus that has been home to Kellenberg Memorial High School since 1987.
The vision for this significant capital project was executed with close attention to detail, right down to the color schemes for each of the labs. Although the planning for this project was underway well before the arrival of the global pandemic, the fortuitous timing of its completion synced beautifully with the need for effective virtual learning. The technology which was integrated into each lab allowed for students who were remote learning due to Covid-19 to engage with their in-person counterparts in real time. Chairperson of the Science Department Mr. Anthony Wevers explains, “The school invested in the Vernier LabQuest system, which is an intricate interface used to collect sensor data with its built-in graphing and analysis application. Students then extract and manipulate the data. The equipment connects to the students’ iPads and mirrors to all screens. This means the kids who are at home can see the exact same information as those in the lab.”
Designed for maximum use across the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math, the Jim & Diane Rowen STEM Center features a
Opposite Page: A view of the completed Jim & Diane Rowen STEM Center. 1. Michael DePetris ’23 and Miles Francisque ’23 dissect sheep hearts in the new biology lab. 2. Earth Science students Cassandra Odudukudu ’24 and Erin Finnegan ’24 experience spectroscopy in a new way thanks to multiple new lab features. Blackout shades and the variety of lighting settings created optimal conditions to see the emission spectrums of common elements like hydrogen, neon, helium, and others. Reduced light pollution increased the students’ accuracy and general ability to find the spectrums in their spectroscopes.
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level of customization in each lab to allow for maximum scientific exploration. The chemistry lab features fume hoods, allowing for the safe mixing of chemicals and organic materials. All furniture in the physics lab is completely mobile, allowing the space to be configured for individual stations, large workstations for more complex mechanics experiments, or open floor space for experiments and demonstrations requiring large areas on the floor. The EMT program will benefit greatly from the flexible space during their practical classes that require open space for patient assessments and movement training.
Mr. Wevers explains how disciplines across the curriculum have been able to bring their lessons alive using the new labs, saying, “Math teachers have been coming in and utilizing the collaboration space. Calculus classes have been in the physics and collab lab. Environmental and engineering classes have been coming in and doing different experiments. Engineering kids are learning how to solder in the chemistry lab. It’s been an amazing conceptual change to what used to just be the science labs transformed into a bonafide STEM Center.”
In March, chemistry and environmental studies teacher Mrs. Jenna Frem arranged for her class to use the collaboration lab to participate in a virtual symposium with Dr. Giorgio Vacchiano, an assistant professor in forest management and planning at University of Milan in Italy. Students gathered for a live Skype session wherein they learned about the environmental value of forests, forest management, and the increasing threat of wildfires worldwide. Mrs. Frem reflects on the scope of scientific exploration the Jim and Diane STEM Center offers, saying, “Walking into the STEM Center is like stepping into a whole new world with bright, impeccably designed labs. The students love
Top: Advanced juniors in Mrs. Mary Beth (Cotty) Farrell ’05’s Calculus 1 class utilize the whiteboard and technology in the collaboration room to solve problems in real time with their remote classmates. 1. Mason Carpentier ’21 studies microscopic life in the biology lab. 2. AnnaMaria Vargas ’21 and Ryan Gerhart ’22 discuss the benefits of the Jim & Diane Rowen STEM Center. Opposite page top: Biology teacher Brother Peter Sennert, S.M. assists Richard Harrington ’24 with an experiment.
every opportunity to perform laboratory experiments in the STEM Center, and they marvel at the modern features and unique layout of each lab. After learning a concept in the classroom, student learning is tremendously enhanced by conducting a full lab investigation.”
Mrs. Mary Beth (Cotty) Farrell ’05, a faculty member in the Math Department, has been working with her advanced juniors in Calculus 1 in the collaboration lab with great success. She says, “It is the perfect size for this small class and enables them to interact more fully with the students who have been remote. The entire front wall is a white board, allowing all of the students to work at the same time on problems, while the remote students work on the whiteboard feature in Big Blue Button, with their work appearing on the large digital screen. It is always nice to see them working together to solve challenging problems and to see their thought processes, which I wouldn’t be able to do if they were just working on their iPads.”
Safety ranked high in the list of design priorities as well. Each lab is equipped with shower and eyewash stations with full enclosures, as well as ultraviolet goggle sterilizers. The Jim and Diane Rowen STEM Center also features a Merlin Utility Control System with emergency shut-off monitoring the gas, electric, and water, and MERV 13 air filters, which are among the most effective filtration systems available.
The creation of the Jim and Diane Rowen STEM Center has been an integral part of the recent enhancements to Kellenberg Memorial’s college preparatory curriculum. In addition to college credit courses which are offered in partnerships with St. John’s University, Farmingdale State College, Hofstra University, and Molloy College, students can choose to take enrichment and elective courses such as computer science, digital media, astronomy, engineering methods, environmental studies, calculus, or health sciences. Science seminar classes are also available for high achieving students interested in cultivating greater scientific literacy and participating in openended laboratory investigation. Kellenberg Memorial offers an EMT program in conjunction with the Nassau County Emergency Medical Services Academy and is also home to an award-winning Science Olympiad team and an incredibly popular Educational Television Service (ETV) club. Further curricular growth has ushered in unique co-curricular STEM offerings, such as a full immersion Laboratory Assistant Program, Amateur Radio Club, Forensics Club, Mathematics Club, Robotics Club, and the Health Sciences Club, just to name a few.
Students are thoroughly enjoying the new space, as well as the opportunity to be more hands-on in their classes. Aidan Dempsey ’22 says, “The new labs really opened up many different opportunities to be more interactive. I’m really inspired by it. I never really thought of any of the sciences as anything I wanted to go into career-wise, but seeing the different changes has inspired me to consider a professional role in STEM in the future.”
Upon seeing recent media coverage of the Jim & Diane Rowen STEM Center, Sierra Hajdu ’13, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree from University of Notre Dame and is currently a medical student at University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, reached out to say, “I truly believe this new STEM center can be a game-changer for preparing Kellenberg students to achieve success in college. I also believe that this will open students’ minds to a wide array of career opportunities that lie within the STEM fields. I’m so excited for the opportunities that Kellenberg students will have because of the Jim and Diane Rowen STEM Center, and I hope that this will help funnel more graduates into STEM careers.”
Mrs. Anne (Staudt) Masiulis ’02, who is biology coordinator and teaches biology and chemistry, notes, “Kellenberg is huge on creating an atmosphere that educates. We worked closely with the architects to make sure that the space was modern and new, but it still felt like Kellenberg. The Jim & Diane Rowen STEM Center has literally created an atmosphere that is inspiring our students to learn. It’s been such a gift to be asked to be so intricately involved in the development of the space. We were asked as teachers what our hopes and dreams were, and we got this phenomenal STEM Center for our students to grow.”
