GFS Receives Major Grant for New “Green” Science Building

 

Germantown Friends School has received a major grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation to help fund its new, sustainable Upper School science building. The two-story structure will accommodate core and advanced high school courses in physics, chemistry and biology in an environmentally sensitive “green” building.

 

The design includes such green elements as: geo-thermal heating and cooling, a green roof with rain-absorbing plants, a rain garden and cisterns to provide “gray water” for re-use within the building, sustainable materials, and solar panels. A system of sensors to measure the building’s use of energy will be linked to a “dashboard” in the lobby where students and visitors can see for themselves how efficient the building is. SMP Architects (formerly Susan Maxman and Partners) are leaders in sustainable design.

 

The number of upper school students taking science courses at GFS has grown dramatically in recent years. The new science center will accommodate this growth by more than doubling the classroom space, and will allow for more collaborative teaching and learning opportunities. Gen Nelson, chair of the science department and Pennsylvania Biology Teacher of the Year in 2006, stated, “Only at a school like GFS could such a synergy of the Quaker principle of stewardship, environmental science and pedagogy be possible.”

 

This is the second consecutive grant from the E.E. Ford Foundation in support of the GFS science program. In 2005, the Foundation funded a three-year innovative biology program which has brought students from GFS and Girard College together to study genes in humans and other species.

 

The challenge grant of $75,000 must be matched 5:1 by private donations to the school. The Edward E. Ford Foundation is dedicated to “encouraging and improving secondary education by independent schools in the United States.”