Florida Atlantic: Fueling Students' Passions

Florida Atlantic University Laboratory Schools received a $2 million grant from The Marcus Foundation to launch the Marcus Research and Innovation Center at the A.D. Henderson University School and FAU High School campus in Boca Raton. The Center will serve as a training ground for the schools' students, preparing them to learn to investigate and address the future.

With more than 12,000 square feet of research space, the labs in the Marcus Research and Innovation Center will focus on bioimaging, neuroscience, ocean science and conservation, along with a health care pipeline for teaching, highperformance computing and rapid prototyping methods.

"We are grateful to The Marcus Foundation for its strategic investment in our students, educators and community," said FAU President Stacy Volnick. "This impactful grant will facilitate the development of our students' passions, expand our research and pioneer the critical discoveries of tomorrow."

The new center will house and expand the current programs at the FAU Laboratory Schools, where students are introduced to research as early as kindergarten. To date, the schools have produced 78 student publications in peer-reviewed journals, six patents and more than 1,500 citations worldwide.

In addition, this space will support the FAU Laboratory Schools' Stiles- Nicholson STEM Teacher Academy, where middle and high school instructors benefit from experiential professional learning opportunities; and the Cane Institute for Advanced Technologies, where students research cybersecurity, autonomous vehicles, robotics, virtual reality, augmented reality, automation and artificial intelligence.

"This generous grant will accelerate the transformational re-engineering of education already in progress at our lab schools," said Joel Herbst, Ed.D., superintendent of Florida Atlantic Laboratory Schools. "The Marcus Research and Innovation Center will serve as a blueprint for developing researchers and a globally competitive workforce, as well as train the school leaders and educators of tomorrow."