CJ Day
Greg Brown, an associate dean for the College of Arts and Sciences, will present a year-end update on the progress of the University of Wyoming’s Science Initiative today.
The Science Initiative, which started in 2014 after then Governor Matt Mead created a task force to improve science education in UW, is progressing nicely, Brown said, despite a lack of budgetary support.
“We’re only operating at about 20% of our planned programmatic budget,” said Brown. “The programs are the core of this project.”
The initiative works to promote new programs designed to boost science engagement. Some, like the Wyoming Research Scholars Program, work to improve undergraduate’s learning, while others, like the Faculty Innovation Grant Program, seek to increase UW’s standing as a research university. In general, the programs are designed to make UW more competitive as a science-focused university.
“We’re really aiming to boost the stature of research here,” said Brown. “We already have programs that are in the top of their field, we just want to help make all the programs that good.”
One of those programs is the botany department, which Brown said is in the top one percent of all botany programs in America. The Rocky Mountain Herbarium is the third largest herbarium of its kind in the United States. In addition, the astronomy department brings in interested students from across the country and the UW-owned observatory at Jelm Mountain is a major draw.
“We’re already near the top of the field in these departments…the goal now is to help all the other science departments to get to that point,” said Brown.
A major addition which is coming in the next few years is designed to help that process along: the Science Initiative building, which is under construction on the corner of 9th and Lewis Street, next to Enzi STEM. Planned to be completed in late 2021 or early 2022, the building is designed in a way to maximise its usefulness to science instruction.
The building is designed as to make large-scale, active learning much easier to do. Rather than the usual introductory classes, where about 200 students are packed into a classroom and listen to a professor lecture, the new classrooms in the Science Initiative building will allow for more individualized instruction, with students working together in small groups. Brown said moving towards this style of teaching is crucial to the success of the initiative.
“Nobel Prize-winning educators have claimed that it’s morally wrong to not move to active learning education, that the benefits of this new style are too massive to not change over,” said Brown. “Right now, we just don’t have the spaces designed for this kind of teaching, but once the new building is finished, all that will change.”
The new building will feature state-of-the-art technology to help maximize learning, said Brown.
For example, the classrooms will be equipped with noise-cancelling technology that will help to minimize noise. Originally designed for Las Vegas casinos, this technology allows students at one table to talk at normal volumes without worrying that their voices will carry across the room.
In addition, the building will feature interdisciplinary lab space and advanced imaging equipment to help foster additional research. However, the building cannot be expected to solve all of UW’s problems.
“Technology is just a tool,” said Brown. “It’s a disaster when you have these new tools and strategies, and no one’s been trained to know how to use them properly.”
Training professors in active learning, and preparing for the new building, will be a major goal of the initiative moving forward. For this to happen, however, there needs to be a budget increase, which is why Brown will be speaking today.
“We’re really trying to sell this to the legislature. We need that increased funding,” said Brown.
The speech will be held in the basement of O’Dwyer’s at noon today. The public is invited to attend.
