The Health Sciences Learning Center
In fall 2004, UW School of Medicine and Public Health moved into one of the nation’s premier health sciences learning environments, the Health Sciences Learning Center (HSLC).

Generous support from the people of Wisconsin and from many private donors made possible the “Margin of Excellence” we are proud to showcase in the HSLC.

The HSLC houses classroom instruction and clinical skills training for the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and UW School of Nursing, as well as the spectacular Ebling Library, ample study space and the most modern instructional resources available. With the discovery of knowledge as its daily mission, the HSLC features advanced instructional technologies in its lecture halls, classrooms, clinical training and assessment areas, computing labs and distance education centers.

Physically connected to UW Hospital and Clinics—the primary clinical training site for the health sciences, which also houses the School of Nursing—and to Rennebohm Hall, the home of the School of Pharmacy, the HSLC is an integrated, interdisciplinary educational facility for all health professions students at UW-Madison.

Learning communities
Medical school is a pivotal step on the path to a fulfilling career. It also is a challenging, all-consuming and, at times, stressful experience. The design of the Health Sciences Learning Center includes five learning communities where students are welcomed as individuals and invited to unite as a group for mutual encouragement, shared experiences and friendship. As such, our students call them “houses.”

Every learning community consists of approximately 30 students from each of the four classes. Students remain a part of the same “house” for the duration of their medical school years. The primary goal is to encourage coaching between new students and more experienced students. This structure reflects a trend in medical education that sees movement away from lectures and didactic learning toward individual and small-group problem solving.

Each learning community is named after a notable person whose wisdom, perseverance and vision shaped UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and who showed concern for the all-around well-being of students. The honored luminaries are Drs. Betty Bamforth, Charles Bardeen, Gunnar and Adolf Gundersen, Alice McPherson and William Middleton.

The HSLC's technology includes wireless access and data jacks throughout the building and Ebling library for laptops or hand-held devices; laptops available for check out; built-in projectors in many rooms; distance education capabilities; and digital capture of all lectures so students can review course content while studying.