At Waterford we believe passionately that the world needs scientists and that science-literate citizens are required of a worthy civilization. The new Science Center will continue to bring that vision to life, as we introduce a new generation of students to the wonders of science.

Imagine that the year is 2025. You are a fourth grader and Ms. Watabe announces that it is the day that your class will cross campus to visit the newly opened Science Center. You walk outside and join one of the secret trails in the Arboretum where you hop rock to rock. You don’t know, of course, that this magic landscape was established from barren ground in 1999, as part of Waterford’s last significant capital campaign, the Fine Arts Project. You just know it as your wild playground.

The path now draws you towards an impressive new two-story building, which has similarly emerged from barren land, and over which you can see the high, snowy, peaks of mountains.

As you near the doors, a glassy canyon pulls you and your friends in. Upon entering you catch sight of a grizzly bear, rearing on hind legs, behind which you see into an animal-filled room. There, around long tables covered with mammal skulls, is a group of middle school students gathered in our new Nature Lab.

As you follow Ms. Watabe to the central staircase, you see into the large open space of the new Maker Lab with an array of fascinating tools: saws, 3D printers, laser cutter, automated milling machines. A group of Upper Schoolers are bent over in concentration, focused on the alluringly strange contraptions they are fabricating.

Nearby is another group of students driving a frisbee-throwing robot, while at the other end of the room you see a man with a drone in his hand explaining it to a group of entranced students. At the top of the stairs you are passed by another teacher hurriedly on their way to the new Advanced Biology Lab where they are determining the genetic history of our pet dogs and cats.

Finally you walk out onto an open air Observation Deck, looking out to the Wasatch Mountains and the glacial boulders of the beautiful Little Cottonwood Canyon. You go to the edge where you watch as students are carefully lining up projectiles in their trebuchets, competing to be the most accurate at hitting the raven emblem at the center of the new turf athletic field.

Visualizing this future through the eyes of our students has given us an unwavering belief in this project. We’re thankful to all who have trusted in our shared vision, and with your support we can’t wait to bring this vision to life.D