About MEDL

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Residing in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech, the Modeling and Educational Demonstrations Laboratory (MEDL) is a curriculum materials center designed to foster new collaborative teaching and learning environments by producing, testing, and managing hands-on physical models combined with education technology for instructors and outreach coordinators.

Mission Statement: The mission of MEDL is to support the use of educational materials for the purpose of increasing and sustaining high-impact instructional capacity in both formal and informal STEM learning environments.

MEDL works synergistically with the Museum of Geosciences as well as other education and outreach support units in Virginia Tech.

Objectives

• Align instructional materials with learning environments and teaching goals by:

  • Producing and managing a diverse collection of hands-on instructional materials to fit a wide variety of contexts;

  • Developing infrastructure that allows for efficient access to hands-on instructional materials, as well as internal and external information resources; and

  • Assisting instructors in developing teaching strategies that best fit their students, setting, and available resources.

• Produce an environment designed to monitor and support interdisciplinary activities by developing and implementing the MEDL Circulation Guidelines and Procedures in addition to online user reviews of the instructional materials.

• Determine the infrastructure needs that allow for interdisciplinary activities by creating assessments that utilize the continuous circulation data, online user feedback, and teaching/learning assessments;

• Foster the multi-place experience of being a student by providing physical analog models with data-acquisition products.

• Become an invaluable resource within Virginia Tech for enabling sensor-rich environments that allow for multi-modal communication and feedback in learning/collaborative environments.

Keys to Success and Sustainability

• Organizational Capacity – Build organizational capacity by developing guidelines, procedures, and goals to create sustainable efforts and produce a long-lasting and successful future in both education and public outreach.

• Instructional Materials Inventory – Improve instructors’ direct access to effective instructional tools for STEM education by building and cataloging an inventory of hands-on instructional materials.

• Information Resources – Provide information services and instruction on the use of instructional materials available in our teaching collection to help produce high-quality teaching and learning environments.

• Streamline Physical Access to Instructional Materials – Strive to increase the efficiency, usability, and effectiveness of instructional support by streamlining the physical access to curriculum materials and providing set-up assistance at various support levels.

• Build Interdisciplinary Collaboration – Foster interdisciplinary collaboration by engaging, listening, and offering retooling of curriculum to multiple disciplines.

• Develop the Working Model of MEDL– Continuous development of the MEDL working model through collaboration with the goal of improving learning environments across educational institutions.

STATEMENT OF INNOVATION

MEDL provides an opportunity for interdepartmental sharing of instructional materials through its development of infrastructure and management of instructional materials across a broad range of disciplines. As MEDL grows, it will collaborate with other curriculum repositories on campus to provide instructors with greater access to instructional materials university-wide.

MEDL affords a hands-on multi-place experience for students in both physical and digital environments. Physical analog models bring systems in nature to the student through an analogical experience. Limited time and funding can often make it challenging to provide students with the field experience needed for preparing them for a career. Furthermore, many systems in nature are temporally and spatially challenging for humans to sense. Sensor-rich environments afford multimodal communication and feedback in learning/collaborative environments. Using sensors to gather data from physical analog models can make systems more accessible for students to explore without major costs and time commitments. Once a learner has collected data, they can use it to produce other representational modes, such as graphs, charts, or computational models.

Systems-based physical analog models have a unique quality of cross-cutting multiple areas of science education. The deep causal structure of these tools can be used to improve learner’s overall scientific understanding by aligning the perceptual with the conceptual, activating memory of fundamental concepts, and helping the learner identify and work through their cognitive dissonance.

a DESCRIPTION OF MEDL

The Modeling and Educational Demonstrations Laboratory (MEDL) is a facility specializing in researching, developing, and managing hands-on physical models and demonstrations for use in science education. In general, MEDL's overall objectives are to:

• Increasing teaching capacity by supplying instructional materials, such as physical analog models and education technology, to support active hands-on learning and visualization.

• Providing resources and support to reduce lesson preparation time.

• Actively developing MEDL to maintain alignment with educational standards and the needs of students and instructors.

Interdepartmental and interuniversity collaborations are a key feature of our strength and allow us to build sustainability by taking a diversified approach to building capacity and obtaining opportunities for growth.

SPONSORS

Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech

• Virginia Tech's Department of Geosciences focuses on research, education, and outreach dealing with the nature of the earth. Students and faculty investigate earth processes at scales that range from atomic to planetary. Their undergraduate program offers B.S. degrees with Geology, Geochemistry, Geophysics, and Earth Sciences Education options.

TLOS: Technology-enhanced Learning and Online Strategies

• "TLOS leverages an array of activities, services, and leadership in online programs and technology-enhanced learning to significantly benefit student learning with a range of high caliber, technology-enabled programs and activities. TLOS will collaborate with colleges and departments on advancing technology-enhanced learning by incentivizing and supporting highly effective distance learning programs, online content for on-campus courses, and hybrid courses."