Renovation project reaches halfway mark

Karen C. Tully Arizona Daily Wildcat Media technician Scott Waverly experiments with the new integrated teaching computer in the renovated Social Sciences Room 100. The auditorium now has a system with three video projectors along with a 2,500 watt stereo, VCR, laser disc, dual cassette deck and a big screen.

The entire project, which will cost $10 million and remodel 31 classrooms, is about halfway complete, said Mike Ureöntilde;a, media technician supervisor. The total cost for improving Social Sciences 100 was $500,000, he said.

"Five years ago they (the classrooms) were very bad. The University of Arizona did not focus infrastructure processes on undergraduates. Three years into the process we are halfway done and all renovated rooms are as good as or better than any," Ureöntilde;a said.

He said Social Sciences 100 is perhaps the busiest lecture hall on campus.

"It does more work than most buildings do. That is why we spent so much money and put so much technology in there," he said.

Stephen Wright, who teaches Physiology 201 in the refurbished lecture hall, said the improvements are impressive.

"Right off the bat it is physically a better room; it feels like a lecture room instead of a barn," Wright said.

Instructors can place almost anything on a new digital overhead projector, which then reproduces the image on a visual board more than 25 feet across, he said.

In addition, any digitally displayed information can be stored onto hard drives, and there are plans in the works to make that information available on the Internet.

"Usually in 600-member classrooms you lose the personal experience. One way this is better is that the board at the front of the room can save what has happened during class. We are working to be able to post it on the Web," Ureöntilde;a said.

Instead of a blackboard, the room uses a "virtual writing surface," which the instructor writes on with a computerized pen. The images are again reproduced on a large screen.

The new facility allows for seamless presentation of various media, Ureöntilde;a said.

However, presentations are not yet seamless because instructors still need to learn how to operate all of the new equipment.

"It's getting better every day," Wright said.

The new classroom represents a "brave new world in teaching," said Professor William Montfort, who teaches a Biochemistry 462 class in the hall.

"I'm trying to make use of all the bells and whistles. I think it is going to be a better way to teach a large group of people," Montfort said.

The design of the room kept instructors and students in mind and it has paid off, Montfort said.

Ureöntilde;a said similar improvements are going to be made to Modern Languages 350 and Economics 110 and 111.

Despite steps forward on building maintenance, there is still plenty to be done.

"There are still places we need to do. Our campus is 100 years old," he said.