East Lansing’s MSU to Break Ground on $100M STEM Teaching and Learning Facility

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Michigan State University in East Lansing Friday announced it will break ground on a $100-million STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) Teaching and Learning Facility.

The new structure will include teaching laboratories that are expected to foster cross-disciplinary teaching and learning and support developing and evolving changes in curriculum and its delivery. The facility will be constructed on both ends of the former Shaw Lane Power Plant, which is being renovated into a connecting student commons and gallery. The power plant will include a student help center and studio space.

Located at Red Cedar Road and Shaw Lane, the 117,000-square-foot STEM facility will house undergraduate teaching laboratories, project laboratories, and breakout space that will be able to support gateway courses for biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, physics, and engineering.

The STEM facility will cost about $72.5 million, and power plant renovation will cost about $25 million. They are funded separately but considered one project that is expected to be completed in fall 2020.

“The new state-of-the-art STEM Teaching and Learning Facility will be one more reason why students should choose to study at MSU,” says John Engler, interim president of MSU. “This amazing new facility will not only leverage the research being conducted at MSU on STEM teaching and learning, but also will facilitate scientific interactions at the undergraduate student level and enhance the university’s ability to successfully compete for and retain talented students.”

A groundbreaking is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 31.

The project began in October 2015 when the board of trustees authorized planning for the Strategic Academic Development Initiative, which is a framework to continue investments supporting student success and aligning with state and national priorities to graduate more students in STEM-related fields. During the past 10 years, enrolled credit hours in STEM-related courses at MSU have increased by nearly 40 percent.