The study of soil science and its relationship to crop production, environmental quality, and ecosystem health and sustainability is a fundamental building block for all students in majors ranging from crop sciences, natural resources and environmental sciences, civil engineering, agricultural education, and animal sciences to ecology, geology, geography, and more.
Turner Hall was built on the Illinois campus in 1962. Within the building was a then state-of-the-art soils teaching laboratory. Since 1962, more than 5,000 students have used the Soils Lab, along with many faculty of national and world renown.
Today, over 45 years later, students enter the same 1960s vintage Soils Lab, which lacks any updates that 21st century technology could provide. The current condition of the laboratory suggests to our students that soil science and agricultural science have no support and no future.
The College of ACES has launched a fundraising campaign to finance the long overdue renovation of the Introductory Soils Laboratory in Turner Hall. The goal of this campaign is to transform this out-moded facility into a state-of-the-art teaching laboratory with cutting-edge technology that will perform as an educational tool, while helping to attract the best and brightest students into a variety of crop science, natural resource, and environmental science fields.
How do we intend to inspire the next generation of students as they pass through these laboratory doors?
By creating a lab that is envisioned from the ground up as a state-of-the-art teaching laboratory with an instructional area, instrumentation area, support space, and prep room storage. It will accommodate 20 to 25 students per class. The scope of the proposed project is to renovate the existing 1,500 square foot lab and adjacent 275 square foot conference room into a combined space.
Because the laboratory is designed explicitly as a teaching lab rather than a modified research lab, it has extremely flexible modular furniture that allows for different space configurations. The latest teaching aids include magnetic white boards, flat panel displays, and computer interfaces for interactive learning.
Cutting-edge technology will encourage intellectual curiosity and motivate students to incorporate what they have learned into their careers and lives.
Special features of the modernized lab will include soil profile displays, soil profile test bases with time-lapse imaging, and sensor network monitors that connect the lab in “real time” with the outdoors.
Living root zone profiles in the lab itself will highlight plant growth requirements from soils and allow a regular and complete appreciation of the root environment and the effects of soil chemical, physical, and biological conditions on root development.
The estimated cost to renovate the Introductory Soils Laboratory—in compliance with current codes and standards and incorporating new technology—is $1.2 million. An additional $300,000 will be raised for a maintenance endowment.
The college will contribute $100,000 from indirect cost recovery funds to help fund the Introductory Soils Laboratory modernization project. The balance of the revenue flow will be achieved through private fundraising.
The newly renovated facility will have many features, including a custom video technology wall, soil profile test bases with time-lapsed imaging, and improved storage.
