Blue Valley School Center for Advanced Professional Studies Overland Park, Kansas
“I find out what the world needs. Then, I go ahead and invent it.” Thomas Edison As quoted in American Greats (1999), p. 70 Blue Valley CAPS received a 2011 Gold Edison Award for Living, Working, and Learning Environments
Background The Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) provides 600 Blue Valley high school juniors and seniors from five district schools with a unique learning opportunity for hands-on, real world experience in a professional interest area of their choice. CAPS is an interesting story about a new type of learning environment which poses the question, “What will it take to make students successful in the future?” At CAPS, students fast forward into their future as if they already have a college degree and are fully immersed in a professional culture, solving real world problems, using industry standard tools and are mentored by real employers, which leads to substantial advanced contribution during the formative high school years. Currently, they pursue college-level coursework and “try out” careers within four strands and a variety of concentrations: Bioscience, Business, Engineering or Human Services. Understanding that what is “relevant” is ever changing, CAPS provides a framework for learning about known regional industries and careers while also providing an inherently flexible environment that will allow for future and yet-to-be-invented careers to be gracefully incorporated into the program. CAPS is an example of how private industry, higher education, and K-12 public education can create a seamless system to produce personalized learning experiences that prepare the next generation of professionals in critical, high-demand industries. Critical to this is a learning environment that not only facilitates the educational goals of CAPS, but inspires a strong culture and unifying professional identity.
The Process The professional and educationally synergistic design is a function of the dynamic planning process in which the CAPS facility program and curricula were design in tandem. After a robust analysis of local industry trends to identify regionally appropriate CAPS strands, the design team led a series of participatory planning workshops and focus groups with students, staff, and local community and industry leaders to define the CAPS program and outline a living educational specifications guide. Key to the success of the planning process was enlisting true business partners, such as Garmin, Cisco, HP, and the KU Medical Center, to be a part of the planning team. This critical action ensured that each specialized learning environment‘s software, technology, equipment was industry standard and curricula was industry relevant. Wireless connections, ubiquitous technology, and “arm’s reach” resources define the building as a whole. Rather than drawing upon tradition-bound models, the team looked to innovative companies and workspaces such as Google and IDEO for inspiration. Every decision made at CAPS had to answer the questions: “Does this look like a high school? Would you see this in a high school?” If so, then we made a different decision.
Blue Valley Center for Advanced Professional Studies
The Challenges/Solutions The largest challenges stemmed from two principal issues. First, the visioning, planning and design process for the new facility were happening simultaneously with the design of the curriculum. While challenging, it also made the process intensely interesting and gave the planning workshop participants a true sense of ownership as they contemplated, vetted and designed the direct link between curriculum and facility. Secondly, after surveying many other programs and facilities, none struck our planning committee as a model that should be emulated. Perhaps part of one or a piece of another, but none came close to the types of programs, level of industry involvement and building design that we were after. We had to blaze a new trail.
Facility Design Overview + Noteworthy Features While academic, the look and feel of CAPS is decidedly not that of a traditional school. A centralized multi-level atrium is flanked on two sides by administrative space and the four current CAPS strands– Engineering, Human Services, Bioscience, and Business–which prioritize design features such as: State of the Art Strands: Relevant learning means real tools and technology. Each strand has a variety of classrooms tailored by content and outfitted with tools prescribed by active advising–and even donations– from the local business community from Garmin to Kansas Biotech. (Note: Shelled space is provided for a fifth strand currently being designed that includes an inter-strand business incubator)
Interstitial Innovation Areas: A hallmark of CAPS is the dynamic, open utilization of in-between space for inter- & intra- strand collaboration. This means corridors are active and transparent, equipped with project display space, project storage, and impromptu meeting points. The Innovation Atrium and the wood-clad amphitheater stair they frame can easily be used for anything from mentoring roundtables to public presentations of work, a hallmark of authentic project based learning. Ubiquitous Professional Learning Community: CAPS honors the professionalism of its students and empowers a diverse teaching/industry staff through project-based learning. Fixed, specialized classrooms with distributed touchdown areas replace central teacher desks to drive flexibility and collaboration. A Visual Identity: The Overland Park and Blue Valley community can easily identify CAPS inside and out through strong branding. From the graphic wall framing the innovation atrium upon entry to the glasswork and use of colors in the corridor, occupants immediately are drawn into the CAPS culture. Sustainability that teaches: In pursuit of LEED® for Schools Gold certification, CAPS incorporates a sweeping array of sustainable design strategies. Central to transforming this from a certification to a teaching opportunity is making those choices transparent through visibility of technology and energy monitoring. The principal building orientation places the broad face of classrooms and labs spaces in a north or south-facing orientation to maximize the quality of daylight in these teaching and learning spaces. With the understanding that daylighting/sensoring can improve student performance while also lowering energy consumption, generations of students will reap the educational benefits while the Blue Valley community will see fewer dollars spent on operations. Special attention was also paid to energy efficient mechanical systems. Clean, fresh air will be distributed via an underfloor air system made possible by a raised floor system. This system will also save bottom line energy dollars while simultaneously greatly enhancing current and future flexibility. In addition to these features, there are numerous sustainable strategies, including: rainwater collection systems used for irrigation, bioswales, rain gardens, locallysourced materials, CO2 monitoring, and a future demonstration wind turbine.