Welcome to Our New Facilities

The Discovery Learning Research Center's (DLC) new building will provide creative, state-of-the-art learning, science, and project laboratories where experts in academia, industry and K-12 education can come together to perform educational research and development that will revolutionize learning for the future. The Center will be strategically positioned in Discovery Park to foster collaborations with other centers that are aimed at improving learning and application of new knowledge across a wide range of interdisciplinary themes.
Projects within the facility will explore novel technologies and pedagogies designed to enhance learning at all levels. Researchers will be able to reconfigure rooms to include learning pods of various sizes,  experiment with novel technologies, adjust breakout rooms and spaces, vary seating arrangements, and even alter acoustics or lighting. All learning and teaching spaces in the DLRC will be equipped to record video and sound to allow detailed investigations within each teaching environment, including areas beyond the classrooms. The DLRC will also include adaptable, open office space that will allow for greater flexibility in meeting the needs of each project from inception to completion.

For a description of each area, click on the links below: Experimental Learning Environments Learning Laboratories Project Laboratories Science Teaching Laboratory Educational Design Laboratory Office Facilities for Researchers Breakout Rooms/Gathering Areas/Learning Common Conference Rooms Video Control/Server Rooms

Downloads DLRC External Advisory Council with building construction     in the background, September 11, 2008. (JPG) DLRC Building Design Book (PDF) Groundbreaking: September 21, 2006, 10:00a.m. (PDF) Discovery Park Master Plan (PDF) Purdue University Campus Map (PDF) Anticipated Completion: August 2009

Experimental Learning Environments
The experimental learning environments will be flexible, creative, state-of-the-art spaces designed to meet the instructional needs of multidisciplinary initiatives. Typical DLRC projects will be 3-5 years in duration with 2-4 years of experimentation. It is estimated that 9 research projects will actively utilize the research laboratory spaces in a given semester. Individual projects may vary, with some using the Center's experimental space for an intensive study over a short time, (i.e., eight hours a day for two weeks) while others may use a more traditional class approach that meets three times per week for a semester. Depending on the nature of the study and the number of different studies running concurrently, learning spaces may need to be reconfigured daily, weekly, or once a semester.

Learning Laboratories
Modular flooring and wall systems will be able to support numerous seating configurations. The large learning research space is expected to accommodate up to 100 seats; the smaller ones will seat up to 36 students. Cameras, microphones, projection screens, television monitors, and lights are some of the equipment that can be mounted on an open grid ceiling structure. The two small learning laboratories will facilitate individual and small group, dry laboratory work.

Project Laboratory
This laboratory will provide the setting for research on teaching methodologies specific to student-faculty projects. The types of student projects undertaken in these facilities include engineering design projects in which groups of students build a bridge model or a Rube Goldberg machine or a long-term biochemistry project in which students isolate, purify, and identify a protein. This reconfigurable space will include sinks, drains, buss bars (power), and secure storage of supplies, chemicals, and other project laboratory equipment.

Science Teaching Laboratory
The research focus in this space will be on pedagogies that specifically address learning in the science laboratory. This lab will have great flexibility in order to facilitate exploration of learning environments across a variety of disciplines and interdisciplinary areas, such as biology, chemistry, earth science, physics, engineering, environmental science and biogeochemistry. Bench space and hoods will be located on the perimeter of the room with access to distilled water, gas and air lines, and sinks. Movable workstations with chemical-resistant surfaces and equipment will be arranged in a entral space. There will be a preparation room for chemicals, reagents, buffers, biological specimens, and other resources needed to support the educational experiences conducted in the lab along with an adjacent room for secure storage of glassware and chemicals.

Educational Design Laboratory
The educational design laboratory will be a resource area for the Center’s faculty and faculty from across campus. Resources available in this facility will reflect current state-of-the-art technology that is applicable to the design of instruction and instructional media, including on-line and distance education programs, interactive video, slide presentations, and other options. It may be utilized as a training/teaching area for pre-service and in-service teachers, visiting scholars, and others interested in learning and applying cutting-edge education design tools. The lab will have several high-end, 3-4 person, computer workstations with animation and editing capabilities along with the hardware and software to create and edit sophisticated instructional materials.

Office Facilities for Researchers
An adaptable, open office configuration will create common areas and allow for greater flexibility in the assignment of space for personnel including principal investigators, project coordinators, graduate assistants and visiting scholars. Project coordinator offices will be centrally located. Since principal investigators will have primary offices in their home departments, a shared-space arrangement will be provided for them when they are in the building. Locked storage will be available for personal items

Breakout Rooms/Gathering Areas/Learning Common
Collaborative teams will be able to meet in isolated small group spaces in the commons area on the first floor near the laboratories.

Potentially the lobby will become an educational public environment with informative and festive displays from posters, cases, graphics, movies, and live video feed on large flat panel screens to hands-on displays that vary in size from table top to large free-standing displays.

Conference Rooms
Small conference rooms will be located throughout the building for project teams and impromptu meetings. Larger conference rooms will be centrally located or near main entrances. The conference rooms will be wired for computer plug-ins and internet access, and will include smartboards for presentations and collaborative work.

Video Control/Server Rooms
These rooms will house the video control equipment and the servers for the entire facility. Space will be included to house temporary servers to support pilot projects. Some functions the equipment may perform include video and audio capture from each of the learning laboratory facilities and from the breakout rooms, video and audio duplication, creation of data archives, and video conferencing.

Please remember that the above description of spaces in the Discovery Learning Research Center building is subject to slight changes as construction progresses and plans must be revised.

* Picture from The Exponent, December 5, 2007. Rendering provided by John Collier, Director of Campus Planning. The DLRC is located in the left foreground.