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CHARLOTTE--A group of parents is making science come to life for students at a Charlotte elementary school.

With the help of a grant and donation, the school leadership team and volunteers created a science lab out of a vacant mobile classroom at Beverly Woods Elementary school. Science teacher Marni Cartiff said this homemade science lab is changing the way her students learn. Through endless amounts of hands-on interaction with materials and applications of concepts learned in the classroom, students are beginning to think about science on an entirely new level.

“Instead of sitting in our classroom and looking at textbooks and doing tests, it gives us the time to actually test out what we're learning,” said Andrew Davis, 4th-grader.

Parents like Kym Furney foresaw the potential in the project and took action. Furney spent the entire summer applying for grants, building cabinets, collecting donations to buy supplies and convert the once vacant mobile classroom into an engaging science lab.

Furney, who works in the science field, expects the lab to open up new possibilities.

“If we expose them to it this way, in a fun way, it makes them think about something for the future, maybe I'm going to have a career in science,” said Furney.

As schools across the state face deep budget cuts, parents and teachers say students could start to rely on this type of grassroots effort to further academic skills.