The new Active Learning Lab in the Biological Sciences building
When students enter the Active Learning Lab on the third floor of the Biological Sciences Center on the St. Paul campus, their reaction is gleeful. The bright, open space draws delight. The new lab contrasts in ways big and small from a typical teaching lab with benches of varying heights for greater accessibility and flexible spaces for discussion and reflection.
The College set out to create a lab for students that would encourage the kind of informal collaboration that underpins research innovation. With that goal in mind, walls started to come down in more sense than one.
“This space has been years in the making and we’re thrilled that it’s finally up and running,” says CBS Dean Valery Forbes. “It’s a truly unique space designed to fuel collaboration and creativity. It provides students with everything they need to design and execute their own experiments. We know from experience in our active-learning classrooms that letting students take the lead results in better learning outcomes.”
The Active Learning Lab will serve hundreds of students each semester, giving them access to the equipment they need to carry out all kinds of experiments. The lab represents a leap forward in providing all College of Biological Sciences students with an authentic research experience driven by their own curiosity.
“When students are immersed in the scientific process and participating in every aspect of it, we describe that as an ‘authentic’ research experience,” says Forbes. “We think this is important because students learn better by doing science rather than following a prescribed set of predefined steps as is typical in laboratory courses. Gaining authentic research experience is a hallmark of the CBS undergraduate experience and something that is hugely beneficial to our students.”
A group of students collaborates in the Active Learning Lab lounge (left) and a student pours liquid into petri dishes (right).