FISTA beginning research for Lawton’s Discovery Zone

FISTA Innovation Park is coordinating the research that will give Lawton a Discovery Zone-style STEM lab, even as officials are proceeding with construction of their own STEM facility.

The facilities are being designed to present Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) educational opportunities to youth of all ages, with FISTA’s facility designed for secondary and college students, while the City of Lawton’s Discovery Zone is planned for elementary-age youth and their teachers. The city is funding its lab from $15 million included in the Capital Improvements Program (CIP) Extension, and Mayor Stan Booker has said the idea was to place that facility inside Central Plaza, which will lessen construction costs so more funds can be spent on the facility and its materials.

Booker also said FISTA will take on management and operations for that Discovery Zone, and FISTA Innovation Park CEO/President Krista Ratliff said her staff already has visited museums in Texas to solicit ideas for what they want in Lawton’s facility.

She said a subcommittee to oversee the project will “kick off this year,” to get the project moving. In addition to funding in the CIP, the project won a $5 million federal grant, providing enough money to let Lawton build a state-of-the-art facility that is expected to have a regional draw, Booker and others have said.

Ratliff said those funds won’t all be spent on the initial startup. The plan is to keep some funds in reserve so exhibits can be “refreshed” periodically to provide new learning opportunities for youth. She said officials continue to look for funding to support the facility, to include discussions with the Oklahoma Department of Education. That’s possible because the facility could support teachers bringing their classes in for STEM activities, Ratliff said.

Details still are being worked out for the facility, to include its actual size.

“That’s not set yet,” Ratliff said, of discussions that have included 30,000 square feet and more. “That will be settled later.”

The mall will lend itself to the facility, Ratliff said, adding one example might be using the old movie complex on the mall’s north side, as her staff creates learning space in proximity to FISTA’s STEM Lab.

FISTA’s facility is under construction in what used to be Old Navy and Gold and Silver Exchange, located on the east side of FISTA 1 (the old Sears).