[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/minister_chambers_visit0205.jpg” caption=”Pictured in the top photo, left, Mary Kamel, a second-year business student and trading floor co-ordinator, describes the facility to Chambers, right, while dean of business Paul Bates and Judy Marsales, MPP for Hamilton West, look on. In the bottom photo, Chambers’ participates in a problem-based learning tutorial in the Michael DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery. Photo credit: Chantall Van Raay”]Mary Anne Chambers, minister of training, colleges and universities, toured McMaster's campus Tuesday, learning first-hand about some of the University's newest developments and collaborative initiatives.

Joined by McMaster President Peter George and provost Ken Norrie, the tour began with a stop in the Allen H. Gould Trading Floor in the DeGroote School of Business. The trading floor is a 90-square-metre educational facility that resembles an actual trading floor in a brokerage operation. It features 20 computer workstations and two large digital display boards that provide up-to-the-minute market data.

Chambers' second stop was at the Anne and Neil McArthur Humanities Multimedia Wing in Togo Salmon Hall, with humanities dean Nasrin Rahimieh and multimedia professor Geoffrey Rockwell. She then visited with student leaders and members of the student newspaper, The Silhouette.

She then visited McMaster's new Michael DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery. As part of this tour, Chambers participated in a problem-based learning and e-problem-based learning (e-PBL) tutorial group with first-year medical students, tutor David Groves and joined by Alan Neville, assistant dean of the medical school.

Other aspects of her tour included a demonstration of e-PBL by Anthony Levinson, the John R. Evans Chair in Educational Research and Instructional Development in Health Sciences, joined by John Kelton, dean and vice-president of the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Following lunch in the Mohawk/McMaster Institute for Applied Health Sciences, Chambers traveled to Mohawk College.