Georgia State Alpharetta campus constructs first science labs

NEWS – The Signal Construction of the new science labs at Georgia State’s Alpharetta campus is set to be complete by spring 2018.
Photo by Lahar Samantarai | The Signal
Georgia State’s Alpharetta campus is constructing new science labs that are expected to be ready by January 2018.
For the past two years, the campus has been renting out a Fulton County high school for students taking chemistry and biology lab courses, which has created some obstacles for teachers and inconvenience for students.
“The arrangement we have with Fulton County and Chattahoochee High School has been phenomenal for our campus and allowed us to teach classes we otherwise wouldn’t be able to, but there are still challenges,” Jen Bon said, a lab supervisor at the Alpharetta campus.
But Bon said because of high school hours, university lab courses are only limited to evening hours, which often don’t work for students.
“Additionally there are some college level science labs that high schools don’t have the proper lab space or equipment to teach.  Organic chemistry labs and microbiology labs are two of the big ones that our students need to graduate that we can’t offer,” Bon said.
Tina Philpot, associate dean of Academic Services at the Alpharetta campus, said she feels very optimistic about the new addition to Alpharetta’s campus. She said she expects some positive impacts on the student population.
“I believe this will increase student attendance now, since [students] will no longer have to travel off campus,” Philpot said. “It will definitely be a positive.”
Besides the need for adequate lab equipment, another motive for building the new labs is to satisfy companies eager to get students with an understanding and capability to work in STEM fields, according to Paulos Yohannes, Associate Dean of Sciences. These new labs offer opportunities, which will benefit both the students and the companies seeking ...


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