91% Funded: NoVA Science Center To Bring STEM Learning To Region's Students, Families

FAIR OAKS, VA — The creation of the Northern Virginia Science Center (NVSC) in the Dulles area got one step closer to fruition Tuesday morning thanks to a sizable donation from the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation.

Dominion representatives gathered with local elected officials at the Children's Science Center Lab in Fair Oaks Mall to donate an additional $800,000 to the Northern Virginia Science Center Foundation (NVSCF).

In total, Dominion has given $1 million to the center. The money will be used to fund the Dominion Energy Gallery, which will be located immediately adjacent to the Science Center's entrance. The gallery will be the home of the "Flow" exhibit, in which visitors will experience science and natural phenomena represented through movement and art.

"I can't think of a better cause, really," said Hunter Applewhite, president of the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation, during Tuesday's ceremony "The current center at Fair Oaks Mall does so much wonderful work. It's hard to quantify."

NVSCF has been operating the lab at the mall for about six years. Pre-pandemic, families were free to bring their children in to experience a variety of hands-on science experiments. During the pandemic, the lab began giving online demonstrations.

The lab also offers a number of educational outreach programs to schools from Dale City to Manassas and Leesburg, and everywhere in between, according to Nene Spivey, executive director of the Science Center.

"The lab is wonderful, but it's a small space" she said. "It's an interim space. We're ready to grow into a big science center that can serve the entire region and its large population and all of our schools."

Whereas the Fair Oaks Mall lab could accommodate 50,000 visitors pre-pandemic, the Science Center will have the capacity to serve more than 300,000 visitors a year.

With Dominion's donation, the $75 million Science Center project is 91 percent funded, according to Spivey. Funding has primarily come from the Commonwealth of Virginia and Loudoun County, as well as private donors, like Dominion. The LEED building naming sponsor is Northwest Federal Credit Union.

Del. David Reid, who represents the 32nd District in the Virginia General Assembly, first approached the House appropriations committee in 2019 with a request for $2.3 million to help fund the Science Center.

"The state actually initially provided the $2.3 million for the planning, so that we could actually do the initially planning for it," Reid said. "Then I went back the next year and was able to secure the $40 million — myself and state Sen. Janet Howell (32nd District) — to actually do the bonding to build the building."

NVSC expects to break ground in 2022 on the 70,000-square-foot facility at the Kincora development near the intersection of Routes 7 and 28 in Loudoun County.

Chairwoman Phyllis J. Randall of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, which donated $15 million to the project, expects the Science Center to draw families from around the region. It will not only provide revenue for the county, but it will promote STEM learning as well.

"We have so many kids who don't always consider STEM, because they don't think that science and engineering and math is fun," she said. "The Science Center brings to life the STEM programs and STEM careers, and they can see what they can do with them."

During his presentation, Applewhite summed why the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation chose to support the Science Center.

"This is not going to be your grandfather's museum," Applewhite said. "The museum that we're talking about today is going to be really dynamic. Nene and her team are taking a smart approach, a very innovative approach to making science and all those related disciplines, attractive and appealing and approachable for all ages, but especially, of course, for kids."