from WOAI San Antonio | November 8, 2017 read it >
The school year had just begun for Port Aransas High School when a storm named Harvey put a stop to it. “We had kids for three and a half days and then we were told to evacuate,” said Jim Potts, principal at Aransas Pass High School. Potts says wind driven rain damaged a majority of the classrooms. “Three days after the storm there was still four inches of water in here,” said Potts inside one of the science labs at the school. Potts says state curriculum requires students to pick up nearly half of their science credit in a lab. “We were stuck so we weren’t going to be in compliance with what our teachers needed to be doing,” said Potts.
This week a new addition arrived in the parking lot The MD Bio Foundation hauled this 45-foot trailer to Port Aransas.
“This is the longest trip this lab has ever made,” said Jen Colvin, founder of the MD Bio Foundation. “We hauled it 1,600 miles to Texas.” It’s the first time this mobile science and tech lab has been outside of the state of Maryland. Instructors say it’s an opportunity to not only get some labs done but a chance to move the focus away from all the rebuilding. “In here none of that matters and that’s kind of our goal,” said Colvin.
“This is the first like real lab we’ve really done with cool lab equipment and stuff like that which is really nice,” said Dylan Denton, a senior at Port Aransas High School.
“To know the kids are having a good time, it’s job well done,” said Colvin.
On Friday the instructors will be packing up and head to Houston to teach courses at a couple schools in the area. But the foundation is hoping to keep the trailer in Texas permanently, if they can get the funding.
