Columbus State University’s (CSU) Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center and volunteers from CSU’s College of Education and Health Professions have built the first phase of a courtyard for teaching science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) at Key Elementary School in Columbus. Volunteers improved the courtyard’s drainage and installed bird feeders, rain barrels and raised beds for planting,. The goal of the project is to use the schoolyard’s natural space as a context for learning STEM. Phase 1 lesson plans have been developed for each grade level and include bird identification. More improvements to the courtyard are slated for spring. Support

South Carolina-based Stevens Aerospace is opening a large-cabin aircraft operations facility at Macon’s Middle Georgia Regional Airport. The company is leasing a 48,000-square-foot hanger for operations that should begin in early 2019. Stevens’ $1-million investment in this expansion will create 150 jobs, especially in the field of aircraft maintenance, which is taught at nearby Middle Georgia State University and Central Georgia Technical College in Warner Robins. The company joins aircraft manufacturer Embraer, which performs commercial jet maintenance, as the regional airport’s newest additions. Learn more about Georgia’s growing aerospace industry in “Taking Off,” in our latest edition. Do you follow

Partnership Gwinnett, in collaboration with the Council for Quality Growth, recently bestowed its annual Regional Redevelopment Award on Marietta’s Franklin Gateway project. The award recognizes the revitalization of the Franklin Gateway corridor, which was previously a troubled area. The Atlanta United soccer team’s headquarters and training facility and the Franklin Gateway Sports complex are highlights of the redevelopment, which has helped increase property values in the area, reduce crime and attract new investment creating more than 2,600 jobs. A second Metro Atlanta IKEA store and a Drive Shack sports entertainment venue offering golf, dining and games are currently being added

The Georgia Center for Music Therapy, a private, Roswell-based music therapy practice, is expanding The Giving Tree Intergenerational Preschool Program to nine locations throughout the Metro Atlanta region. This award-winning music program incorporates singing, dancing and playing instruments to encourage interactions between local preschoolers and residents of memory care and assisted living centers. Common activities include youngsters and their grandfriends practicing Somewhere Over the Rainbow using sign language, accompanying a Frank Sinatra song with instruments and singing holiday classics. Preschoolers visit the seniors for 30-minute fun sessions. Each semester culminates in a performance by the kids and their grandfriends that

The University of Georgia (UGA) recently won a national award for helping to keep a local hospital open and improving healthcare services in the rural community. The National Award of Excellence was presented to UGA by the University Economic Development Association for work done by the Archway Partnership, a unit of UGA’s Division of Public Service and Outreach. In 2015, Taylor Regional Hospital in Hawkinsville was on the verge of closing its doors because it did not have enough funds to conduct the Affordable Care Act’s mandatory Community Needs Assessment. The Archway Partnership and UGA’s College of Public Health came