[Orientation] FE: Designing a Classroom

    We have done quite a lot since the last blog post, even though it was just yesterday. The first thing we did was talk about what it means to be a student and a teacher here at GCE Lab School. We did this to help introduce the new people to our community and remind those of us returning what we may have forgotten. We outlined six things each that teachers and students should keep in mind when interacting with the GCE community. Both of them basically boil down to, be respectful, get your things done on time, and be good people. 

    We have also focused a lot more heavily on the classroom design, even looking at one of our classrooms, the Design and Engineering Laboratory, and have tried to figure out how we can make it better. We were also presented with a bit of a unique challenge that other classrooms didn’t have to deal with. 

Before Photo

    As you can see, most of our furniture and facilities are locked in and attached, something we are unable to change. Now normally, this would be a great layout. Lots of places to sit, collaborate, and create. Unfortunately, we must make this facility CDC viable, so classes can be held here without putting anyone in danger. These two non-negotiables make it very hard to hold class here, as it needs to be able to have 14 students and 1-2 teachers inside the one little classroom safely. We think we have found a solution.

    The first thing we thought about was adding a way for multiple students to sit in the little cubby holes. We thought about adding some sort of plexiglass barrier between the two seats that are next to each other. Unfortunately, that would inhibit hearing and talking to the teacher. Our next idea was to add more stools to the large table in the center. We did this and it looked pretty good. Then one of the upperclassmen came over and asked if we wanted to use rolling chairs. So we replaced the stools with rolling chairs. We also had a bit of a whiteboard issue. The current whiteboard was just sitting on a table. We lined it up with the wall so it could be screwed onto it. It fit almost perfectly. We also put the table the whiteboard was sitting on in a more suitable place. The final result allows 17 students and the teacher to sit comfortably without violating the CDC guidelines. Our goal was a success. 

 

The Rolling Chairs

Our Plans and the Floating White Board

The Table