The University of Georgia will break ground on its newest building—the 122,500-square-foot Science Learning Center—on Aug. 26 at 11:30 a.m. at the south end of the S10 parking lot located just off Carlton Street.

The ceremony will include remarks from Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby, UGA President Jere W. Morehead and UGA student Lydia Babcock-Adams.

The public is invited to attend.

The Science Learning Center will be situated on South Campus adjacent to Pharmacy South and across from the Miller Plant Sciences Building. Funded by Deal and the Georgia General Assembly, the center will cost $44.7 million and be designed around an environment that promotes active learning. 

The building’s 33 instructional labs will be designed specifically for interactive learning in core undergraduate science courses. The Science Learning Center also will contain two 280-seat lecture halls and two 72-seat SCALE-UP classrooms. SCALE-UP stands for Student-Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs, a learning model that focuses heavily on group-work class participation and technology—making student-to-student and student-to-teacher interaction easier in a larger class setting.

The building is scheduled to open in fall 2016.

Parking for the ceremony will be available in the South Campus parking deck.