JERSEY CITY, N.J.—Friends of BelovED Community Charter School 2, Inc. (Friends 2) and Urbahn Architects have completed the new high school facility for the BelovED Community Charter School. Located at 535 Grand Street in Jersey City, the high school will serve 480 students once fully occupied.

According to Urbahn Architects Principal Marty Stein, AIA, “The 53,000-square foot, four-story building will house students in grades 9 to 12. The $12.5 million property features a parking garage at ground level and 20 full-sized classrooms and laboratories, 4 half-classrooms, a gymnasium, a multi-purpose room, and a large cafetorium located on higher floors, accessed by an elevator and two stairwells.”

BelovED Community Charter School, named in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision of “Beloved Community,” operates K-8 school facilities across the street from the new high school. The school currently serves 1,320 students in grades K-10, and by the beginning of the school year 2022-23 the enrollment will increase to 1,560 students in grades K-12.

In addition to Urbahn Architects, the project team included structural engineer Consulting Engineers Collaborative (CEC); mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineer Partner Engineering and Science; civil engineer Derosier Engineering; and food service design consultant Schiavone Designs.

The small size of the site meant that Urbahn had to be particularly creative in developing and maximizing a functional program. The parcel is within a FEMA-designated flood zone, which added another challenge for the design team.

The parking garage and a loading dock with a 20-foot-wide overhead coiling gate are located at ground level. The first-floor assembly area – which features concrete pavers, an ornamental steel fence, benches, and planters – and the adjoining entrance lobby and security desk, storage and utility areas, and walk-in freezer are all elevated above the FEMA flood zone level.

The second floor of the structure, cantilevered above the parking lot, houses a cafetorium and an 850-square foot kitchen, an office suite, a nurse’s office, classrooms, and two sets of double stairs in addition to the elevator. The kitchen is equipped with three reach-in refrigerators, dry food storage, a commercial stove, two convection ovens, and fiber reinforced panels (FRP) walls. The kitchen floor is quarry tile. A walk-in freezer is located on the ground floor.

The third-floor features classrooms and laboratories, a multi-purpose room, a gymnasium, an art classroom, locker rooms, and a main distribution frame (MDF) room. The fourth floor houses a music room with a stepped stage for rehearsals and performances, classrooms, a special education classroom, and a teacher’s lounge room/break room. The laboratory features a fume hood by Venturi; epoxy resin countertops with sinks and gas, water, and power connections; and cabinetry.

The classrooms feature vinyl composite tile (VCT) flooring with ornamental color patterns, while the gymnasium is equipped with an athletic flooring system. Classrooms offer an abundance of natural light, white boards, audiovisual educational equipment, and flexible furniture systems that allow for easy reconfigurations of the class settings.

The building’s façade features Exterior Insulation and Finish System (EIFS), a non-load bearing, exterior wall cladding on steel studs, with Batt insulation. Energy efficiency is also improved by thermally- proficient low emissivity (or low-e) windows with high visible transmittance (VT) properties that allow increased amounts of natural light into the school’s interiors.

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NEW PALTZ, N.Y.—The new Engineering Innovation Hub (EIH) building at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz has earned a coveted LEED Gold Certification award from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Urbahn Architects led the design team for this $13.5 million project, and the general contractor was PC Construction. The two-story, 19,500-square foot building houses the College’s relatively new and highly popular bachelor’s degree program in mechanical engineering and includes innovative teaching and research lab spaces, as well as the Hudson Valley Additive Manufacturing Center (HVAMC) at SUNY New Paltz.

The new EIH was made possible by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s NYSUNY2020 Challenge Grant competition, in which SUNY New Paltz was awarded $10 million to support academic programs that translate directly into economic development in New York State. The College also received $1 million through the Governor’s Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council’s annual Consolidated Funding Application.

“The Engineering Innovation Hub houses industry-leading equipment to support our students and faculty as well as the work of companies partnering with the College through 3D design and printing,” said SUNY New Paltz President Donald P. Christian. “We thank the Governor and his team for recognizing the value of this project, and our Facilities staff and external partners for working hard to achieve this well-earned LEED Gold distinction.”

SUNY New Paltz initially placed a goal of LEED Silver for the building design. According to Natale V. Barranco, AIA, LEEP AP, Urbahn Architects Principal-in-Charge, “The design of this project to meet LEED criteria was a challenge, because the construction budget was relatively modest. However, every step of the project, from preliminary design through construction, was made with the goal of achieving the highest LEED rating possible in mind, and we were able to meet the criteria for Gold certification through a collaborative effort with the entire project team.”

“The important lesson learned from this project is that an efficient, sustainable building can be designed within the confines of a limited budget,” adds Urbahn Architects’ Senior Associate Nandini Sengupta, LEEP AP. “Bring in seasoned design consultants early in the conceptual phase, and perform continuous energy modeling starting in the conceptual design phase,” she advises designers and owners. “For this project, the client, design team, construction manager, and contractor were all very methodical from the beginning to enable the building to achieve a high LEED rating. The final building envelope and mechanical systems designs have resulted in an energy cost savings of 28%.”

The EIH is centrally located within SUNY New Paltz’s campus, near the existing Resnick Engineering Hall. The building supports the College’s mechanical engineering program that has seen rapid enrollment growth since its 2014 launch, as well as the HVAMC, described below. Urbahn designed the EIH to allow for a potential expansion of the building to accommodate this academic programming and support collaboration between the College and local industry. The hub directly addresses the region’s need for talented engineers and prepares students to thrive in forward-looking careers.

The Hudson Valley Additive Manufacturing Center (HVAMC), which has been providing education, guidance, CAD design, advice on materials used for additive manufacturing, and 3D printing services to SUNY New Paltz students and educators as well as to entrepreneurs and businesses since 2013, operates a laboratory and offices in the new building. The HVAMC’s collection of 3D printers constitutes some of the most advanced technology at any academic laboratory in the United States. The College is the first institution of higher education in the nation to be designated a Stratasys-MakerBot Additive Research & Teaching or SMART lab by Stratasys, the world’s leading 3D printing hardware and systems company.

The Hub’s project team also includes mechanical and electrical engineer Vanderweil Engineers, plumbing engineer CSA Group, structural engineer Leslie E. Robertson Associates (LERA), LEED consultant YR&G, civil engineer BET Engineering Consultants, landscape designer Edgewater Design, lighting designer Lumen Architecture, and cost estimator Ellana, Inc.

The design of a 31,200-square foot landscaped site contributes to the project’s sustainability. The project team addressed the LEED category of Sustainable Sites and Water Efficiency in several innovative ways. The entire building site was formerly covered by a parking lot and the new site plan was developed to maximize the open green area surrounding the building footprint.

Landscaped bioswales direct rainwater into a 45-foot long retention pond that is provided with a weir and overflow gate to control discharge. Ground water under the building footprint is also drawn into the pond through underground perforated pipe, preventing a rise in hydrostatic pressure that could potentially drive moisture into the building. Large boulders recovered from the site during excavation were reused around the bioswale to provide landscape interest. The bioswale has been planted with native evergreen shrubs, eco mix seed, and grasses.

In addition to the landscape design, LEED points were also awarded for several features of the building and its location. The building’s roof is a white reflective TPO (thermoplastic polyolefin) membrane system, with added insulation to improve the R-value. This composition reduces the heat island effect by providing a high solar reflectance index. The building is close to public transportation stops and provides bicycle storage to decrease reliance on private fossil fuel vehicles.

Urbahn placed particular emphasis on maximizing daylighting and views throughout the building without compromising energy efficiency. “EIH’s ground floor lobby is wrapped in a glass storefront and glazed curtain wall systems to allow natural light into the interiors. The lobby serves as a collaborative study and social space with extensive writable surfaces, where students can collaborate outside the classroom setting,” says Urbahn’s project manager Arielle Siegel Lapp. “Window headers are located nine feet above the floor so that light can penetrate deep into interior spaces. Our team analyzed several glazing options to maximize the energy efficiency of the exterior walls, and ultimately designed window assemblies using double glazed low-E glass that provide ideal comfort levels, daylighting, and views while utilizing less than 30% of the exterior wall surface. All regularly occupied spaces have line of sight views of the campus,” she adds.

Lighting is provided by high efficiency LED fixtures, some featuring a ring like curvilinear configuration, provided with light sensor controls. As the building fills with natural light flooding through the high windows during the day, light fixtures automatically shut off to conserve energy, and turn on again as exterior lighting conditions change with nightfall.

Vanderweil Engineers performed energy modeling throughout the design phase to optimize the performance of the HVAC systems. They worked within the limited budget to select mechanical components that would meet the LEED criteria. Heating and cooling are provided by a custom Nortek Ventrol air handling unit with Fanwall technology, 30,000 cfm, 890,000 BTU. The cooling tower is Carrier 30RB080 unit with 80 ton capacity. Additional equipment was manufactured by Mitsubishi and Nailor, and BMS is provided by Siemens. The designers chose HVAC and fire suppression systems that minimized ozone depleting chemicals.

The use of water saving plumbing fixtures has resulted in a 31% reduction in the consumption of potable water.

The project plays a continuing part in the education of the students who are the ultimate building occupants. During planning and construction, engineering students toured the site and sat in on team meetings to learn how to plan and maintain an energy efficient facility.

According to Urbahn Architects’ Construction Administrator Manuel Mateus, “When selecting building materials, the design team considered several factors, including local sourcing, recycled content, and performance values. The exterior walls feature an ultra-high-performance energy efficient rain-screen system that minimizes heat loss by eliminating thermal bridging. The system face consists of concrete panels by Taktl in both a light gray smooth finish and a dark gray textured finish. Each panel has ColorSeal and MicroSeal coatings to help with color and water resilience for extended durability. The rain screen is anchored to a stud backup, and the assembly provides a balance of pressure behind the wall that inhibits water infiltration into the building interior.”

The red soffit above the main entrance is composed of Vitrabong 4mm FR lightweight metal composite material (MCM) cladding panels in Rubis Red color. Vitrabond panels are composed of a 3mm fire retardant (FR) Core, 0.5mm aluminum skin, and polyester anti-corrosion coating.

The ultra high-performance exterior wall panels are by Taktl. The dark gray panels are in the “Grey Reed” color and the light-colored ones are in “Platinum Smooth”. Each has ColorSeal and MicroSeal coatings to help with color and water resilience for extended durability.

Flooring consists of polished concrete, carpet, vinyl composition tile (VCT), and glazed ceramic tile, all of which contains recycled content. The concrete mix used for flooring and foundations was locally sourced. Ceilings in the labs and the lecture room are fully exposed, reducing the need for standard acoustic tile systems. All materials were required to have low-VOC emissions.

Collaborative spaces throughout the building feature expanses of the university’s colors – blue and orange – as well as wood soffits and acoustical cloud ceilings to add warmth and texture to the spaces.

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NEW PALTZ, N.Y.—The new Engineering Innovation Hub (EIH) building at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz has been completed.

The two-story facility houses the College’s relatively new and highly popular bachelor’s degree program in mechanical engineering, and includes innovative teaching and research lab spaces, as well as the school’s Hudson Valley Additive Manufacturing Center (HVAMC).

The new building was made possible by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s NYSUNY2020 Challenge Grant competition, in which SUNY New Paltz was awarded $10 million to support academic programs that translate directly into economic development in New York State. The College also received $1 million through the Governor’s Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council’s annual Consolidated Funding Application.

“[The] opening of the EIH at SUNY New Paltz is another great example of the growth of our high-tech sector in the Mid-Hudson Valley that will result in jobs and economic expansions throughout the region,” said Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. “We will continue to partner with higher education institutions and industry leaders to bring these types of visions into reality to inspire New York’s newest generation of innovators.”

Said SUNY New Paltz President Donald P. Christian, “The College extends its deepest thanks to Governor Cuomo and his team for recognizing the value of this project and its educational and economic benefits for the Hudson Valley region. This investment is projected to yield a regional economic impact of more than $75 million, and about 195 jobs, over 10 years.”

PC Construction, which has offices in Georgia, Maine, New Hampshire, New York and North Carolina was general contractor on this impressive project. Urbahn Architects, a full-service planning and design firm based in New York City, designed this project.

“The $13.5 million, 19,500-square foot EIH houses faculty research and teaching labs, and state-of-the-art 3D print prototyping labs to support the engineering program and the work of companies partnering with SUNY New Paltz and HVAMC,” said Urbahn Architects Principal-in-Charge Natale V. Barranco, AIA, LEED AP.

Designed to meet a LEED Silver sustainability certification, the new Hub will support and diversify the College’s rapidly growing engineering programs, and foster collaboration between the College and local industry.

“The site of the new building is centrally located on campus, which required strict construction safety and logistics protocols to ensure the welfare of workers, students, faculty, and visitors during construction,” said PC Construction Project Manager Michael Davies.

“Relying on our team’s expertise in LEED certification procedures and the Lean Construction method, we have delivered a highly sustainable and energy efficient facility where engineering students can excel for years to come.”

Daniel Freedman is dean of the School of Science & Engineering and director of the HVAMC, which will operate a laboratory and offices in the new building. The HVAMC has been providing education, guidance, CAD design, advice on materials used for additive manufacturing, and 3D printing services to SUNY New Paltz students and educators, as well as to entrepreneurs and businesses since 2013.

“The Engineering Innovation Hub will significantly aid SUNY New Paltz in educating engineering students who will provide technological leadership in the Hudson Valley,” said Freedman. “It will also assist the wide variety of regional companies that make use of our state-of-the-art 3D printing technology and expert staff.”

Its collection of 3D printers constitutes some of the most advanced technology at any academic laboratory in the U.S. The College is the first institution of higher education in the nation to be designated a Stratasys-MakerBot Additive Research & Teaching or SMART lab by Stratasys, the world’s leading 3D printing hardware and systems company.

The Hub will also house the College’s popular new program in mechanical engineering, which has seen rapid enrollment growth since launching in 2014 in response to the critical need for highly skilled engineers in the Mid-Hudson Valley region.

The building—located within SUNY New Paltz’s main campus—was erected on a former parking lot near the existing engineering building, Resnick Hall. Urbahn Architects designed the Hub to allow for a potential expansion to the east, if the program’s growth requires more space in the future.

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NEW PALTZ, N.Y. — Construction on a new Engineering Innovation Hub is currently underway at the State University of New York (SUNY) New Paltz campus. The new facility will provide state-of-the-art education to SUNY’s engineering students as well as assist the wide variety of regional companies that will be able to use the 3-D printing technology at the new hub.

The architect on the project is New York-based Urbahn Architects, with PC Construction out of its Poughkeepsie, N.Y., regional office serving as the general contractor. The 19,500-square-foot Engineering Innovation Hub is expected to be complete by the end of 2018, and has a budget of $14 million. A groundbreaking took place for the project in October 2017 with SUNY President Donald P. Christian leading the ceremony.

The new Engineering Innovation Hub will help support and diversify the college’s engineering programs and address a critical shortage in engineers needed to serve advanced manufacturing interests in the region, according to Christian. In addition, the new hub will house the headquarters and laboratories of the university’s Hudson Valley Advanced Manufacturing Center (HVAMC), provide space for potential business partners under the state’s START-UP NY program and serve as a business incubator for technology and engineering startups in the mid-Hudson Valley.

Urbahn designed the new hub to allow for potential expansion if the program’s growth requires more space in the future. Of particular note, the hub will also provide a 3-D print prototyping lab to support the engineering program and the work of companies partnering with SUNY New Paltz and HVAMC.

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s NY SUNY 2020 Challenge Grant program awarded $10 million to the project because of the school’s goals to improve economic development in New York state, using its high-quality educational and research programs. The university also received $1 million through the governor’s Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council’s annual Consolidated Funding Application.

“The project had a tight, predefined budget based on a grant received from New York state,” said Ranabir Sengupta, AIA, LEED AP, associate principal at Urbahn. “The mandate from the college was to make the building distinctive, sustainable and modern to showcase the expanding engineering school and make a mark on the campus. The design challenge was to reconcile the two, and I think we did it successfully.”

The building site of the new hub  is a former parking lot located near the existing engineering building, Resnick Hall. The new building is centrally located on campus, requiring strict construction safety and logistics protocols to ensure the welfare of workers, students, faculty and visitors, according to Edward A. Kellogg, regional manager and construction executive at PC Construction.

The building is designed to meet LEED Silver standards. Sustainable features will include an on-site stormwater detention system, high-efficiency plumbing fixtures, energy-efficient lighting and HVAC systems, daylight harvesting and the use of recycled content for materials.

The design of the 661-square-foot entrance lobby is bright and open, wrapped in a glass storefront and glazed curtain wall systems to allow natural light into the area, with textured porcelain ceramic tile making up the lobby floors and gypsum board for the ceiling, according to Nandini Sengupta, LEED AP, senior associate at Urbahn Architects. In addition, the lobby will feature cabinets for the display of 3-D–printed artifacts as well as a textured wall art invoking 3-D–printed panels, with splashes of the school’s navy blue and orange colors.

The highlight of the building’s architecture is a cubic form that perches over the entrance plaza, according to Sengupta. “The textured, dark-gray cube with a luminous metal soffit and a backdrop of lighter forms announces the building as an important presence on the campus,” said Sengupta. “The design relates to neighboring buildings and opens up views to a quad, diagonally opposite it.”

To read the entire article, check out the March/April issue of School Construction News.

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QUEENS, N.Y. — Sometimes schools teach algebra; sometimes their names sound like algebra. Such is the case for P.S. 144Q, otherwise known in Queens as Public School 144 Colonel Jeromus Remsen School, which is doing a little math of its own — namely addition.

A December groundbreaking ceremony marked the beginning of a large-scale addition to the elementary school to accommodate a student body expected to grow from 894 students to nearly 1,600 in the coming years.

The ambitious, $52.4 million, four-story addition will house 26 new classrooms, an entrance lobby, an outdoor play area, a cafeteria, offices and a medical suite. Designed in accordance with the NYC Green Schools Guide and Rating System by New York-based Urbahn Architects,  the addition will put a premium on energy efficiency and a healthy environment, whilst preserving the original building’s early 20th century aesthetic.

“In addition to accommodating the school’s functional and programmatic needs, Urbahn’s architectural team has focused on ensuring that the design of the new building respects both the look of the existing school and the scale of the surrounding single-family home residential neighborhood,” said Urbahn Designer and Principal Martin D. Stein, AIA, in a statement.

Stein also added that the original building, which was erected in 1931, will be matched by incorporating a two-story brick portion into one of its facades in an effort to visually reduce the perceived scale of the addition. “It features a contrasting brick color to draw attention to the smaller scale of the lower portion,” he added.

Besides the new student and faculty spaces, the addition includes improvements to the current facility that will see the replacement of door knobs with ADA-compliant door latches, relocations and renovations to its bathrooms, an upgraded exercise room, a guidance suite, auditorium and four classrooms. An inclined chair lift will be installed to provide access to the lower area of the third floor of the existing structure. Likewise, the school will obtain ADA-compliant water fountains featuring bottle-filling stations.

Of note is the entrance lobby, which will be 16-feet high and boast a large glass-and-metal storefront, complemented by a broad stairwell that will lead down to the student dining room level. Don’t want to take the stairs? No worries, the ADA-compliant upgrades realized in the entrance and lobby will also benefit from the installation of two elevators.

“The new building will accommodate 590 students and address functional deficiencies of the existing school,” Stein said in a statement. “The expansion will also eliminate the need for the currently used temporary modular, outdoor classroom facilities. The project was designed to address the school’s needs in the most cost-effective manner and to minimize the extent of renovations to the existing building, which will continue to operate during construction.”

The cellar of the new building will house both a kitchen and a dining room, the latter of which will be treated with acoustic fixtures on the ceiling and walls that will dampen noise within the space. And to allay any sense of being underground, the cafeteria’s ceiling will be fitted with a simulated skylight that uses daylight-hued LED lighting fixtures. Moreover, the ceiling will be treated as floating islands to create visual divisions to help foster the sense of discrete locations within the otherwise open space.

An all-new principal’s office and general offices will be located on the first floor. The first and second floors will house Pre-K and kindergarten classes as well as a newly designed, dedicated ECC playground. The third and fourth floors will provide classrooms for second and fourth graders as well as several resource rooms.

To read the entire article, check out the January/February issue of School Construction News.

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Matthew Schultz is an engineering instructor at Lakeview Technology Academy in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., which receives support from a number of partner companies and organizations, resulting in a top quality STEM program. The school received three Dremel 3D printers from the company in particular to enhance its STEM makerspace.

Lakeview Technology Academy is located in a former industrial building that initially offered ample space, but a challenging layout. Schultz was able to design a new 24-student lab and classroom space in the back of the building that now includes a variety of hand and power tools, computers, a projector, sound electronics and white boards. The space aims to help students take their ideas from concept to reality, providing all the tools, materials and implements necessary to make any number of projects happen.

School Construction News spoke with Schultz about how he crafted his classroom, and how 3D printing has changed the way he teaches.

Q. How did you retrofit this industrial space to better facilitate STEM education?

Schultz: When [the school purchased] the building, there were no walls; it was just this big, open space. Slowly it started to be transformed into a school. My classroom itself was in a very small space. In the beginning, we had three-quarter walls that didn’t even go all the way to the ceiling. When you were running a drill or saw or doing any type of physical work in the lab it would just radiate throughout the whole building.

One whole wing of the classroom is now set up with all the manual shop tools. In the middle I have six lab tables that allow seating for four each, because most of the projects we do are group-based in teams of four. On the other side of the classroom I have a makerspace with three 3D printers given to us by Dremel with monitors above them so kids can…see the 3D printers printing live.

Q. What furnishings do you use in the classroom?

Schultz: The tables themselves are higher and sit about three feet off the ground. The chairs are swivel stools. Everything can fit under the desk because most of the time [students] are not sitting. Three-quarters of the lab is bordered in workbenches with permanent tools. On the other side I have maker/lab spaces with rolling carts and drawers underneath to fit all the supplies and hand tools. That is where the laser printer, 3D printers, etc. are located.

Q. How does the space support collaborative learning and problem solving?

Schultz: A lot of what I do and how I teach is a process-based education approach. I’ll teach students how to do a process, and then give them an avenue to actually explore that process with their own creative process. I’ll show them how to use [the available equipment and tools]; the output is based on their creativity. This classroom structure and the environment I create beyond the physical space is one of collaboration. The essence of a fabrication lab is not necessarily how many 3D printers you have or what kind of laser printer you have; it’s working in a community to solve a problem with the resources around you.

Q. Why are tools like 3D printers necessary to ensure quality STEM education, and how are your students using these devices?

Schultz: In my early days teaching…we would design [projects] on paper first. We weren’t even designing computer models at that time. Then, [students] would take the raw materials, cut them, sand them, join them together and things wouldn’t work; things wouldn’t line up. We really didn’t have time to go back and redesign. The prototype was the final product.

Now, with the 3D printer being available in the classroom, students are getting much earlier exposure to 3D rendering programs. Five years ago it wasn’t as common to see kids with those skills. Kids now know how to design something in a virtual space, test it and actually print it out. They’re now able to build the physical model, go to the computer, make changes and print it again. This process will happen up to three or four times to make it perfect, but in the past I could never go past this prototype stage. There was no time, no money; we just had to keep moving. Now it’s such a quick process that in two or three classes they might come up with two or three different models.

Also, the traditional shop is not appealing to every student. Another benefit to having these 3D printers is that it’s a safe way to approach engineering and problem solving. It allows other students that weren’t necessarily hands-on an opportunity to still be involved.
 

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Rachlin’s school design concepts emerged from the latest direction in educational curricula abbreviated as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). Under the direction of the firm’s founding partner, Michael Rachlin, AIA, LEED AP, the firm created its own architectural acronym for STEM — Sustainable, Transparent, Exploratory and Malleable — to guide its designs. Here are some of the design mandates Rachlin Partners considers essential under STEM:

SUSTAINABLE: Ample daylight in teaching spaces is proven to help students with morale and learning behaviors. A study by Heschong Mahone Group of Gold River, Calif., revealed that “students with the best daylighting in the study progressed 20 percent faster on math tests and 26 percent on reading tests in one year than students with the worst daylighting.” In addition to daylighting, contemporary schools use a variety of sustainable design strategies to realize their commitment to the future. Key elements include charging stations for electric vehicles, low-impact development to mitigate storm-drain runoff, among many other uses, and environmentally conscious materials. These methods not only help schools become energy efficient, which lowers utility costs and reduces waste, but also serve to educate students about the importance of green living.

TRANSPARENT: Transparency between teaching spaces facilitates greater collaboration and encourages interdisciplinary learning. Rachlin Partners’ STEM concept proposes large, expansive areas of glazing so students can view what is going on in other classrooms. This extends the learning process to even a casual observer and makes activities in other classrooms less mysterious. In addition, the classrooms of the future have large, glass garage doors that open to outdoor terraces and blur the boundary between indoor and outdoor learning spaces.

EXPLORATORY: Forget the traditional row of seats with a teacher lecturing at the front of the room. A collaborative space is a key element in schools today that supports a variety of uses for multiple zone activities — from large group presentations and project-based work at the larger tables to individual work at the laptop “media bar.” The collaborative space is designed to encourage students to interact with one another. Its flexibility creates the opportunity for gathering, study groups and project exhibits for each small group learning community. The result is open classrooms that encourage participation, movement, inspiration, focus and comfort. The focus is not only on indoor spaces, however, but also on creating outdoor learning spaces. An example is the creation of a solar panel garden that invites students to explore nature and the universe.

MALLEABLE: The school of the 21st century is built with an environment that works for decades, instead of years, to come. Classrooms can be combined with retractable folding doors that open up to create a larger space. Flexibility within the design allows for classrooms and labs to have direct connections to “learning terraces” so that big and messy projects can move outdoors. Some other key components include moveable white-board walls in between classrooms to allow for changing needs in a classroom setting and incorporating adaptable furnishings or easily movable furniture to allow for easy classroom transformation for group breakout sessions and more.
 

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As one of the largest educational technology conferences, FETC provides Pre-K-12 educators and administrators an opportunity to explore the integration of technology across the curriculum through hands-on exposure to the latest software and successful implementation strategies, according to a statement by event organizers.

Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code Reshma Saujani kicked off the conference as the opening keynote speaker. In her speech, Saujani discussed bridging the gender gap in technological learning and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education. FETC also hosted a screening of CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap, a documentary which highlights the shortage of American female and minority software engineers and explores the reasons for this gap.

Meanwhile, keynote speaker, engineer and astronaut Leland Melvin presented on the importance of pursuing STEM careers and National Teacher of the Year Sean McComb offered the keynote address, iWill: Activating Empowered Teachers and Students, in which he shared his positive experiences in transforming his own classroom as well as the conditions necessary for students and teachers to thrive.

The event also recognized innovation in the field of STEM education at the primary, middle and high school levels at the second annual STEM Excellence Awards. STEM Excellence Award-winning schools were evaluated on the use of interdisciplinary curriculum, collaboration, design, problem solving and STEM experiences offered. Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School of St. Petersburg, Fla., was the winner in the elementary school division, while The STEM Academy of Savannah, Ga., took top honors in the middle school division. Nikola Tesla STEM High School in Redmond, Wash., claimed the honor in the high school division.

“Beyond STEM, FETC prides itself in highlighting a variety of education technology topics in its more than 500 sessions — from podcasting in the classroom to assistive technology to game-based learning,” said Mike Eason, FETC general manager, in a statement. These sessions focused on topics ranging from communication and collaboration to emerging technologies and maker tools to technology infrastructure. They included everything from 3D printing to robotics instruction to tips for peer-to-peer online professional development.

The conference expo also included more than 400 exhibitors such as Florida Shines, Insight Systems Exchange, National Science Foundation, Scantron, Microsoft, Lenovo, Aver and Epson.
 

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The 200,000-square-foot, $135 million science facility will add to the university’s Science District. The project follows the completion of the Thad Cochran Research Center Wing, which added more than 96,000 square feet of research space for the School of Pharmacy, and a 36,000-square-foot expansion of Coulter Hall.

“Our vision is that this will be one of the country’s leading, student-centered learning environments for STEM education,” said Maurice Eftink, the university’s associate provost, in a statement. “It will offer state-of-the-art labs and classrooms, including what are called ‘technology-enhanced active learning’ labs. This will be a place where our students will be able to enter in the morning to take classes, meet up with other students for study sessions and lunch, participate in afternoon lab classes, work on research projects and engage with the building to learn about STEM fields in casual, informal ways.”

The additional space and technical enhancements will benefit the university’s growing student body. In fact, The Chronicle of Higher Education listed Ole Miss as the nation’s 13th fastest growing university, with more than 23,000 students enrolled across all campuses in 2014.

“The new STEM building will be a real game changer for the university,” Eftink added in a statement. “We all hear about the need to increase graduates in STEM fields, to support growth in the regional economy and to support the pipeline for training health professionals, engineers, and science and math teachers. We have reached a stage where we are almost maxed out in our ability to provide STEM courses, especially lab courses, for students wishing to major in these areas. This building will meet a very critical need to assure that students can pursue their goals of majoring in STEM fields.”

In September, the Gertrude C. Ford Foundation expanded a $20 million donation in support of the university’s new science building to $25 million, bringing the Ford Foundation’s donations to the university to more than $53.5 million. It already contributed $25 million to the 88,000-square-foot Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts, which opened in 2002. If all goes according to plan, the new STEM facility will open in fall 2018.

This is just one of many construction projects enhancing the Ole Miss campus. This month, the university debuted the $96.5 million Pavilion at Ole Miss, a multipurpose arena, which will mainly serve the school’s basketball team. The new arena features seating for 9,500 fans, a student concourse, courtside seating, more than 1,700 premium seats and other amenities such as concessions. Construction took about 18 months, and the school’s first game in the facility was played on Jan. 6.
 

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The Orangewood Foundation found that by the time a foster child begins high school they have had as many as 10 placements and attended as many as 15 different schools. Since many of these children have little to no mobility, the place in which they live and learn must offer a variety of spaces that can inspire and guide them to become productive in their academic careers. As such, the school’s mission was to create a strong educationally focused community, with joint-use and industry partnerships.

The first phase of the school’s 115,000-square-foot master plan includes a three-story, 30,000-square-foot academic building, designed by Irvine, Calif.-based LPA Inc. It features diverse learning spaces that support engineering and design programs as part of the school’s STEM-focused, project-based curriculum. For instance, LPA’s interdisciplinary approach to design allowed several sectors of the design company to work together to create a learning-on-display environment in which students can see the building’s internal mechanical systems and learn about its inner workings.

Each floor of the new building features a STEM lab and four learning studios that share a collaborative learning commons. Walls open, furniture rolls and collaboration is evident in the design, which encourages learning to happen throughout the facility’s flexible spaces.

“The classroom design is so flexible that the school is using some classrooms as lab spaces until the future lab building is built,” said Kate Mraw, design director for interiors in LPA Inc.’s education studio.

Mraw said that many of the challenges on the project stemmed from the school’s need for a space that will meet both current and future educational demands. “[The school is] privately funded, so until the rest of the campus is built, the spaces need to fulfill multiple functions,” she added. “We took that as an opportunity to create solutions, with classrooms opening up into each other and common spaces being used as one.”

In order to create active learning spaces, it was also important to select the ideal furnishings, according to Mraw. The dynamic nature of the space comes from the mobile furniture inside. The students, staff and faculty tested furniture in the school’s portable housing spaces first and went through a trial-and-error process to determine what furniture worked for them.

One of the things that was really different about this project is that Samueli has a smaller student-to-teacher ratio, according to Mraw. LPA Inc. conducted several workshops with Orangewood Foundation to better understand the learner profile and how to design the space to match the learner. These workshops influenced many of the displays and signage throughout the building. For instance, the school features motivational signage and even writable wall space for students to create their own messages. There are also interactive walls that highlight various majors and career paths to inspire a sense of curiosity for students after they graduate.

The next phases of the master plan will include a student union, gymnasium, specialized learning studios and a residential village to board 80 foster youth and their guardian families. The project is designed to meet LEED for Schools Certified criteria.

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