SUNY Oneonta will kick off the spring 2017 semester today with a grand opening of the college’s completely renovated Physical Science Building. Classes will be held in the new building for the first time, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned for 3 p.m.

The $27.5 million upgrade, which began in summer 2014, created new, state-of-the art teaching and research spaces for the college’s departments of Anthropology, Chemistry & Biochemistry, and Physics & Astronomy, including: an anthropology teaching gallery that will allow students to work in a museum space as part of their everyday coursework; an anthropology curation room with high-density storage; new teaching laboratories and research spaces for anthropology, chemistry & biochemistry, and physics; and the campus’s first Technology Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) classroom--a space specially designed to promote hands-on, collaborative learning activities.

The building is on target to become the college’s first to meet the sustainability standards for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification. LEED certification provides independent verification of a building’s “green” features.

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