Reinventing Educational Spaces ANGEL COLEMAN THESIS PROPOSAL FOR CLASS OF 2021-2022
Thesis Advisor: Steven Hardy Proposal Accepted: April 10th, 2021
Reinventing Educational Spaces
ARCH 544 SPR 2021
ANGEL COLEMAN The current pandemic has had a dramatic impact on the spaces we inhabit. People are now working from home and students have moved to taking the majority of their classes online in an attempt to social distance. The overcrowded classrooms now sit empty, and the home environment has become a crowded all-in-one space for education, work, living and play spaces. The pandemic brought to the forefront many issues for our academic environments. Technology, classroom sizes and the number of students are just some of the physical issues that have become prominent in the last year. The mental impact from our new environments, or lack thereof, is taking one of the biggest tolls on our education. Future school campus designs need to learn from these issues to create better learning environments to meet everyone's needs.
Fig. 1: The new reality of a working mom while educating her children at home during the pandemic.
Experimental Changes
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Many schools across the country did not return in person, but the University of Nebraska and many public schools across our state experimented with in person classes.1 Across these campuses, we see classrooms that have gone from squeezing
are too large or too small and students cannot successfully socially distance in the spaces. Across University campuses, many students that commute may go from an in-person class to an online class in
Fig. 4: One of several spaces on campus to attend classes on zoom. Fig. 2: A Classroom prior to the pandemic.
thirty students into a room to empty chairs in order to keep six-foot distancing guidelines. We see classrooms that sit empty because the spaces
Fig. 3: A Classroom sits empty with socially distanced seats after our return to schools.
fifteen minutes and must find a space with a good internet connection to connect, a lot of times outside. Many of our music students have also been seen practicing outside so they have access
Fig. 5: Musicians finding spaces to practice safely without a mask.
to spaces that small groups can practice safely. It has been a nice cultural experience watching students draw and paint outside or listening to the musicians. Mother nature does not always cooperate though, creating setbacks in the student's opportunities to learn directly from teachers in our current situation. High School musicians and performing artists have been performing concerts outside
Fig. 6: Show Choir locating a space outside where the whole group can practice together.
on the grass so that they are in a safe environment, socially distanced and able to perform in front of family and friends. There are some performance groups that are so large they cannot effectively perform inside on a stage together
nor invite spectators to watch due to these guidelines. As the weather gets colder, many groups are trying to share spaces in gyms and auditoriums so they can perform, creating more scheduling conflicts and limiting their time together. Rising Problems Our schools have not always had the best spaces to meet every student’s learning needs. Some students do not do well in these online learning environments and some programs and majors, like performing arts, design studios and science labs, need hands on environments to
Fig. 7: Students practicing a hands o learning technique that can not be learned efficiently online.
physically learn. Instructional videos just can not teach them the lessons properly. Classrooms may be crowded, but poverty levels and family factors also affect a student’s ability to learn. Technology in the classroom has helped many students to expand their knowledge and information from the internet. Many of these students do not have access to current technology at home which puts them at a disadvantage, even more so when students went into lockdown.2 Not only are the students missing out on technology, but many do not have access to materials for simple science experiments at home. This inaccessibility has further impacted the diversity and inequalities in our educational environments. Technology itself has problems. Here on campus, we have had issues connecting to Canvas to see lessons or submit assignments. On August 24th, 2020, many students were unable to connect to classes via zoom.3 Low bandwidth from the internet causes many to lose connections, causing students to miss important parts of lectures. Technology has its benefits, but the reliability of having those benefits decreases as the more of us rely on its usage.
Fig. 9: CDC reports of the number of children experiencing mental health issues by age group.
The Need Although we are looking towards a time when life is beginning to return to normal, how can we use this knowledge to improve the design of our educational Fig. 8: Graphic from featured story in Daily Nebraskan March 15, 2021, spaces in the future? It is time promoting a student petition to have a to reevaluate our educational mental health day. environments and reconsider spaces not only for our The Hidden Impacts educational learning, but for our mental well-being in the The social impact the educational environment. Our pandemic lockdown has profession needs to consider had on our populations is these changes when thinking enormous. Symptoms relating about how we redesign the to anxiety disorders and learning environment. High depression have considerably School students appear to increased this last year have had some of the large compared to the previous impacts from these recent year.4 The CDC reports that obstacles, not only in the teenagers have the greatest classrooms, but also missing number of mental health important social activities problems,5 and that nearly and milestones. Aside from 35% of them receive services rising mental anxiety and at the school.6 Humans are a depression that started social species and need more after the pandemic hit, the than virtual contact to satisfy changes to their classes after this. For many students, the returning to school have school environment is their created more frustrations. primary way of meeting that The spaces in our schools social need, spending more needs to be redesigned to time at school than at home. provide an environment that Technology has negative not only supports learning impacts on our health also. and activities for everyone but Sitting at a computer causes thinks about the emotional eye strain, poor posture, and wellness of our students and increases obesity as we reduce faculty. our physical activity. The isolation from physical contact How To Begin caused by using technology leads to more psychological To design a high school effects including depression environment that withstands and anxiety, even though they some of the impacts we may be designed to bring have seen lately, we need people together.7 to start by looking at what has been done and what has worked. We need to consider the history of our school designs and the motivation that made changes to those environments. Learning how
schools have evolved will help us to see how we can make changes for the future. We also need to consider alternative types of school environments. I have been looking at a book titled, The Parents’ Guide to Alternatives in Education, by Ronald Koetzsch which details twentythree different alternatives to possibly consider in our redesign or give insight to further alternatives to study. Montessori schools that have been using the outdoor environment as their place of education since their inception should also be focused on in researching some alternatives. Schools have used portable buildings to provide additional classrooms when the school became overcrowded. During the pandemic, many schools utilized pop-up tents and portable classrooms to provide spaces for classes to take place outdoors. Several Architecture Firms, like CLTH,8 SOM9 and companies like Portakabin10 have been considering designs for these types of spaces. Studying these alternative spaces could help us to rethink the classroom hallways and organization of classrooms. Outdoor classroom spaces should also be researched and considered in reshaping the environment. Looking at the changes made during this pandemic, and other previous pandemics, will help to see the needs that have arose during these times of crisis. Teachers and students should be interviewed through surveys to determine what they need, want, or discovered that helped them during this last year. Finally, we must learn about specific design principles that promote
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mental well being of the students and staff. The AIA held a summit in October of 2018 for a Committee on Architecture for Education, bringing together architects, policymakers, students, educators, administrators, law enforcement, mental health experts and others to explore ways to improve safety and security in their school communities. This report provides a good baseline of research that has already been considered recently, although perhaps not implemented yet, to help keep the school campuses safe. Although my intent would be to focus on a high school campus, looking into University campuses and their history should also be considered. Some High Schools are developing plans to make the transition from high school to college easier by creating schedules and activities that are a combination of both college and high school campuses. I would look into a potential site in the city of Lincoln, preferably one that Lincoln Public Schools may already own and possibly be utilizing for a future school, to take a look at a realistic setting for a school. We then should look at specific details of the design that can help to benefit our mental health and supplement the design of the classrooms and larger campus. The desired result would be a campus that allows for indoor and outdoor classrooms and spaces that can be used multiple purposes.
The Redesign
ENDNOTES
FIGURE CREDITS
When thinking about our future high schools, we cannot just look at the building. Many of these school groups, like music ensembles, along with athletics and after school clubs and groups, such as theatre, speech and debate, and student council provide a sense of community and belonging for students they may not receive elsewhere. It is imperative to create spaces that can provide for the needs of students yet be adaptive enough to accommodate everyone. We need to design a campus that provides students with safety, mental wellness and spaces that promote learning through a welcoming environment. By studying the way school campuses have evolved, focusing on the students and teachers of today and their needs, and learning from the recent pandemic that caused immediate experimental changes, our discipline can create the educational environments of tomorrow that focus on the complete well-being of the student.
1. “School Responses to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic during the 2020-2021 Academic Year,” Ballotpedia, accessed March 20, 2021, https://ballotpedia. org/School_responses_to_the_coronavirus_(COVID-19)_ pandemic_during_the_2020-2021_academic_year.
1. “Being A Working Mom Is Hard. The Pandemic Made It Even Harder.,” accessed March 20, 2021, https://www. wbur.org/onpoint/2020/07/27/working-moms-pandemic.
2. Hussar, B., NCES; Zhang, J., Hein, S., Wang, K., Roberts, A., Cui, J., Smith, M., AIR; Bullock Mann, F., Barmer, A., and Dilig, R., RT, “The Condition of Education 2020” (National Center for Education Statistics, May 19, 2020), https:// nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2020144. 3. Emil Sayegh, “Why The Recent Zoom Crash Is Evidence Of A Remote Technology Boom,” Forbes, accessed March 27, 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/ emilsayegh/2020/10/14/why-the-recent-zoom-crash-isevidence-of-a-remote-technology-boom/. 4. “Teens’ Mental Health Took a Hit During Pandemic,” March 2, 2021, https://www.medpagetoday.com/ pediatrics/generalpediatrics/91432. 5. CDC, “Data and Statistics on Children’s Mental Health | CDC,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 15, 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/ data.html. 6. Mir M. Ali et al., “Utilization of Mental Health Services in Educational Setting by Adolescents in the United States,” Journal of School Health 89, no. 5 (2019): 393–401, https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.12753. 7. “Negative Effects of Technology: Psychological, Social, and Health,” February 25, 2020, https://www. medicalnewstoday.com/articles/negative-effects-oftechnology. 8. “CLTH Proposes Adaptive Design for Schools Post COVID-19,” ArchDaily, May 18, 2020, https://www. archdaily.com/939683/clth-proposes-adaptive-design-forschools-post-covid-19. 9. “SOM Team Reimagines the Portable Classroom Building,” Archinect, accessed March 20, 2021, https:// archinect.com/news/article/150230589/som-teamreimagines-the-portable-classroom-building.
Fig. 10: Graphic from the AIA Committee on Architecture for Education Report incorporating all the ideas they feel belongs in the school design.
10. “Mobile Classrooms | Temporary School Classrooms,” Portakabin®, accessed March 20, 2021, https://www. portakabin.com/gb-en/our-buildings/education-facilities/ classrooms/. 11. “The Design of Safe, Secure & Welcoming Learning Environments - AIA,” accessed March 27, 2021, https:// www.aia.org/pages/6189185-the-design-of-safe-secure-welcoming-learn.
2. “Packed Classrooms Cramp Learning, Students Say,” Norwood News (blog), January 23, 2012, https://www. norwoodnews.org/packed-classrooms-cramp-learningstudents-say/. 3. “Arizona Teachers Waged a Sickout Over In-Person Learning Concerns,” Time, accessed March 20, 2021, https://time.com/5880630/arizona-teachers-sickoutcoronavirus/. 4. “201028 Campus 024 | Digital Photo Archive | Nebraska,” accessed March 20, 2021, https:// ucommphotosrv.unl.edu/201028-campus-024. 5. “Nebraska Successfully Kicks off In-Person Instruction,” accessed March 20, 2021, https://news.unl.edu/ newsrooms/today/article/nebraska-successfully-kicks-offin-person-instruction/. 6. “(19) ATSC (@ATSCShowChoir) / Twitter,” Twitter, accessed March 20, 2021, https://twitter.com/ ATSCShowChoir. 7. Alyson Klein, “Why ‘Deep Learning’ Is Hard to Do in Remote or Hybrid Schooling,” Education Week, November 4, 2020, sec. Classroom Technology, https://www.edweek. org/technology/why-deep-learning-is-hard-to-do-inremote-or-hybrid-schooling/2020/11. 8. Natalie Stanley, “Student Petition Seeks Mental Health Day in Lieu of Spring Break,” The Daily Nebraskan, accessed March 20, 2021, http://www.dailynebraskan. com/news/student-petition-seeks-mental-health-day-inlieu-of-spring-break/article_03619b5c-852c-11eb-bb7df7ca811cb3fe.html. 9. CDC, “Data and Statistics on Children’s Mental Health | CDC,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 15, 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/ data.html. 10. “The Design of Safe, Secure & Welcoming Learning Environments - AIA,” accessed March 27, 2021, https:// www.aia.org/pages/6189185-the-design-of-safe-secure-welcoming-learn.
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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Allen, Stan. “From Object to Field.” Architectural Design 67, no. 5-6 (May & June 1997): 24-31. Allen discusses his term “field condition”, relating the architecture to an object on the field as it refers to the location of these objects and how they relate. Baxi, Kadambari, Matias del Campo, Fadi Masoud, Renée Cheng, Elizabeth Donovan, Carl Smith, Dana Tomlin, Aaron Cayer, Delia Mellis, Huda Tayob, G. Pelin Sarıoğlu Erdoğdu, Nicholas Pevzner, Robin Tremblay-Mcgaw, and Billy Fleming. “Field Notes on Pandemic Teaching: 6.” Places Journal, April 23, 2020. https://doi.org/10.22269/200423. The sixth and final in the series about narrative studies of educators on the challenges to moving to online teaching. Each of these contains statements from roughly a dozen different educators, many in the field of Architecture. Bellini, Maria Irene, Liset Pengel, Luciano Potena, and Luca Segantini. “COVID-19 and Education: Restructuring after the Pandemic.” Transplant International 34, no. 2 (2021): 220–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/tri.13788.
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The challenges that have come from the pandemic and making our educations valuable yet by learning to think of new alternatives for meetings, in person activities and communicate in thei evolving scenario. Bergquist, William H., & Kenneth Pawlak. Engaging the Six Cultures of the Academy: Revised and Expanded Edition of The Four Cultures of the Academy. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008. They discuss six different cultures in academic institutions, the original four, collegial, managerial, developmental and advocacy, and now the virtual culture and tangible culture. As well as identifying these different cultures in the institutions, they discuss ways these soncepts can be used to improve the lives at the institutions. Chakraborty, Pinaki, Prabhat Mittal, Manu Sheel Gupta, Savita Yadav, and Anshika Arora. “Opinion of Students on Online Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 2020, 1-9. Accessed February 16, 2021. https://doi. org/10.1002/hbe2.240. Students opinions about different aspects of online education during the pandemic. Chayka, Kyle. “How the Coronavirus will Reshape Architecture.” The New Yorker, June 17, 2020. Accessed February 24, 2021. https://www.newyorker. com/culture/dept-of-design/how-the-coronaviruswill-reshape-architecture. Discussions of how different designers have changed throughout history based on their situations and comparing them with different events happening today. They also imagine what the future of cities may hold.
Demir-Yildiz, Canan, and Ramazan Samil Tatik. "Impact of Flexible and Non-flexible Classroom Environments on Learning of Undergraduate Students." European Journal of Educational Research 8, no. 4 (2019): 1159-1173. https://eu-jer.com/impact-of-flexibleand-non-flexible-classroom-environments-onlearning-of-undergraduate-students.html. The impact of flexible and non-flexible spaces affect students learning. The study used a mixed method research design using pretest and posttest and open ended questionnaires. Greenway, Charlotte W., and Karen Eaton‐Thomas. “Parent Experiences of Home-Schooling Children with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities during the Coronavirus Pandemic.” British Journal of Special Education 47, no. 4 (2020): 510–35. https://doi. org/10.1111/1467-8578.12341. A survey of Parents of special needs children and their views of home schooling during the pandemic, including resources and support available to them. Have, Henk ten. “Pandemic Education.” International Journal of Ethics Education, 2020, 1–2. Pandemic Education including thoughts about the lockdown and changes as well as the significance of education for the pandemic. Hershock, Peter D. “Humane Artificial Intelligence: Inequality, Social Cohesion and the Post Pandemic Acceleration of Intelligent Technology.” East-West Center, 2020. https://www.jstor.org/stable/ resrep25513. The complexity of the pandemic and ohw it reveals social economic and political issues that can accelerate historical processes such as our technology. Maity, Sudarshan, Tarak Nath Sahu, and Nabanita Sen. “Panoramic View of Digital Education in COVID-19: A New Explored Avenue.” Review of Education n/a, no. n/a (December 10, 2020). https://doi. org/10.1002/rev3.3250. A new restructuring to the pandemic and our education. Looking at the lockdown and our adoption of digital technology for education from elementary to university levels. MAS CONTEXT. “MAS Context Fall Talks 2020 Concentrico: Rethinking Our Built Environment Through Design,” August 1, 2020. https://www.mascontext.com/ events/mas-context-fall-talks-2020/concentricorethinking-our-built-environment-through-design/. With a video, an online festival that brought together urban installations who were rethinking and experimenting with the built environment through design.
Martin, Reinhold, Susan Piedmont-Palladino, Brent Sturlaugson, Barbara Penner, Judith Rodenbeck, Harriet Harriss, Sandy Isenstadt, Anna Livia Brand, Iman Ansari, Hélène Frichot, & Brett Milligan. “Field Notes on Pandemic Teaching: 1.” Places Journal, April 14, 2020. https://doi.org/10.22269/200414. A Series about narrative studies of educators on the challenges to moving to online teaching. Passionate responses from professors directly in the field giving their perspectives of what works, what doesn’t and what it’s like. Murphy, Orla, Emmett Scanlon, Liska Chan, Derek Hoeferlin, Peggy Deamer, Yuko Uchikawa, Hugh Raffles, Manuel Shvartzberg Carrió, Sarah Rottenberg, Germane Barnes, Jesse LeCavalier, Susannah Drake, Annmarie Adams, & Carolina Dayer. “Field Notes on Pandemic Teaching: 5.” Places Journal, April 22, 2020. https://doi.org/10.22269/200422.\ The Fifth installment in the series about narrative studies of educators on the challenges to moving to online teaching. They discuss the importance of community, the role of schools, and the nature of learning in this new environment. Pries, Johan, Andrew Herscher, Hugh Campbell, Shannon Mattern, Erin Moore, Rasmus Hansen, Frederick Steiner, Mireille Roddier, Mira Schor, Shelly Silver, Charles Davis, & Philip Ursprung. “Field Notes on Pandemic Teaching: 3.” Places Journal, April 16, 2020. https://doi.org/10.22269/200416. The third in the Series about narrative studies of educators on the challenges to moving to online teaching. Notes from different educators, telling their short story. Sadler, Simon, Patricia Morton, Richard J. Williams, Fred Scharmen, Marshall Brown, Clare Lyster, Jeffrey Hou, et al. “Field Notes on Pandemic Teaching: 2.” Places Journal, April 15, 2020. https://doi. org/10.22269/200415. Second in the series about narrative studies of educators on the challenges to moving to online teaching. Discussions if the future and what this is leading to. Smiley, David, Alison Hirsch, Iñaki Alday, Kim Anno, Greg Lindquist, Keith Eggener, Linda C. Samuels, et al. “Field Notes on Pandemic Teaching: 4.” Places Journal, April 21, 2020. https://doi. org/10.22269/200421. Fourth in the series about narrative studies of educators on the challenges to moving to online teaching. Practical, Logistical, Conceptual, Political, Philosophical involving the importance of what the students need.
Strange, Charles C., & James H. Banning. Designing for learning: Creating Campus Environments for Student Success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2015. Looking at environments that support student learning, not only on what they are learning but also where they are learning. Explaining key ideas that universities need to consider for universal design, learning communities and social networking, multicultural environments, virtual environments, and allowing students to feel safe and included in whatever environment they are in. Walters, Anne. “Inequities in Access to Education: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.” The Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter 36, no. 8 (2020): 8–8. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbl.30483. Inequities of access to education during the pandemic, including families with no computers and no internet. The variabilities between different schools and extra stress for families with children with mental health needs. Zawacki‐Richter, Olaf. “The Current State and Impact of Covid-19 on Digital Higher Education in Germany.” Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies 3, no. 1 (2021): 218–26. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.238. A case study looking at the effects of covid-19 on education at universities in Germany. It talks about whether the current online teaching will accelerate our technology and even if the international experience can begin over distance education.
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