Newtown Native Finds Her Place At The Connecticut Center For Science And Exploration

By Nancy K. Crevier

Growing up in Newtown in the 1980s and early 90s, Michelle Morales knew that she loved science. One of her favorite classes at Newtown High School was biology, and after her graduation from NHS in 1995, Ms Morales entered Boston University, planning to major in premed and psychology.

At the university, an interest in the study of biodiversity led her into a six-week stint living at a biodiversity station in the Amazon Rain Forest region of Ecuador. The experience, she said, definitely influenced where she is today: the marketing and communications coordinator for the new Connecticut Center for Science and Exploration in Hartford.

Construction on the Connecticut Center for Science and Exploration, a working model of “green” energy technology, began January 9, said Ms Morales. The hands-on science center is located on Columbus Boulevard and Grove Street. Four floors of exhibit space and four classrooms designed to “help you think outside the box,” explained Ms Morales, will fill the 144,000 square feet of brick and concrete rising from the banks of the Connecticut River.

The mission of the Connecticut Center for Science and Exploration is to “create an engaging and sustainable science center that serves families and schools and has a significant impact on student and adult learning in Connecticut.” Ms Morales said that this will be achieved through inviting, interactive exhibits throughout the center.

“Ecuador was a hands-on learning experience for me,” Ms Morales recalled. “We would have our books part of the day, but then we would put them down and actually go out into the rain forest. The center will be interactive like that, and I hope inspire more young people to pursue science as a career.”

Most of the exhibits at the new center will target middle school and high school students, who are of an age that the founders of this science center feel will be open to the technology presented there. They anticipate that by planting the seed of interest in the sciences more young adults may be encouraged to go on to careers in science.

According to information Ms Morales has obtained from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development August 2001, the United States is lagging behind other developed nations in the number of young adults electing to go into science fields. In Korea 48.3 percent of the students go into science-oriented careers, followed by Japan with 42.4 percent, Sweden and Switzerland with 41 percent and Germany with 38.9 percent. Only13 percent of US students receive degrees in the field of science.

The position as marketing and communications coordinator at the Connecticut Center for Science and Exploration was, said Ms Morales, “a perfect fit.” Not only did her decision to pursue an MBA at the University of Connecticut upon leaving Boston University come into play, but she is able to draw upon her science background, contributing suggestions and offering feedback to exhibit designers as work on the center progresses.

As communications coordinator for the imminent science center, she also helps coordinate articles for the “Newspaper in Education” supplement put out by The Hartford Courant. “I write articles and contribute scientific ‘tidbits’ to the pages,” she explained. “The supplement is sent to teachers all over Connecticut, to use as a teaching tool in the study of sixth and seventh grade sciences.”

She is very excited that scientists and inventors of high caliber are key members on the board for the Connecticut Center for Science and Exploration. “Dr Henry Lee will work with us to design a forensics lab, and Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, is on the board.” Business people with practical experience in the field of science will offer invaluable input as the center develops, she believes, and with Dr Theodore Sergi, former commissioner of education, as president and CEO of the center, the institution will adhere to high principals of learning.

The Connecticut Center for Science and Exploration is slated to open in 2008. Until then, Ms Morales will remain dedicated to promoting the world of science — something she learned to love in Newtown.