NEWINGTON - Against one wall of the room is a full-sized skeleton that stands next to a propped up ambulance stretcher.

       X-ray machines run along the walls, and arms--don’t worry, not real ones--lie hooked to I.V.’s on each of the room’s tables. Just a few months ago, it was a defunct wood and metal shop space at the back of Newington’s Martin Kellogg Middle School and, five years ago, just an idea.

       â€�"I wanted to do this five years ago,” said Newington Superintendent of Schools Bill Collins. â€�"What I had was a metal shop that was shut down, the facility was decayed, and not useful. But we were right in the middle of a recession. It’s good to finally be here.”

       â€�"Here” is the Martin Kellogg Middle School biomedical science STEM academy and last Tuesday was its ribbon cutting and open house, attended by enrolled students and their parents, as well as Board of Education members, the project’s construction contractors, state Sen. Paul Doyle, and Newington Deputy Mayor Clarke Castelle, amongst others. The academy’s first class, 25 seventh-graders, donned lab coats and went to work the next day.

       They’ll take courses in other areas in the mornings from 8 to 10 a.m. and, after that, it’s all STEM, Collins said. And they’ll have some insight. About a month ago Collins announced the district’s partnership with professionals from Jackson Labs. The corporate cancer research nonprofit is opening a branch in Farmington this October and Walter Nakonechny will be splitting time between his work there and guiding the bioscience curriculum in Newington.

       â€�"Our whole quest [at Jackson Labs] is to find cures on personalized medicine,” Nakonechny told a hallway full of students, parents, and officials outside the lab space. â€�"We don’t just treat cancer--we treat your cancer. Our goals [at Martin Kellogg] are so they can be educated about the medicine they’ll be receiving in the future, to educate future leadership--because these kids are our future leaders--and our future scientists.”

       Jen Freese, the program leader at the Martin Kellogg STEM Academy, was brought in from UConn around the time the district was scoping its facilities in order to emulate its set up, Collins said. Freese will be introducing students to everything from biomedical innovations to veterinary medicine.

       â€�"By the time they leave, they’ll have explored eight different careers in the biomedical fields,” Freese told the group inside the lab space.

       She pointed to the arms--again, not real, but pretty close.

       â€�"We have simulated blood that will be pumped into the I.V. bags,” Freese said. â€�"Inside the arms are artificial veins.”

       On one of the tables are a couple of stuffed animal dogs.

       â€�"There were a lot of kids, when I sent around to all the classrooms, who expressed interest in veterinary medicine,” Freese said.

       Students will learn about taking blood in those courses as well. The skills covered will also include muzzling a dog, according to Freese.

       Then there’s biomedical innovations, in which students work in teams to develop a new surgical tool for unclogging an artery.

       â€�"They’ll go through each step of the engineering process,” Freese said. â€�"So they’re getting ready for the 21st century and thinking critically.”

       Renovating the former shop space cost the district $571,732--a value engineering driven reduction from the $624,342 bid that had put the project budget over its original $550,000. One of the factors driving the cost down was the elimination of movable partition walls, which will be added in time to accommodate 25 seventh-graders and 25 eighth-graders next year, Collins said.

       â€�"Next year we’ll have dividing walls,” he said. â€�"We’ll be able to make it into one room, two rooms, or three rooms. We didn’t do it this year because we didn’t need it.”