Augustana complex to spark research

The largest, most complex building project in Augustana College’s 154-year history has begun, bringing the dawn of what officials there call a new day in research and student learning on the campus.

The trees have been removed near the corner of 33rd Street and Summit Avenue. In about three weeks, after the soil has settled, foundation work will start in earnest on a $35 million effort to expand, renovate and transform the Gilbert Science Center, home to the school’s natural science programs.

When it’s done in July 2016, it will have a new name — the Froiland Science Complex, in honor of longtime biology professor Sven Froiland, who was a champion of research at the school — though Gilbert will remain as the name of the complex’s west wing.

But just as important is the transformative nature of a 41,000-square-foot addition and a total renovation of the existing building. The days of professors lecturing at the front of classrooms and labs are ending, Augustana officials say. In their place will be glass-enclosed labs and “classatories” that combine classrooms and laboratories.

“The shift will be significant,” said Eric Wells, an associate professor of physics who has worked on the building’s design. “We’re going to have research bays that are very similar to what you find in any professional research organization.

“And the teaching labs, like the microbiology teaching lab, are set up like that, too. You have an area for instruction in the front, but then you just step right on back into a lab setup that’s got a bench just like you would find at Sanford or Johns Hopkins or wherever.”

Wells said the idea of the complex’s design is to get away from instructor-centered teaching methods and toward more use of hands-on learning, what he called an “active-learning philosophy.” There will be a heavy reliance on technology with that, as well.

So for example, if he is teaching something in physics or astronomy, he might have groups of students doing simulations at work stations. As he monitors that work on a computer screen, he can freeze images, push them over to students’ computers and then offer instruction on what is being done that is either right or wrong.

“There are a lot of things you can do with instruction that are difficult to do now since the old classrooms were designed to be front-facing, looking at the instructor. That’s what you did in 1966” when the current complex was built, Wells said.

In areas such as physics, chemistry, biology, exercise science and more, instead of scheduling two days of lectures and one day of lab each week, “you just do a mix of both all the time,” he said. “This allows you to flow back and forth between different things. There’s good evidence that there is increased learning outcomes when you can do these sorts of things.”

Along with enhanced student learning, the new complex should greatly bolster the school’s research opportunities, said Susan Hasseler, senior vice president of academic affairs. The college now generates about $4.3 million in external research grants a year, much of it from organizations such as the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, she said.

President Rob Oliver wouldn’t offer a specific dollar amount for research goals, but he said he “would like to triple” that $4.3 million figure under the school’s strategic plan, which is being prepared for final approval.

What’s interesting about Augustana’s research work is that it almost all involves undergraduate students. At larger universities with graduate-level programs, undergraduates would be low men and women on the research pole.

“But we have 60 to 80 undergraduate students working on research projects every summer,” Wells said. “That is a significant number even compared to some of our national liberal arts competitors. And we do high-level research that is published in frontline journals with undergraduate students.”

One feature of the new labs is the glass enclosures. Part of the reasoning for that is “science is quite interesting to see,” Hasseler said, whether it’s other students just wanting to peek in or younger children in the building for, say, a summer outreach program.

Oliver said financing for the building will come in part from the Momentum Augustana capital campaign that has raised $120 million since it began in 2007. Included in that campaign was a $20 million gift from Sanford Health, some of which will go to the Froiland complex.

In many ways, Sanford’s gift acknowledges Augustana’s role in preparing future nurses, physicians and other health care providers for the regional job market, Hasseler and Wells said. It’s also a nod to the research Augustana’s undergraduates do and the potential for them to become scientists and researchers for health care and other industries in the area.

“Some of Sanford’s interest, I suspect, is it’s going to be better for them down the road if you can grow your own and keep them in the region rather than recruit them from the outside,” Wells said.

Whatever the reason, it’s clear that the demand for natural science graduates in the area is growing, Hasseler said. That group represents 36 percent of all majors at Augustana, an increase of almost 10 percent from a decade ago.

That’s a reflection of an increased demand for science professionals in health care and other industries in the region, she said. It’s a reflection as well, she added, of a growing interest in those fields among high school students.

The new science complex will help meet those demands and interests, Wells and Hasseler said. And it’s going to do it in 21st century ways, from the high fidelity nursing simulation center that is going in to a new state-of-the-art exercise science lab — even a proposed K-12 science, technology, engineering and math pedagogy center that will help current and future teachers get even better at their professions.

“The faculty here at Augustana are always looking for new ways to serve their students. This complex is going to help us do that,” Wells said. “It’s going to be fun.”