Detroit’s $50 million high-tech high school takes learning to a new level

Detroit’s Catholic Central high school’s newest addition feels straight out of a sci-fi movie. The opening of the George and Mary Turek Hall of Science – a $50 million hub for futuristic learning – has raised the bar for high school education. Covering a gigantic area of 57,000 square feet, it not only houses an observatory, a greenhouse, and a robotics arena, but also a flight simulator to let students earn pilot licenses while still in school.

With its centenary around the corner, Catholic Central launched this exceptional project with a vision – making Catholic Central the best high school it can be. The innovative hall of science owes its existence to the generous support and donations of its various sponsors, especially the primary donor George Turek, who is an alumnus of the class of 1966.

From the first announcement in 2021 to the start of construction two years to completion, every phase of this project had a singular focus: creating an environment that resembles not a high school, but an institution of higher learning. This bold concept took inspiration from the prestigious Jordan Hall of Science at the University of Notre Dame.

The cutting-edge facility comes equipped with multiple laboratories featuring eight dedicated science labs and four prep rooms. An engineering lab, innovation labs, and conceptualization labs alongside a versatile Makerspace present a broad range of options for students to explore their scientific curiosities.

What will stun you, though, is the simulation area highlighted by a Blue Angels jet placed above a 5,300-square-feet robotics arena, a climate-controlled sustainability greenhouse, a flight-simulating Redbird facility, and a domed observatory.

The Redbird flight simulator, equipped with a complete 180-degree view of the cockpit, lets students experience the thrill of flying 20 different aircraft models from the safety of the ground. This technologically advanced aviation tool, along with six desktop flight simulators, helps students log flight hours for their pilot licenses.

The school also boosts its astronomical capabilities by adding four supplementary telescopes to the large Celestron telescope in the observatory. This brings Catholic Central in the top rung of observatory facilities and enables students to observe and study astronomical events in unprecedented detail.

In collaboration with NASA, Catholic Central is looking forward to offering students access to a slew of NASA’s resources, activities, and multimedia as part of the space agency’s Museum and Informal Education Alliance. Teachers will receive on-site training from NASA to ensure they can utilize the potential of the new Hall of Science to its fullest.

Despite the impressive infrastructure, school officials believe that it’s the staff and the learning process inside the Hall of Science that will truly define it as a Catholic Central institution. With student enrollment surpassing the 1,000 mark this year and more than $2.1 million in assistance provided last year, Catholic Central shows no signs of stopping on its journey toward educational excellence.