The additional space also includes four up-to-date, ICUlevel care simulation rooms that will be used to simulate adult critical and chronic diseases, infant illnesses and emergencies, and childbirth.“ We have the capacity now to give students the best environment to practice what they’ re learning. Here, they can make a mistake and not hurt anybody, and they can go back and correct the mistake,” Geiger-Brown explains.“ This allows the students to develop confidence and competence in their critical-thinking skills— they go beyond learning tasks to thinking like nurses.”
Medical laboratory science students will benefit from a new microbiology lab where they can focus on identifying organisms that cause disease. This, she says, will prepare them to more immediately contribute to their first jobs after graduation.
“ All medical laboratory science and nursing students take anatomy and physiology, and the new teaching area supports what students need to learn in these subject areas,” Geiger- Brown adds.“ I think that when students look at the facility, they’ ll see that it’ s a place of active learning, a place where they can be fully immersed in the life of a healthcare professional.”
For the School of the Sciences, Dean Meredith Durmowicz, Ph. D., foresees much of the same.“ First and foremost, the Center has so much more space, particularly dedicated space for independent research and active learning,” she says.“ We’ ve had a research-rich culture for some time now, and we’ re going to be able to do that in a nicer space with the opportunity
to do more and different types of research throughout our curriculum.” One example she cites is cell culture research.“ Faculty who already conduct this research will have more and better support, and faculty who don’ t now have the capacity to pursue their research in whatever direction it takes them.”
Two other programs in the School that will further flourish are environmental science and biochemistry. Environmental science has a research and teaching lab that it previously lacked as well as a freestanding green house, and biochemistry now has a dedicated teaching lab.
“ Having these spaces is great,” Durmowicz says.“ We’ re not trying to fit these programs into other spaces that are not designed for them.”
One particularly welcome new feature is the SoLVE Center, an innovative academic support program focused on developing students’ relational and problem-solving skills.“ The SoLVE Center allows students to take information learned in a chemistry or math course, for instance, and apply it to realworld problems,” she says.“ It’ s a different way of approaching academic support and teaching and learning and it helps our students retain the information better. It keeps their interest: They’ re learning without knowing they’ re learning.”
Although the School of Design has been on the Owings Mills North campus since 2013, Dean Amanda Hostalka, M. F. A., believes that the additional spaces in the Academic Center will enable the School to more fully realize its vision of
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