The Mathematics Resource Laboratory, also known as the Math Lab, has moved to the basement of the Physical Science Building, room 015.
It fills the former Purdue School of Technology location with a math corridor offering expanded math learning resources and classrooms for students.
The Purdue School of Technology vacated the Physical Science Building to move to Purdue’s new facility on Charleston Road in New Albany.
The Math Lab moved to their new location over the summer and now has the capacity to provide more math resources and extended hours to students.
The old Math Lab location occupied a single classroom on the first floor of the Life Science Building with restricted time availability. Students had to occasionally forfeit their space to classes requesting the room.
“The new location is dedicated to math,” Delaine Cochran, mathematics resource laboratory coordinator and senior lecturer of mathematics said.
The new Math Lab has tables and chairs designed to give students space for working out problems and working with others when studying, also providing computers loaded with math software.
Beside the Math Lab is a math classroom equipped with 30 computers. All computers are reserved for students seeking math help but if not used can be used as an open computer.
Other classrooms in the corridor offer new hands-on mathematical manipulative toys, used by elementary school math teachers to engage children in math.
Phillip Miller, senior lecturer of mathematics, said more classes will be offered in the math corridor in the spring to better familiarize students with the location.
The Math Lab is partially supported through the student technology fee, offering free math software, free math help and free private tutoring to students.
Miller and other instructors donate one hour or more per week to help students with their math questions and prepare for tests.
Cochran said the Math Lab is also staffed by seven student employees, work-study and paid positions that are either math majors or experienced upper-level math students.
“Last year only seven or eight students were math majors,” Cochran said. “More math students are becoming computer science majors, tailoring their studies to the market.”
The Math Lab is open and staffed on Fridays.
Cochran said they will monitor times and student usage to possibly extend hours into the weekend.
“There might be a greater need now that there are dorms,” Cochran said.
Fall semester hours for the Math Lab are on Mondays through Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
By LEAH TATE
Staff Writer
lmtate@ius.edu