What was once a simple dining venue at Michigan State University’s Hall of Wonders has turned into a hub for active learning and engagement to support student success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The newly renovated area includes the Engineering Student Innovation Center – a space dedicated to supporting the College of Engineering, the Engineering Cornerstone Experience and the Residential Experience, known as CoRe.
“This new space, like the STEM building we unveiled in September, is an investment in our future — not just as a university, but as a community,” said President Samuel Stanley Jr., MD. Infrastructure and help solve our most pressing problems. This space is an investment in our students that will prepare them to be world-class STEM professionals in the country’s fastest growing employment sector over the next decade.”
CoRe brings real-world experience and challenges to the classroom and residential environment, reinforcing the importance of studies in engineering to solve global challenges. The Engineering Student Innovation Center provides early-stage engineering students with a transformative opportunity to gain hands-on experience across many different engineering disciplines while incorporating ideas and work into lab-based projects and presentations. The space includes a 42-seat classroom, electrical lab, wet lab, machine tool lab, and assembly and testing area.
Theresa K. said: Woodruff, PhD, Dean and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, “For the second time this year, we can see a tangible embodiment of our values in a new learning space.” “Our mission is to give land around connecting people with vital knowledge that will improve their lives and improve our society. Seeing that mission realized in a beautiful new physical space is very exciting. This space reflects the collaboration of a wide range of experts to design a coherent vision of curriculum design, scholarly learning and agency the students “.
The renovation at Wonders Hall has also created three modern, technology-enhanced active learning classrooms with capacities ranging from 78-112. There are also informal gathering/study areas, six collaboration/team rooms (two of which are equipped as testing rooms), a personal sanitary room and one accessible/access toilet. During construction, the purpose of the former classrooms on the first floor was changed to become computer labs and a tutoring/adjunct space for the College of Engineering.
“Experience has shown that engaging students as early as possible in hands-on, lab-based activity prepares them for success as they enter the workforce,” said Tom Voys, associate dean and professor at the College of Engineering. It also gives them the opportunity to learn early in their academic journey, whether it’s a specific type of engineering or lab work that resonates with them. This has an impact on their academic success, happiness, mental health, and ability as cutting edge professionals.”
This new space will also function as a ‘space for creativity’, a place for free creativity and design thinking at work, across a range of engineering disciplines. Students will, for example, be able to explore water quality academically, on their own and in groups, use high-tech collaborative tools to design an experiment, go to the river to get a sample, process the sample on site, and use computer modeling to analyze and present their findings with state-of-the-art tools. Presentations, all in the same place.