The Biology Building is part of the Science Complex, a quadrangle of buildings that house Math, Chemistry, Physics, and the office of the Dean of Science. Our research-based teaching and learning facilities rival those of much larger universities. The difference? Our modern labs and state-of-the-art instrumentation are fully accessible to undergraduates as teaching tools in research-intensive courses and as investigative tools in mentored research experiences.
Biology boasts 75,000 sq ft of space distributed over three floors and features large, state-of-the-art teaching labs. Each teaching lab serves six lab groups of four students. In the middle of the room, each lab group has a large work table, while around the perimeter of the room, each group has a “mini-lab” to conduct experiments or computer exercises. Each mini-lab includes a computer linked with the instructor’s computer at the front of the classroom and the campus network. Each teaching lab has a complete multimedia teaching system and its prep room.
Each faculty member has a research lab accommodating up to seven independent study students. Throughout the building, there are instrumentation labs. The molecular biology facilities include an instrumentation lab, a cold room, a wet darkroom for developing radiographs, and a dry darkroom for image analysis of gels and blots; instruments include thermocyclers, DNA sequencer, real-time PCR, NanoDrop, and electroporator. The analytical instrumentation room houses twelve spectrophotometers and a plate reader. The microscopy center includes TEM, SEM, confocal and fluorescence research light microscopes, two photographic darkrooms, image analysis, and digital photographic production capabilities. Other instrumentation labs include a tissue culture facility, centralized dishwashing and autoclave, radio-isotope facility with gamma counter and scintillation counter, animal rooms, aquatic rooms, a complete greenhouse with computerized climate control, and three walk-in environmental chambers.
The entire building is served by a centralized system that delivers deionized water to taps in each lab. There are networked computers in every room, and each classroom is equipped with a multimedia teaching system. At the hub of each floor is a Student Commons to facilitate interaction among students and faculty. Each Commons area includes work tables, computer interfaces, and informal lounge seating; the second-floor Commons also includes a group-study room and a computer lab. Computer labs in the Biology Building