Tips/Tricks

Classroom Design for STEM and STEAM Education

Over the past decade or so there’s been an increased focus on STEM education in America. There are several reasons for the trend, primary among them a continuing shortage of personnel for technology jobs, as well as the increased popularity of competitive robotics.

Even if students choose not to pursue a career in a technology field, a STEM curriculum teaches important skills like critical thinking, innovation and problem solving, and STEM concepts are now being incorporated into other educational disciplines as diverse as music and languages.

STEM, of course, stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Sometimes “arts” is added to the equation, changing the acronym to STEAM. For our purposes, we’ll stick with STEM, because when it comes to classroom design the principles for arts and technological pursuits are very similar.

What are those principles? First, flexibility. A STEM curriculum is not a “sit still at your desk and learn” environment. Considering seating alone, students might need to stand, sit at desks, sit on stools, roll from one place to another on chairs, or flop on a comfy couch to collaborate, all in the same day.

To accommodate all that, both high and low desks/tables are desirable, and they should be able to easily reconfigure for different circumstances. Tables that taper front to back can be used individually or combined in a tight formation for group work (like pizza slices). Surfaces need to be especially durable, also, to stand up to paints and chemicals or the heat of a soldering iron.

Often overlooked in planning educational settings for STEM is the need for storage. STEM is more than just coding and classroom learning; there’s a lot of hands-on work, and projects that may span multiple days or weeks. Just as with art projects, there must be space to safely store this work in between sessions, clearing the room for the next group.

Finally, remember to plan for the technical requirements of a STEM classroom. As students embrace technology, the environment must do the same, and it’s impractical to demonstrate coding techniques on an old-school chalkboard. Requirements will vary according to the curriculum, but electronic whiteboards and projectors are often parts of the solution. And there should be plenty of outlets or power strips so students can charge and power their devices.

Flexibility, durability and technology are three of the main keys to designing a successful STEM (or STEAM) learning space. We’re here to help.

Office Wellness: Sights, Sounds and Smells Make a Difference

In the wake of the pandemic, employee engagement has become a front-burner topic for nearly every employer. As companies navigate the return to working in person to varying degrees, they’re devoting more and more attention to keeping team members safe, happy and engaged.

What role can the workspace environment play in office wellness? A big one, in ways both good and bad. In fact, employers need to factor in at least four of the five senses in office design considerations (probably not taste, unless you’re providing lunch). Let’s take a look:

Sight:

Everyone considers colors when designing an office space, but perhaps not their potential effects on the people in it. There is science behind the psychology of colors and the emotions they can elicit. To greatly oversimplify, green is associated with creativity; blue with security, confidence and analytical thinking. Red promotes productivity in physical work (but may hinder analytical thinking), and too much white leads to boredom. Yellow? Well, people just don’t seem to like it. Use yellow sparingly. Check out the red pops of color at Fireline Corp. here.

Sound:

Too often an afterthought in office design, the acoustical properties of a space are vital to productivity and keeping team members happy. We’ve seen many very attractive spaces that are difficult to work in, especially in the age of the open office plan. This might be because workers are too close together or because the space is designed with hard surfaces that cause every sound to reverberate. It’s often easy to fix the latter situation with strategically-applied acoustical panels to deaden the space. Ensure workers have private, quiet spaces available in an open office plan. Make sure to approach office design with not only your eyes but your ears. Check out 3form Edge ceiling features here.

Smell:

Our sense of smell is tied directly to our memories, and is another factor in work productivity. Employers walk a difficult line right now: Spaces need to be cleaned and sanitized regularly, but the aromas of bleach, ammonia or other harsh cleaners can have a negative effect on productivity. These strong smells may also cause headaches or even allergic reactions. Consider cleaning products carefully and look for agreeable scents. Beyond that, you might consider enhancing office wellness with smells: Lemon is known to be good for creativity, and lavender is calming, to name just two examples. But again, you need to be mindful of potential allergies.

Feel:

No one’s going to be very productive, or very happy, if they spend their days working in an uncomfortable chair or at a desk that’s not an appropriate height. There’s such a wide selection of ergonomic office furnishings from so many manufacturers that there’s really no reason not to get this right. In general, consider adjustability: Desks that allow standing or sitting, chairs that adjust to multiple positions. Check out more office spaces at Visit Baltimore here.

Learning Hubs and Media Centers

One of the many concerns over the effects of the pandemic on learning over these past two years has been the loss of opportunities for students to collaborate in person, important for both learning and the development of social skills. One of the ways these vital needs are being addressed is through the use of learning hubs and media centers, spaces that foster a combination of socialization and education. Let’s take a look at both.

Learning hubs, also called learning commons, are spaces for students to use either between classes or after school. In some cases these are off-site areas sponsored by local communities, but many are within school walls. Designed to be more inviting than simply hanging out in hallways or lobbies, learning hubs are flexible and adaptable to a variety of needs.

There are no hard and fast rules for learning hub design, but common items typically include soft and inviting furniture, with a layout that can be adapted to individual study or group collaboration. In some ways, learning hubs reflect trends we’ve seen in colleges, and in office design. Many have cafes with coffee or other drinks and light fare, tools like whiteboards to promote group work and private spaces for counseling, tutoring or quiet study. Some may even have outdoor areas.

While some schools have added learning hubs via new construction, many more are repurposing existing space, often unused or underused spaces like lobbies or cafeterias, which might normally be occupied for only a couple of hours per day.

The media center is an extension of the same concept, but with (as the name would suggest) a focus on the technology needed to produce graphic elements for projects and presentations. For that reason, media centers (also called library commons) are typically developed within existing libraries. The media center creates a hybrid space where new technology lives side by side with ready access to books and other more traditional sources of research.

As with learning hubs, look for lounge-style furniture designed for comfort, collaboration and flexibility, as well as the preservation of the private study spaces you’ll find in a traditional library. Check out some of our collaborative spaces at Wheaton High School here.

Student Well-Being in the Classroom

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought more than its share of challenges, to be sure. Even with all the changes forced upon businesses and the economic impact, few would argue that the greatest disruption has come in education. Parents and teachers alike continue to grapple with student well-being at any given time: in-person learning, remote learning or a combination of the two, and plans continue to change from week to week in many places.

There’s no single correct answer to what’s best for the well-being of our students, of course, and the physical presence of students will vary from place to place as guidelines are adjusted to the current situation. But there are some common threads that educators can turn to in order to help ensure student well-being to the greatest degree possible.

Ask. To get where you want to go, you need to know where you’re starting, and regularly checking in with students can help here. A few simple questions, ranging from “How are you feeling today?” to “How included did you feel in class today?” to “What made it harder to learn today?” can assist you in understanding your students’ emotional well-being and making sure you’re addressing the proper issues for them at any given time.

Be flexible. In the pre-COVID era we wrote repeatedly about the benefits of flexible education spaces. The challenges of the past two years have made flexibility even more desirable. Adaptable settings can help with physical distancing, accommodate hybrid situations where some students are joining remotely while others are in person, and – just as before the pandemic – encourage much greater engagement. Further, a flexible space can adapt to whatever the future might bring.

Move. Another thing that hasn’t changed is this: movement helps with learning, and with mental and physical development. To the greatest degree possible in an in-person setting, regular periods of movement should be scheduled. And for students learning from home, regular breaks (with encouragement to move around) will help with focus when they’re back in front of the webcam.

The irregular schedules brought about by the pandemic, and the need to sometimes re-teach forgotten material, leave our students at risk of falling behind. There’s no magic wand to fix the situation, but making sure students are emotionally ready to learn, and giving them appropriate spaces and time for movement, can go a long way.

Check out some of our classrooms that feature movement for student well-being here.

The Evolution of the Workplace

As we approach two years of a radically changed work environment due to the pandemic, much uncertainty remains. Plans to return to the physical workspace have been derailed or delayed by the Omicron variant and organizations are grappling with how best to move forward. What has changed in the workplace, and what needs to continue changing? Take a look at the evolution of the workplace.

Some businesses have decided that they can get along just fine with a remote workforce, at least in the shorter term. They’re in the minority, but many were already operating virtually pre-pandemic, so the transition has been easier. At the other end of the spectrum are those for whom remote work is not a viable option: service industries, manufacturers and so forth.

In the middle are the vast majority of businesses, trying to roll with the continued punches of COVID and figure out the best combination of in-person, remote and hybrid work for their own teams and circumstances. And if there’s one word to describe handling all this uncertainty, it’s this: adaptability.

That can mean a lot of things, but in terms of office design it’s really the continuation of a trend of several years: Many organizations had already seen the value of flexible workspaces in both the more efficient use of space and the ways in which they promote collaboration. That physical adaptability will now become even more important.

Remote and hybrid work means fewer opportunities for teams to collaborate in person, which is indisputably more effective. So when a team is in the same physical space, every effort needs to be made to maximize that opportunity with an environment that can adjust on the fly to changing needs.

Adaptability is required far beyond the physical workspace, of course. We still don’t fully understand how this prolonged stretch of diminished interaction will affect all of us as workers and as human beings, and business leaders will need to be even more flexible than their workspaces to accommodate the changing needs of their teams.

Check out this adaptable workspace at Frederick Innovative Technology Center (FITC).

Aviation Week: The GrandView Aviation Project

The week of August 19 is National Aviation Week, a time to commemorate the soaring achievements that have taken us into the skies since the first flight of the Wright Brothers near Kitty Hawk, NC in 1903. National Aviation Week was proclaimed as National Aviation Day in 1939 by President Franklin Roosevelt and has since been turned into a week long celebration.

Featuring conferences, exhibitions and webinars worldwide, National Aviation Week celebrates the history and achievements that have taken humankind into the sky (fun fact: the Wright Brothers’ initial flight, lasting 12 seconds, was just about equivalent to the wingspan of a 747, at 120 feet). Although the Wright Brothers were not the first to build and fly experimental aircrafts, they are recognized as the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed wing flight possible.

Closer to home, and closer to the ground, we’re celebrating our involvement in a project for GrandView Aviation, a private jet charter company located at Martin State Airport in Middle River, MD (one of their eight locations nationwide). Working with Levin/Brown Architects, we provided design services, fixtures and furniture for this 20,000-square-foot space, using products from HON and JSI for the offices, lounge areas and conference room.

For more photos from GrandView Aviation click here.

Classroom Design for STEM and STEAM Education