I think best of all is the ability to reserve a study room using the electronic door kiosks, which allow for the library to easily update who and how the room is being used! Best of all, its very clear to anyone walking around when the room is in use and how long it will be used for. There were plenty of electrical outlets and lights for students to move around and use. Plus, lots and lots of modern art. Overall, it was
Well, because I'm not completely ruined from visiting all of the new science buildings across the East Coast as part of the planning for UK's new Academic Science Building, I feel as though I should comment on the awesomeness of the Mary Idema Pew Library at Grand Valley State University and its use of open space to provide students with informal learning opportunities. They had all sorts of nooks and crannies to study in, ranging from booths with white boards, to a built-in red sofa nook. There is even a nice outdoor garden on the roof if you'd like to study with some fresh air. Or how about the indoor/outdoor space that is in the middle of the third floor and open to the sky. I think best of all is the ability to reserve a study room using the electronic door kiosks, which allow for the library to easily update who and how the room is being used! Best of all, its very clear to anyone walking around when the room is in use and how long it will be used for. There were plenty of electrical outlets and lights for students to move around and use. Plus, lots and lots of modern art. Overall, it was
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Day three starts us off in Washington, DC, at Georgetown University. Apparently after the night in the hotel we stayed at, I wasn't the only one who ended up taking the bed apart to check for bedbugs! Thankfully, it appeared that there was nothing to worry about. Georgetown University was another one of my favorites from the trip. The Regents Hall had wonderful architecture that echoed the newer building across an open area as well as the brick features in the older building on the campus. Not only is art found within the beauty that are chemical structures and complexity of life, but also the amount of art that was created by experimenting and the study of science. I loved how Georgetown incorporated the two together and really echoed these thoughts by creating art that brought some of the science and beauty into the academic spaces alive. Then of course there was their shipping and receiving spaces. They were huge! You could drive a semi into them! And plenty of spaces around the building to store waste. Plus we got to see an actual clean room. Of course, the half we walked through they had down for repairs, but the other half was completely operational. Mind you, the clean "rooms" that I've seen are generally a small, plastic enclosed space. This one was a real room! Which had just the same equipment that you'd have in a normal lab. Their labs were fairly open onto the hallway. Most had lots of glass so anyone walking down the hall could look in and see what other students were doing. Or from my side, what my TA's were doing or not doing. I also loved that there were not rooms of long rows of lab benches. Instead, they had work spaces where groups of four students could work on a project and actually see one another and talk face-to-face, without cabinetry getting in the way! That really got my mind going about setting up labs which were project-based and data sets that involve more than just cookbook style labs. They also had really cool open spaces. Lots and lots of informal study spaces, places to eat a snack or lunch or just hang out until class. Definitely not some of the older chemistry buildings I'm accustomed to! Who knew you could do science, teach science, enjoy science in a building that had windows, sunlight, and places to sit! Then, once we were done looking at the science building, we went over to explore the cone-shaped building that was their business building. Again, great open spaces! Light! And a huge performance/lecture hall complete with a Green Room. What lecture instructor needs a Green Room? John Hopkins's new building wasn't quiet open yet when we arrived, however. Their new facility was amazing though. You come into a huge center waiting area complete with rocking chairs and a grab-n-go snack area. Then move into the lab side of the building, where the General Chemistry labs had full floor to ceiling windows that opened onto a tree-filled park. Students walking outside could see in and wave at the students working right at the bench! The benches were very simple, with only a small lighting and gases flowing to the bench. They did allow stools, but I'm not a fan of stools. They get left out and I end up tripping on them. We also saw their organic labs, which had whiteboards on the exposed end of the fume hood. That way, when a student had a question, the TA didn't have to walk back to the front of the room to use a whiteboard to explain a reaction or resort to the favorite of writing on the glass of the hood. The underground library at John Hopkins was another favorite of mine. While I never saw a book while we were there, they had great open study spaces, complete with a tv/monitor for students to use for group study and USB/electrical charging stations in the small storage lockers available for use. Need a whiteboard while sitting in the comfy chairs? No problem, just roll a small one over. Need a small private area for group work? No problem, you can either go to a glass-enclosed room or sit at one of the small tables! Don't forget, there's still spaces for your professor to reserve an interactive classroom. At the end our of tour, we rearrange cars and pile into one SUV, as the Dean was headed off to a fundraiser in some other part of the country. The rest of us spent the rest of the day driving up to State College, PA for our tour the next day of Penn State. At least, we are almost up to slowing down on the trip. Almost. We have a long drive ahead of us! Dinner that nice was a a place called Bricco in Harrisburg, PA. It specialized in Mediterranean and Italian fare. At least that's something for everyone. I had grilled lamb chop with kale and a beer. After dinner, we were off again to finish our drive to State College and send the night at a Hampton Inn. Day Two put us on to Boston University, the first super-urban university we looked at. The others had plenty of room to spread out and build new buildings. BU remodeled an old building into a modern one. The opened up spaces that had been previously included and added lots of technology into their "large" lecture room. While the room looked small, it supposedly held nearly 200 people. Even better from out standpoint, the lecture hall offered a snorkel fume hood so instructors could do live demonstrations. Boston University was the first to have a Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) room. These rooms are exciting, simply because you can have students working on individual data sets in their groups, then bring the class together to discuss the individual sets as a whole. You can broadcast on all the screens either the same image or different ones, depending on how the instructor wants to lead a discussion. Bridgewater State University was one of my favorite universities we visited. The facilities were clean and offered a vastly different idea of what teaching spaces can be. The lower level opened into an indoor/outdoor space that incorporated the same green space into the interior of the building. The building was bright, clean, well organized. Every teaching lab offered views from the hallways into the lab, which from my point of view would make supervising TA's easier. This way, anyone walking down the hall could see if the TA was acting appropriately. Even more importantly, the open study spaces were located near the teaching spaces, allowing students a place to go when they are waiting on classes. These spaces even had white boards for students to use for study. Within the classrooms, the outdoors were brought in through the use of windows both to the outside and to the hallway. Don't worry though, there were plenty of shades to dim the lights so the projectors could be used. For the labs, equipment was stored on easy to see shelves, with extras stored within the lab space. Students could work easily in groups around a table of four, instead of down long rows meant for individual work. Did I mention they have a big Green Chemistry program? All the labs (lower level and upper level) were designed around the principles of green chemistry, so their spaces were designed to not need to dispose of dangerous chemicals either though waste disposal or out fume hoods. I also loved that the roof was used as a sustainable rain garden to help collect water that was then used to support the plants growing on the property. Plus, they had solar panels to augment the electricity used in heating and cooling the facility. That takes some serious support by the administration to bring a building up to those kind of standards. Like most of the buildings we visited, there were some pretty cool views. It's a shame that the location for our new academic science building isn't going to have such awesome landscapes to look at. Just the UK Chandler hospital or the parking garage. Hopefully we'll see some fancy landscaping to make up for it. So, I'm a chemist and an educator. My world revolves around improving the experience of students in a General Chemistry Lab. This trip, while not full of scenic drives, wonderful city-scapes, or once-in-a-lifetime adventures, was a lot of fun and full of good memories. The point of the trip was to look at new teaching and research labs. I haven't spent a lot of time in new ones. Most of the science buildings I've been in were built in the 60's. Not exactly what one wants to reflect when building a new science building. So I got invited to join the College Dean, the Chair of Biology, and some other space and facilities people along with a couple of architect firms to look at buildings along the East Coast. It turns out, the trip was 8 university in 5 days. Most days, that meant looking at one university, traveling across a state to look at another before catching a flight to another city to repeat the process the next day. Day One began in Amherst, MA, with UMass Amherst's Integrated Science Building. The building was kinda cool. Lot's of natural light streaming into the building for the girl who works in the basement where windows are unheard of. Ownership of the building was obvious. The people who worked in the space wanted to show us around and let us see some of the neat features of the building. Like hidden storage! They wanted to take advantage of any space their could to add storage. Personally, I liked the flasks under the sink in an open access storage and the sliding whiteboards in front of the windows. When we were done there, we had lunch at Amherst College, in their new Natural History Museum building. I was a little disappointed that we couldn't go into the History Museum and look at the fossils, but I survived by having a wonderful sandwich brought in from The Black Sheep. I think I ended up with The Green Monster, which has Grilled chicken, Basil Pesto, Lettuce, Tomatoes, & Roasted Red Peppers on a Baguette. After lunch, we piled into the car again and caravan-ed to Brandeis University, right outside of Boston, in Waltham. This school ended up setting a standard for us. Sadly, it wasn't for positive things. The building seemed to have no ownership. It wasn't as clean as UMass Amherst, and while there was no food or drink in the lab spaces, it was all over the hall. We even walked pass a slice of pizza someone had set on a little ledge before going it. It make everyone want to run their finger over it. These researchers definitely needed a place to eat and someone to clean up after them. They did have some nice hidden storage behind the whiteboard that I liked. Assuming we can put some glassware back there and convince the TAs that they can get it out. Overall, we just didn't like the building. At least the view from the roof was nice! Tonight we ended with the Courtyard by Marriott Boston Waltham.
For once, leaving Lexington actually occurred reasonably on time. We only had a couple minutes of a delay before easily flying off to Detroit then onto Hartford, CT to wait for the rest of the group. Sadly, our flight out of Detroit was delayed, which put us into Hartford about an hour late and just enough time to meet everyone, even though we were supposed to arrive an hour before them! Escaping from the airport was easy. The Dean traveled enough that he has Executive Privileges with Enterprise and we walked out to the car, through our stuff in the trunk and drove off. Nothing like feeling like your stealing a car with the Dean of the College! We then drove off to Amherst, MA, to find our first of many, many hotels during the week and some dinner. I joined part of the other half of our traveling group who came out earlier in the day and enjoyed dinner at Judie's Restaurant and the largest pop-over I'd ever seen! I know I'm usually fast with the cell phone pic, but this time I passed it up. Honestly, I'm pretty sad about that, because it was definitely worth sharing with others! For some unknown reason, hotel rooms fascinate me. I see the weirdest stuff in them! Our first night we stayed at Courtyard by Marriott Hadley Amherst, which had an interesting tolette that was both in English and French. Off to bed for a busy day tomorrow and touring two universities' science buildings! |
AuthorI'm a chemist turned Academic Coordinator at the University of Kentucky. I love to traveling, gardening, and photography. With my dog Jake, we try to enjoy life however its thrown at us. Archives
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