April Facilities news by Proteus West

Today’s challenge is to Re-Imagine the Learning Environment as we navigate a Pandemic insuring students are safe, secure, and healthy when in the physical knowledge enterprise. Adapting to a

blended, hybrid-learning environment that can be equitably deployed across the entire Arizona educational enterprise is an opportunity that summons our strategic imagination so that funding flows to those Districts most in need. Learning is individual; students accumulate knowledge and then gather in cohorts to collaborate. They prepare individually, favor content-specific information so that their informed-perspective will

enrich exploration, discovery, innovation, and the creation of novel initiatives.

Engaging this new paradigm is essential to re-imagining the learning environment, one that promotes student success. Blended learning and all that is required to accommodate an active and spreading pandemic provides the impetus for visioning, community engagement, and imaging new arrangements of space as well as student interactions that support learning, imagining, creating, and moving knowledge to action.

Let’s consider something as simple as breathing. Certainly, the infusion of fresh and filtered air is essential. Even though Federal mandates have been relaxed, adopting and continuing the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mitigation protocols is important to maintaining a safe and healthy environment.

Just as necessity is the mother of invention, so too are the pandemic precautions the impetus for progress. These conditions inform the re-imagining of learning environments. New areas will provide technology-rich Knowledge-Centers or data centers where information is held and accessible. It will make necessary flexible and adaptable co-hort centers or project spaces that provide visualization areas to gather, strategize, and prioritize contributions, as well as individual workspaces for specific manipulation, and focused exploration. Learners will need places to test and confirm probabilities. Student areas should be infused with comfortable communication areas for open discussion, quiet contemplation, and wellness experiences.

Teachers will be facilitators guiding students as they analyze, evaluate, and prioritize areas of interest for individual accumulation. Teachers will mentor students throughout the learning experience, providing additional resources as they navigate their learning journey. Teachers need areas set aside for resource preparation, professional development, and comparative review of process, challenges, and accomplishments with other teachers.

So how do we manifest these new strategies today?

The facility must support a safe, secure, and healthy learning environment. Interior spaces should adapt mechanical ventilation to filter recirculated air and increase the introduction of outdoor fresh air into the spaces. Distribute self-contained air purification systems throughout occupied spaces and adapt furniture layouts to accommodate social distancing which will also lessen the student capacity within the classroom. Repurpose spaces like the media center, cafeteria, and other easily adaptable spaces for adoption as classrooms. Move eating spaces and other non-masked environments to outdoor areas where transmission is more easily dissipated. These areas can be spaces shielded by building orientations and should be covered to shield from weather and solar radiation. The continuation of hybrid learning environments is likely to proliferate over the next several years and some aspects of this evolving learning environment will remain in-place as normal.

Technology and infrastructure to support learning will be essential to equitable student outcomes. Federal funding associated with the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) I, II, III, and the upcoming IV as well as the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER) and the Infrastructure Act being discussed in Congress provides, and will provide economic infusions to execute these strategies. This Federal funding is in addition to local and state available funding and is sourced through the Arizona Department of Education (ADE).

What Districts need to do is to prepare. This means developing a strategy based on vision discovery, community engagement, planning and early design that is compelling when presenting a funding request to the state or federal government.

SOS is here to assist. Our team includes an Accredited Learning Environment Planner (ALEP),

architects, mechanical and electrical engineering expertise, technology experts, and all the knowledge associated with facility implementation and funding acquisition.

Please call on us to assist you through the process.

2021-04_SOS April eBlast Facilities Arti.

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