UNI’s newly expanded TEACH Studio will inspire future educators
UNI’s newly expanded TEACH Studio will inspire future educators
For people who are made to teach, the University of Northern Iowa is the place to be, where there’s more than 20 teaching majors and a broad range of minors and endorsements, preparing more teachers than any other program in Iowa for generations. Future educators spend their days learning in Schindler Education Center on the UNI campus, now home to a refreshed, innovative space which provides easy access to resources that students will need to know before entering their own classrooms.
Located on the second floor, the Teacher Education and Collaboration Hub, or TEACH Studio, is a partnership between the Rod Library and College of Education, packed with more than 39,000 items. This vast collection includes picture books, PreK-12 nonfiction books, books about teaching, board books, braille books and books in other languages.
“Our students need to have an understanding of books when they go into the classroom, and if you don't have exposure to them, then you're not going to know what is out there,” said Katie Nedwick, the TEACH Studio coordinator.
But it doesn’t stop with books — there are plentiful board games, flash cards and teaching tools — including an enhanced focus on educational technology.
There are a number of rooms within the TEACH Studio that students can use for development. Nedwick’s favorite is the Technology Playground. This room contains educational technology like coding and robotics tools, app-enhanced learning kits and unplugged activities, like hands-on toys to teach coding without screens. Students can check out the items for their clinical experiences in PreK-12 schools, and it’s already getting love from UNI Panthers.
“The purpose of this Technology Playground is to have an open space where students can come in and they can get familiar with this kind of technology, and then when they go off to teach, they can use it in their classrooms and have some familiarity with it,” said Nedwick. “Technology is always going to change, so just learning a little bit about how it works will give them a foundation.”
A space five years in the making
A new mural spans the west wall of the Presentation Room in the TEACH Studio, marking another step toward completing this refreshed space to support teacher education and experimentation. Artist Lydia Hill, who has provided the illustrative images that support UNI’s brand, designed the mural, which is filled with nearly 25 hidden literary nods to children’s stories from around the world.
The TEACH Studio is the result of an idea nearly five years in the making involving leadership, faculty, staff and students. Working with the UNI Facilities team, the vision gradually became reality. In June 2025, the youth collection moved from Rod Library into the Schindler Education Center.
Another available space within the TEACH Studio is the Presentation Room that includes a stage, green screen and camera, allowing students to practice public speaking. On the west side, former office space has been turned into a student lounge area. The Technology Playground, Presentation Room and other spots in the TEACH Studio allow for studying, homework and collaboration among students.
As someone who has previously worked in university, school and public libraries, Nedwick understands what a valuable resource this space is for future teachers.
“When you get into a classroom, you have to be able to talk about books with your students,” she said. “You have to know what you can recommend to students, and you need to know what's available so you can match it with the lessons you're doing. There's no other way other than getting your hands in it. You have to be exposed to the books.”
Since opening in August, the TEACH Studio has seen more than 17,000 visitors and circulated nearly 6,000 materials. Prospective students had a chance to see the space during a fall visit day to experience what UNI has to offer future teachers.
Nedwick recalls a particularly memorable experience when she was able to help one current student find a more obscure book in the collection for his class assignment.
“He told me this was his favorite book as a kid, because he was in speech therapy, and these are the books they use for speech therapy,” she explained. “He was just so thrilled we actually had that book here in our library.”
Although the space is primarily a resource for UNI students, it is open to the public. The TEACH Studio has also hosted storytimes for the Child Development Center on campus and has even hosted activities for the children of current teachers who visit UNI for professional development opportunities.
Nedwick hopes the campus community will continue finding inspiration and joy in the space.
“I would encourage anyone who hasn’t been here to come check it out,” she said. “I'm really also looking forward to seeing how we can get other people in here as well on campus. So if there's another class on campus that thinks they might benefit from using our youth collection, I would love to talk to them and have them see how we can work together.”
