VT College of Science Magazine Spring 2011 | Page 6

Issue No.10 sPRING 2011

C o l l e g e

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S C i e n C e

M a g a z i n e

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SCALEClaSSRooM DeSign PRoMoTeS neW WaY
of TeaCHing anD leaRning
By Catherine Doss

As one of its forward-thinking initiatives to address the shortfalls in STEM education, the College of Science implemented a specially designed classroom last fall that enabled highly collaborative, hands-on, interactive learning in
what was traditionally a lecture-style class.
The classroom project, called Student-Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs
(SCALE-UP), was designed by Robert Beichner, American Council on Education Fellow at Virginia Tech and visiting
professor in the Department of Physics. Beichner’s project started as a way to decrease failure rates in his introductory
physics classes at North Carolina State University. The project was so successful that other schools began using the
same classroom design also with positive results. Now more than 100 universities are using the SCALE-UP concept
around the world.
“The classroom is carefully designed to facilitate interactions between students
as well as between students and faculty members,” Beichner said.
Research has shown that recent college graduates place
a tremendous amount of importance on the quality
of the relationships they had with each other and
their professors.
“This classroom design is set up specifically
to facilitate that interaction,” he said. “The
most important technology in the room is
the tables.”
At first glance, a SCALE-UP classroom might
look like a restaurant. It consists of an open
space with 7-foot circular tables arranged
casually around the room, each table seating nine
students. That is where the similarities end. Each tab