Flexibility in teaching lab design
Michigan State University, STEM Complex, Organic Chemistry Lab
This Organic Chemistry teaching lab at Michigan State University, located in their new STEM complex, features a flexible overhead grid system that provides adjustable locations for service drops, permitting the complete reconfiguration of all of the lab benches and student tables.
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- Design for discovery
Flexibility in the design of teaching labs supports the inevitable changes that occur over the life of the building, including changes in technology, instrumentation, and teaching pedagogy. Lab flexibility also serves the larger goals of sustainability and reduced carbon, as renovations can occur without demolition and new construction.
In teaching labs, flexibility helps to create a dynamic learning environment that empowers faculty to adjust learning modalities and allows students to shape their environment to better serve their particular needs. Flexibility can be provided by a variety of approaches, from overhead service racks like those used in a recent engineering building at University of Maine or a complete overhead service system that can locate an array of infrastructure services through movable vertical service drops, such as at Michigan State University’s STEM Complex.
Use of mobile tables instead of fixed benches allows the easy reconfiguration of a space to support different learning environments as well as different disciplines.
University of Maine, Ferland Engineering Education and Design Center, Student Project Lab
The Student Project Lab in the Ferland Engineering Education and Design Center at the University of Maine features movable tables and an overhead service grid.
Michigan State University, STEM Complex, Organic Chemistry Lab
The diagram (above, left) and the Chemistry teaching lab (right) illustrate the overhead grid system utilized at the STEM Complex at Michigan State University. The system combines movable student tables with an overhead service grid that has movable vertical drops that provide all electrical, vacuum, and gas services. Fume hoods, sinks, and fixed equipment are located at the room’s perimeter. The student tables and under-table storage are all re-configurable. The animation below illustrates this service grid system in operation.
