The Smith Center

Completed in 1998, Burr and Burton Academy's Smith Center for Science and Communications is a well-designed facility that gives students as well as community members a place to explore and experiment using the entire array of information technology available today.
The Lisa B. Tuttle Memorial Library on the first floor is the school's information resource center. In the library there are four computers devoted to the online catalog, two computers by which the librarians can manage the collection and access other libraries, and sixteen computers for general use plus wireless connectivity to the Internet for student and faculty laptops.
The Hunter Seminar Room located on the western side of the library is an amphitheater designed to seat up to 54. The information technology built into the Hunter Room supports the use of slides, CD-ROM and DVD players, VCRs, and computer and internet generated images. Events in the Hunter Room may be videotaped and broadcast over a campus-wide video distribution system, allowing those in any of the classrooms on campus to view the activity.
On the second floor are five science laboratories devoted to environmental studies, biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science. On the third floor are five mathematics classrooms outfitted with computers for student learning. Each floor has central office space for faculty members. Every classroom is equipped with a large overhead computer monitors used for instruction. Every classroom is also completely wired for the use of individual computers as well as wireless connectivity.


On the lower level is the Jonathan Levin Center, where the following facilities are located:
• an 1,800-square-foot classroom with 40 computer stations. This room may be divided in half by a flexible wall and is equipped with two overhead projectors. Innovative digital design, hardware and networking, and Research Lab courses are held in these two classrooms.
• A multi-camera television studio complete with state-of-the-art digital television equipment where Television News classes produce a weekly news broadcast, the BBA News show, which is broadcast every week to over one million households in Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York courtesy of WVBK, a local broadcast station.
A CNN satellite link gives students access to live continuous news feeds which they use in their television news shows.
• The Vermont Country Store Video and Print Communications Studio brings together journalism, video communications and graphic arts classes to work collaboratively to produce stories for the weekly BBA News show and the student newspaper, The Bell Tower in a real-world framework. The studio is equipped with new Mac Pro graphics workstations and includes three soundproof editing rooms with non-linear editing stations.
• Burr and Burton is Vermont Public Radio's southern studio location and features digital audio equipment that allows commentators to broadcast live on VPR and National Public Radio as well as various other locations around the world from the Levin Center radio studio.
The Smith Center for Science and Communications is supported by an endowment from the late Robert E. Smith, ensuring that Burr and Burton is well positioned to implement the inevitable changes in technology that will occur in the future.
Continue the Campus Tour:
Seminary Building
Campbell House
E.H. Henry Center
Larson Hall
Riley Center for the Arts
Rowland Center
Tuttle Memorial Library
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