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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Boxes full of microscopes, glassware and safety glasses have been filling up a former research lab on West Virginia State University's campus ever since a chemistry professor started collecting science equipment to donate to schools whose labs were damaged in floods earlier this year.
Professor Micheal Fultz has received tens of thousands of dollars' worth of equipment set to be distributed, he told The Charleston Gazette-Mail (http://bit.ly/2bjrQ9w).
Fultz said the donations will go to at least three schools: Elkview Middle and Herbert Hoover High in Kanawha County and Richwood Middle in Nicholas County. He's reached out to other schools but hasn't yet heard back about all their needs.
Fultz started getting the word out in the science community about the need for donations after talking with science teachers he knew who were affected by the flooding. The June 23 floods killed 23 people and destroyed homes, businesses and infrastructure.
The donors have included West Virginia State alumni, Marshall University, Dow, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Preiser Scientific, science equipment distributor VWR and others, Fultz said.
"These students are our students, as a state, as a community, and we need to help support the schools, with whatever we can do," Fultz said. "Without students going into the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields, the science fields, it's going to be very hard to get them to go into the science fields at college. If we're not graduating science people, then how are we going to diversify our future economy to help it grow?"
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Information from: The Charleston Gazette-Mail, http://wvgazettemail.com.
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