There is a bustle of activity in the former carpentry and metalwork workshops on the ground floor of Building A03. Seated at 64 workstations, first-semester medical students peer intently through the eyepieces, searching the specimens for squamous, cuboidal and columnar epithelial cells. Following the refurbishment, modern microscopes now sit on the tables in two of the three newly refurbished rooms, replacing heavy tools; rather than being dedicated to craftsmanship, this area is now devoted to histology. A large partition in the middle has been pushed aside, so that the two rooms – which are almost identical in layout – merge into one large microscopy theatre for this session.
What makes it special is that each of the 16 tables, seating four students each, has a monitor onto which the image from any of the microscopes can be projected. This allows students to view the specimens together with their fellow students and lecturers and discuss them. The image could also be sent to a large projection screen behind the lecturers’ desk. At the moment, however, Professor of Anatomy Dr Anja Bräuer has this screen firmly under her control. Using a small, portable control unit, she controls which slide is displayed there.
More space for the growing medical degree programme
“This is one of the most modern histology theatres in Germany,” says the scientist enthusiastically. Dean of Studies Prof. Dr Karsten Witt, who is on site to get a first-hand impression of the first session in the new premises, praises the “brilliant combination of traditional microscopy and state-of-the-art technology”. Thanks to the partition wall that can be opened, the room offers sufficient space for the increased number of medical students starting in the winter semester.
A key consideration in the design of the rooms was ensuring they could be used as flexibly as possible for various teaching sessions, even beyond the field of medicine – not just as a microscopy laboratory, but also as a multifunctional seminar or laboratory room. This is because, amongst other things, the former workshops are also the new ‘home’ of the Oldenburg Teaching and Learning Rooms (OLELA). Here, teacher-training students meet school pupils in subject-specific teaching seminars and learn from one another. For the students, the OLELA offer the opportunity to test and further develop teaching and learning sequences without having to manage an entire school class at the same time. The young guests from the schools learn fascinating things about, for example, physics, ethics, textiles and chemistry.
Different groups have different needs
To ensure that the three adjacent rooms – which together cover around 340 square metres – meet the needs of these very different groups, Ajana Milanovic, a civil engineer from Division 4, and her team have come up with a whole host of ideas. For the two microscopy rooms, for example, she designed a cabinet system which was built by the university’s joinery workshop. The expensive microscopes are safely stored and locked away in drawers when not in use. She even thought of a drawer within a drawer: this is where the specimens for the histology courses are kept.
Despite the numerous electrical sockets, the group tables can be moved so that they can be pushed together to form larger units or moved to one side when students are trying out new teaching methods in the teaching and learning space. To ensure that primary school pupils’ feet do not dangle in the air, the new rooms are fitted with special chairs: not only is the seat height-adjustable, but so is the ring-shaped footrest.
Workstations in the library have been upgraded
In the third and smallest room, power and HDMI sockets are fitted to arms that fold down from the ceiling. This enables an open-plan layout and even allows for experiments with water, as there are no pipes laid in the floor. Modern media technology is also in place. A large monitor at the far end of the room serves as both a smartboard and a projection screen. Students who connect their laptop to one of the technical arms on the ceiling can project their screen onto it. All it takes is the press of a button on a touchpad recessed into the wall.
Over the past few months, construction and renovation work has also been carried out at several other locations on the campus. Work such as replacing windows, installing LED lighting or carrying out fire safety refurbishments is important, but often not immediately visible. For example, although extensive electrical work in the library took almost a year and a half: the power supply to the group workstations was renewed on all four floors. After all, when the building was constructed in the 1970s, it was not yet foreseeable that, 50 years later, hardly anyone would be working there without their own computer.
New floor for A07 is complete
Staff in the Department of Psychology are particularly pleased that the extension of the A07 building above their heads is finally complete. The west wing has gained a new floor. After a year of construction, more than 600 square metres of new office space is now available, shared by Division 3 and School V - School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Outside the campus, opposite the Botanical Garden on Philosophenweg, a major construction project is also in its final stages. In two former buildings of the State Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety, new laboratories and associated offices provide the necessary space for the research groups in General and Visceral Surgery, Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, and Gastroenterology. The laboratories of the University Institute for Medical Microbiology and Virology moved into these premises last year.
