Educational Sessions

Sunday, October 25, 2015, 10:45 AM – 11:45 AM

Blended – Integrating the Educational Environments for DoDEA Schools

Jerry Perry, Jacobs
Chuck Haynes, Jacobs

Marina 6

All too often, school buildings are designed to stand alone. Outdoor spaces and site circulation are programmed to fulfill minimum requirements and designed in the same manner. Blocks of parking, postage stamp-sized unimaginative playgrounds, driveways that only serve their function and no other and sprawling sports facilities are placed on project site without any thought for the integration of the site development with the building design. These designs miss many opportunities that could benefit the students. Integrated school facilities BLEND the indoors and the outdoors in many ways. Instead of learning spaces being inside or outside, they are considered conditioned and non-conditioned. Interior learning spaces flow directly into outdoor learning spaces. In the same way that learning studio activities can expand out into shared learning hubs, indoor activities can extend to the outdoor spaces. Rather than the architecture of the building standing alone and separate from the site development, these two items are coordinated, inform each other and an integrated design runs cohesively through the building and site. Colors, patterns and materials flow seamlessly through the overall project site. Case studies will be reviewed from projects designed for the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), where one of the major areas of focus for the DoDEA Educational Specifications is the integration of outdoor learning into the site development for all projects. Though construction on military bases involves parameters not seen with other school buildings, there remain opportunities to provide for a variety of outdoor learning environments and integrate the site development with the overall school building design for a cohesive school campus. These spaces give students opportunities to expand their knowledge of all subjects, in an active manner, whether it be drawing the landscape at an art patio, performing in the amphitheater, learning teamwork on the hardcourt, listening to a guest speaker at an outdoor classroom or getting exercise along the learning trails while exploring the site attributes or the construction methodology of the school building.

Learning Objectives:

“Kit of parts” from the case studies and lessons learned discussed to apply towards design and management of their facilities
Understand the breadth of the rebuilding effort for the schools within the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA)
Review examples of site features that create an appreciation for nature and an understanding of environmental surroundings and natural systems
Challenge to all designers: “Exceed expectations for what the site development can be for all projects.”

1 HSW

1 CE

Ed-Spec 2020. Planning Schools for Emergent Curriculum

Kevin Kemner, University of Nevada

Nautilus 4

How will emerging curriculum and pedagogic trends affect the planning and design of learning environments in the next ten years? That was the challenge given to the Education Facilities Research & Design Students at the UNLV School of Architecture. This presentation summarizes a year long effort to review and assess new pedagogies and curriculum and the potential these have to alter the school planning, design, utilization, and role in the community. The study included a meta-review of current literature, contributions from the UNLV College of Education, and direct survey of teaching staff of schools that having incorporated many of these trends. This effort resulted in the development of a planning guideline titled Ed-Spec 2020 that identifies the major trends in education, how these trends are similar or different, what trends can be taught in existing facilities, and what trends will necessitate the development of new spatial typologies in schools.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will be able to identify and distinguish major pedagogic trends and how they will impact space needs in schools.
Participants will develop appropriate terminology to describe these trends in the planning process.
Participants will become aware of the potential spatial needs of schools that embody new pedagogy.
Participants will develop planning skills

1 LU

1 CE

Outdoor Playing = Outdoor Learning

Debbie Rhea, Ph.D., Texas Christian University
Irene Nigaglioni, AIA, ALEP, PBK Architects Inc

Nautilus 5

Over the years, school playgrounds have taken on very traditional, equipment focused looks. Children are only using the playgrounds maybe once daily with very little focus on how the playground can be used as an outdoor learning environment. Some schools, with proper funding, have been moving towards an appealing playground, but not by really using it as another place to learn in an unstructured environment. The LiiNK Project aims to develop the social, emotional and physical well-being of students through multiple unstructured, outdoor recesses daily. The LiiNK team has been collecting a lot of data on what children want and use on a playground in an unstructured, outdoor environment. This presentation will introduce the patterns of children on unstructured, outdoor playgrounds and introduce some ways playgrounds can be engineered differently to produce a safe environment for children, but allow for creativity, problem solving, and critical thinking to take place with very little intervening of teachers.

Learning Objectives:

Understanding research on how kids play
Understanding the relationship between movement and learning
Learning how to design better play areas
Developing play areas that allow for creativity

1 HSW

1 CE

STEM: Designing an Elementary School for the Future

Stuart A. Brodsky, Cannon Design
Lizanne DeStefano, I STEM Educational Initiative

Nautilus 2

Join a discussion with the 2013 MacConnell Award-winning Booker T. Washington STEM Academy project team. Learn how the community-based planning process and STEM magnet curriculum served as a design catalyst that built an innovative project-based learning environment, and established enduring educational partnerships with local businesses and the University of Illinois. The LEED gold certified building leverages sustainable systems strategies to reduce operational costs, provide a living-laboratory for STEM education and hands-on learning experiences.

Learning Objectives:

Explain how a community-based design process made design decisions with a STEM focus.
Recognize how a STEM school is different from other schools, and how the roles of a STEM curriculum and The Third Teacher principles impact the physical learning environment’s design.
Explain how community and institutional partnerships enrich the curriculum and student experience, and how the building design responds to the need for shared community space.
Explain how technological and architectural innovations can be used to enhance a STEM learning environment.

1 LU

1 CE

The Design of Waukee CAPS: Developing a New Learning Ecology for Secondary Education

Kerry Weig, INVISION Architecture
Dr. David Wilkerson, Waukee Community School District
David Jakes, David Jakes Designs

Nautilus 1

How can the design of learning spaces empower a truly unique and bold approach to a new type of learning experience for high school students? How can the space, and the program it supports, be a catalyst for its community and state, and provide a new national model for a comprehensive 21st century education? The Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) in Waukee, Iowa is a new 70,000 sf building designed to support the interactions between students, teachers and the business/industry community that are required to create a new type of community-school-industry-based learning experience. The CAPS facility will provide both formal and informal spaces that promote individual learning experiences as well as opportunities for collaborative learning and community gatherings and engagements. With five curriculum strands unique to Iowa – business and finance, engineering, technology, health services, biosciences and added-value architecture – the CAPS facility will offer students’ opportunities to explore their passions through inquiry and a problem-based learning approach while providing innovative designs and solutions that expand and promote the Iowa economy. Through the design process, CannonDesign’s goal was to highlight Iowa innovation and their entrepreneurial spirit, while illuminating what is uniquely Waukee by deeply engaging its community in the project process. This presentation explores that process, the challenges and the opportunities of such a project, and how the imaginative and compelling program, building, and site design supports the Waukee CAPS mission and vision for a truly unique learning experience.

Learning Objectives:

Describe the unique process and strategies for community engagement that led to the development of the Waukee CAPS building and site.
Discuss the challenges and opportunities of developing a new model of learning and school that is focused on the intersection of community, school, business and industry and how that influenced the design process.
Discuss how the demands for a new type of academic experience shaped the entire design of Waukee CAPS.
Evaluate the CAPS facility as an emerging model of school design.

1 HSW

1 CE

Urban-Contextualism to Agrarian Environments: How to Develop Multi-Faceted Environments

Tom Neff, AIA, Schmidt Architects

Nautilus 3

This session will showcase educational environments at traditional public schools, charter schools, and community colleges to demonstrate how spaces can achieve unique educational goals. It will highlight multi-faceted learning environments ranging from urban-contextualism (with the use of garage doors in schools) to agrarian environments whose curriculum includes raising chickens and goats. A focus will be on how to use readily available industrial components to control cost and ensure durability. This will include examples of commercial grade components to achieve indoor/outdoor spaces, as well as the incorporation of energy monitoring stations that allow students to observe the effects of energy saving systems on the overall building operation. It will also demonstrate how to apply sustainable and energy saving systems with low operating costs.

Learning Objectives:

Through transformative redefinition, demonstrate how spaces can achieve unique educational goals.
Explore unique alternatives to develop integrated indoor-outdoor learning spaces.
Demonstrate how the use of readily available industrial components creates unique low-cost learning spaces.
How to incorporate sustainable and energy saving systems that result in dramatic operational cost savings