Dave Eggers’ TED Wish

Dave Eggers, 2008 TED Prize winner, wished to collect 1,000 stories of private citizens engaged in their area public schools. He called upon every adult to bring their time, skill, and energy to bear on the lives of students. In collaboration with teachers and schools around the world, people are making his wish a reality.
Now it’s OUR turn…

The challenge
Design and implement a new and innovative project for local public school students. Collaborate with a dynamic teacher or school to determine the best use of your skills and passion. There are no limitations to what is possible.

Please check out this link to Once Upon A School to learn more about the project.

Posted in 01. Maximize Collaboration in School Planning and Design, 04. Embrace the Entire Community as a Place for Learning | No Comments »

House Committee Approves High Performance Schools Bill

The House Committee on Education and Labor approved the 21st Century Schools Act (H.R. 3021), which would direct funding to projects that improve health, safety, energy efficiency, and the overall learning climate in school facilities.

The American Institute of Architects reports (The Angle, V6, Issue 11, 5/8/08) that: “Earlier this week, the House Committee on Education and Labor approved AIA-backed legislation that would provide $6.4 billion in grants to state and local school districts to renovate, repair, and modernize schools. The 21st Century High Performing Public Schools Act (H.R. 3021) directs funding to projects that improve health, safety, energy efficiency, and the overall learning climate in school facilities.
The AIA actively lobbied for this legislation, which the Education Committee approved by a vote of 29-18. Under the bill, each state would receive funding that would then be dispersed to local school districts for modernization projects. Eligible projects include replacing building systems, lighting, doors, and other modifications that would improve the teaching and learning environment.

Andrew Goldberg, Assoc. AIA, senior director, Federal Relations, praised the work of the committee at a time when schools across the country are in desperate need of renovations. “Architects have long known that properly designed, high-performance schools offer a far better learning environment for students,” he said.

Education Committee Chairman George Miller (D-CA) indicated that this bill could be voted on by the full House later this year. Stay tuned to The Angle for updates.

Posted in 09. Design Safe Schools, 28. Maximize Natural and Full-Spectrum Lighting, 29. Design Buildings that Promote Health | No Comments »

The Left Brain Strikes Back!: Music and the Arts Still Seen as Electives in the Conceptual Age

I like this post so much I thought I’d bring it back….

It seems in this so-called Conceptual Age, the arts are still poor stepchildren to the 3 Rs….

Instead of electives such as art, music and shop, northern California students are taking two or three language-arts classes and math classes, and struggling students may miss out on social studies and science as well. “It’s like saying all you need is water, you don’t need food,” said Jason Ebner, who taught middle-school history until it was virtually eliminated. Read more at by Shirley Dang in her article “Schools pile on English, math classes”.

Some schools, intent on meeting those “academic left brain standards” are willing to cut worthy programs that arguably will have enormous payoff in the Conceptual Age.

Don’t get me wrong, I love math (not so good at English and you can probably tell you verbal-types), and I believe strongly in the value of fun-damentals in education. Yet, educating the Whole Child is something we are so quick to dismiss when pressed by the almightly test scores!

Artichoke reminds me as well…Sir Ken Robinson has just excited NZ
educators with his presentation on this very same theme at the NZ
Principal’s Conference in Auckland, New Zealand. See my previous post
of Ken Robinson talk at TED.

HERE, TAKE THIS YOU LEFT BRAINERS!….

Posted in 18. Provide Studios to Support Project-based Learning | 1 Comment »

Ordrup School in Gentofte Denmark is Designed for Personalized Learning

Check out this wonderful video of the new elementary school at Ordrup school in Gentofte, Denmark that features authentic new paradigm learning environments, privacy niches and "cave space" for personalized learning, as well as, group learning.

Going well beyond traditional school design with a teacher’s desk and a black board, Ordrup School in Gentofte, Denmark, has created a variety of rooms with space for differentiated teaching and creative thinking.

The school features true new paradigm learning environments with privacy niches and "cave space", heightened window seating to sit and look outside, green platforms with round, red holes where discussions can buzz and bubble and large upholstered tubes where you can hide with a good book or to spend some time alone.

Furnishings become objects that are interesting, and invite curiosity and imagination about their use.  They are specific, as well as, flexible because they are abstract enough to be used and interpreted in multiple ways (e.g., columns). They subdivide space, and also are child scaled spaces (like the green rings that provide cave space and form a wall).

The design, created by Bosch and Fjord, is based in three concepts, ‘peace & absorption’, ‘discussion & cooperation’ and ’security & presence’, that will separate the individual areas in distinct functions and create new rooms for learning. By separating the activities and creating varied rooms space is created for dissimilarity in both teaching and play where the learning situation will be optimized.

Posted in 05. Create Smaller more Personalized Schools, 07. Consider Home as a Template for School, 08. Vary Circulation Patterns while Ensuring Supervision, 10. Cluster Learning Areas for Effective Collaboration, 11. Provide Space for Sharing Learning Resources, 12. Accommodate a Variety of Learning Groups and Activities, 13. Keep Class Sizes Small, 14. Provide Well-defined Activity Pockets, 18. Provide Studios to Support Project-based Learning, 22. Create Privacy Niches, 27. Design with Respect to Scale and Developmental Need | 1 Comment »

Obesity and the Design of the School Environment

"Spatial features of obesogenic environments studied on a broad, community level have been associated with childhood overweight and obesity, but little research has focused on the effects of the design of micro spaces such as schools on individual health behaviors.  This presentation aims to generate thinking and research on the link between school space and architecture and obesity prevention by reviewing and synthesizing available literature in architecture, environmental psychology, and obesity research, in an effort to propose promising ideas for school space design and redesign…"

This was the beginning of my abstract to a conference panel I was invited to put on by the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development entitled "Obesity and the Design of Microenvironment: Beyond Individual Behavior: Multidimensional Research in Obesity Linking Biology to Society in Pentagon City, Arlington, VA on October 10 - 12, 2007. My session was on "Engaging and Integrating Industry and Social Entrepreneurial Partnerships Into Empirical Research."

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 27. Design with Respect to Scale and Developmental Need, 29. Design Buildings that Promote Health, 32. Establish a Variety of Outdoor Learning Environments | No Comments »

The Laws of Simplicity

John Maeda’s site is “devoted to my ongoing thought processes regarding the topic of simplicity. I wrote and designed a book entitled The Laws of Simplicity to let the ideas take root.” The book.

Here are John’s 10 Laws:

1. Reduce: The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction
2. Organize: Organization makes a system of many appear fewer.
3. Time: Savings in time feels like simplicity.
4. Learn: Knowledge makes everything simpler.
5. Differences: Simplicity and complexity need each other.
6. Context: What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral.
7. Emotion: More emotions are better than less.
8. Trust: In simplicity we trust.
9. Failure: Some things can never be made simple.
10. The One: Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.

Posted in 01. Maximize Collaboration in School Planning and Design, 06. Respect Cultural Context while Providing Design Diversity, 12. Accommodate a Variety of Learning Groups and Activities, 18. Provide Studios to Support Project-based Learning, 22. Create Privacy Niches, 23. Weave Virtual and Physical Learning Spaces Together | No Comments »

Learning Improves with Exercise

HealthDay News reports that research by Dr. Catherine Davis, a clinical
health psychologist at the Medical College of Georgia, in Augusta, indicates that three months of daily,
vigorous exercise can improve. In fact, physical activity can also lower their diabetes risk, reduce
their body fat, and strengthen their bones, says a team that looked
at about 200 overweight, inactive children, ages 7 to 11.

“Aerobic exercise training showed dose-response benefits on
executive function (decision-making) and possibly math achievement,
in overweight children,” the researchers wrote in an abstract
presented this week at The Obesity Society’s annual scientific
meeting in New Orleans. “Regular exercise may be a simple,
important method of enhancing children’s cognitive and academic
development. These results may persuade educators to implement
vigorous physical activity curricula during a childhood obesity
epidemic,” the researchers concluded.

“We hope these findings will help persuade policymakers,
schools and communities that time spent being physically active
enhances, rather than detracts from learning,” Davis said.

These results encourage us to rethink policies that keep kids in chairs all day long!

Posted in 29. Design Buildings that Promote Health, 32. Establish a Variety of Outdoor Learning Environments | 1 Comment »

The Impact of Reduced Class Sizes on the Health of Children

We already know that reduced class size can contribute to achievement gains, especially in disadvantaged groups such as African Americans. Now we find that reduced class size is correlated with better health as well.

Science Daily reports on a new study published in the November issue of the American Journal of Public Health by researchers at Columbia
University Mailman School of Public Health and the Virginia
Commonwealth University, reducing the number of students per classroom in primary schools
may be more cost-effective than most public health and medical
interventions.

"The researchers estimated the health and economic effects of
reducing class sizes from 22–25 students to 13–17 students in
kindergarten through grade 3 nationwide, based on an intervention
tested in Project STAR (Student Teacher Achievement Ratio), a large
multi-school randomized trial that began in 1985."

"The study shows that a student graduating from high school after
attending smaller-sized classes gains an average of 1.7
quality-adjusted life-years and generates a net 8,431 in lifetime
revenue. "Higher earnings and better job quality enhance access to
health insurance coverage, reduce exposure to hazardous work
conditions, and provide individuals and families with the necessary
resources to move out of unfavorable neighborhoods and to purchase
goods and services," says Peter A. Muennig, MD, MPH, assistant
professor of Health Policy and Management at the Mailman School.
"Regardless of class size, the net effect of graduating from high
school is roughly equivalent to taking 20 years of bad health off of
your life."

Now if we could only open up the black box and figure out why, although we
might take some educated guesses? An increased sense of connectedness,
increased emotional support, caring adults, more one-on-one teacher to
student support…what do you think?

Posted in 05. Create Smaller more Personalized Schools, 13. Keep Class Sizes Small, 29. Design Buildings that Promote Health | No Comments »

Goodbye, textbooks; hello, open-source learning

What if Napster stocked textbooks? Engineering professor Richard Baraniuk talks about his vision for Connexions, an open-source system that lets teachers share digital texts and course materials, modify them and give them to their students — all free, thanks to Creative Commons licensing.

Rice University professor Richard Baraniuk has a giant vision: to create a free global online education system that puts the power of creation and collaboration in the hands of teachers worldwide. He’s realizing that vision with Connexions, a website that allows teachers to quickly “create, rip, mix and burn” coursework — without fear of copyright violations. Think of it as Napster for education. Connexions’ open-source system cuts out the textbook, allowing teachers to share course materials, modify existing work and disseminate it to their students — all for free, thanks to Creative Commons licensing. Baraniuk envisions Connexions as a repository where the most up-to-date material can be shared and reviewed (it’s far more efficient than waiting for a textbook to be printed); it could become a powerful force in leveling the education playing field. Currently encompassing hundreds of online courses and used by a million people worldwide, Baraniuk’s virtual educational system is revolutionizing the way people teach and learn.

Posted in 11. Provide Space for Sharing Learning Resources | No Comments »

Learning Spaces for the Creative Age

In this workshop session, Randy Fielding continues about the Creative Age with the stakeholders in the Regina, Saskatchewan School District. He discusses spatial representations of the four primordial learning modalities of Campfire, Cave, Watering Hole and Life first articulated by Dr. Thornburg. Here he works interactively with the participants to determine what the best learning spaces will be for the new school designs in Regina.

Posted in 05. Create Smaller more Personalized Schools, 07. Consider Home as a Template for School, 11. Provide Space for Sharing Learning Resources, 22. Create Privacy Niches | No Comments »