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An innovative facility offers 250 hands-on exhibits, science demonstrations,
a teacher resource center and numerous outreach programs.
FORT Discovery, a $38.5 million science center located on Augusta, Ga.'s, popular Riverwalk, is appropriately located near Fort Gordon, Ga., home of the U.S. Army Signal School - what Jim Frye, Fort Discovery's deputy director, called the world's largest vocational and technical training facility.
In the 1980s, then-Maj. Gen. William Hilsman, commanding general of Fort Gordon and the U.S. Army Signal Center, initiated plans for a national science center after noting that many young soldiers attending courses at the school needed help with basic skills, Frye said.
Fort Discovery, a partnership between the Army and the National Science Center Discovery Center, Inc., of which retired Lt. Gen. Hilsman is chairman of the board, was made possible almost entirely by public and private donations. Those included a donation of the $20 million Port Royal Building that houses Fort Discovery. The state donated $10 million from lottery funds to cover the cost of exhibits.
Fort Discovery boasts 250 hands-on exhibits, science demonstrations, a science store, a teacher resource center and numerous outreach programs.
The outreach efforts include week-long youth math and science summer camps that allow children to do things like build solar-energy ovens or pinewood-derby cars. Then, they can learn about speed, time...