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Presentations
Teaching and Learning Styles
Julie Barrett, educational facility planner, WWCOT
Wendy Waggoner, ATLAS Mentor (Accomplished Teacher Leader for Academic Success), AZ Department of Education, Piñon Unified School District #1
Reminder of the importance of addressing the learning styles and the real-life application of these practices. In addition, we will hear from a teacher who has been part of a team who has implemented these teaching practices and hear her experiences in that process. Discussion will focus on the opportunities and constraints as applied to the learning environment.
ENRG3 Green School Program
Presenter: Al Sena, executive director of facilities, Rio Rancho Public Schools
Presentation of a special program that has been implemented at Rio Rancho Public Schools, in New Mexico. A green facility program may encompass one or any combination of the following: new construction, renovations, energy systems, facility maintenance, facility cleaning, and/or educating students on these green applications. The new ENRG3 program is all-encompassing and is used to change the behavior of the students and the community -essential in a lifelong "green" program.
Asset Management: Creating Opportunities in Trying Times of Declining Enrollment and Shrinking Resources
Thomas Blurock, managing principal – education architecture, IBI Group
Pat Leier, educational management and programming consultant, IBI Group
The session will present a number of case studies exploring the use of school district property for program and income enhancement. As major landowners, school districts often neglect the potential of their land holdings as assets. Turning the challenges posed by declining enrollment, state budget rollbacks and economic distress into opportunities will be explored in this session.
The examples include:
- Consolidation – many districts are closing schools due to declining enrollments and funding, thinking of program enhancement, mixed use and community benefit can turn a political problem into a community asset.
- Mixed Use Education Centers – How Pomona Unified an urban district in Southern California used mixed use development to enhance education program and community. Examples include several education "villages" combining schools with commercial activity, community use, district administration, pre school and post secondary education to create true community centers.
- Redevelopment of Surplus District Property – School districts are major landowners but don't always think of themselves that way. Rather than simply selling district property, creating private-public partnerships can enhance income, create program opportunities, increase facility flexibility and create an endowment for the district. Using examples from Los Angeles and Sacramento several examples will be given of workforce housing, flexible shell and core construction for education and other uses, commercial development and more with strategies for creating public private partnerships.
Convergence and the Cloud
Jeff Billings, director of information technology, Paradise Valley Unified School District
Previous models of K12 school functionality are poised to rapidly transform due to advancements in technology and connectivity through the internet. What happens when past stables, like textbooks, give way to free multimedia content delivery accessible by anyone, at any time, from any location?
How do K12 institutions respond to instruction from participatory networking, online avatars, virtual classrooms, indeed virtual campuses? How do political K12 funding models collide as technology now provides immediate assessment of knowledge gained versus the current model of in-seat attendance? K12 schools are no longer a neighborhood captured, nor "cottage" industry.
Education is no longer about basic content and 20th century skills, as measured by mandated tests. Learning how to exist and compete in an interconnected and globalized society are these kids future. Arizona students are now enrolling in schools like the Florida Virtual High School, the fastest growing high school in the nation, currently at 175,000 students.
Approximately 15% of Arizona high school students are now taking at least one course online. National predictions are that within 9 years, 50% of all high school courses will be taken online, and it continues to grow.
Post-secondary is entering the K12 market space, the European Union, China and India are entering the learning market. It is the Information Age, and K12 must, and will respond. Instruction is changing, engagement is changing, choice is expanding, and the physical space of current and future schools must also change in order to prosper. This presentation provides an interesting perspective on the impacts of technology and the internet to the K12 education market, the changes noted in the last few years, and how the industry might virtually and physically transform.
Maintenance by Design
Sergio Martinez, RA, DLR Group
Why does facility maintenance matter? Because a well-maintained school enables teachers to meet
the needs of 21st century learners. It creates a physical setting appropriate, conducive and adequate
for learning. It enables districts to stretch operating budgets and encourages future public
investment in education. Ultimately it reflects a pride of ownership in a facility that is realized in
reduce vandalism and increased morale of students, staff and the community at large.
This workshop demonstrates the effectiveness of maintaining what you have and making it work by
making smart operational decisions in collaboration with a design team. Five "Big Ideas" in the
design of effective maintenance plans include Collaboration, Connections, Commitment,
Optimization and Action. These over-arching ideas allow a district to develop common goals with
the design team, improve relationships among project participants, develop networks of
commitment to maintaining budgets and schedules while bringing coherence to the process.
Additionally, we'll consider "Seven Elements to Project Baselines" that will highlight the following:
- A Maintenance Planning Guide that stresses strategies and procedures rather than a "onefits-
all" solutions.
- Ways to define success.
- Emphasis on articulating the needs of systems, equipment and materials.
- How a maintenance "breakdown" presents opportunity to optimize a project.
- When to say "no" to maintenance improvements and determine needs vs. wants.
All this helps a district get the most from their designers and ultimately the operation of their
building.
Project Delivery Methods – Strengths and Weaknesses from an Owner's Perspective
Charlie Raubacher, senior vice president, Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB)
School district facility managers are faced with ever increasing challenges with developing and
maintaining their capital assets. These challenges include aging facilities, limited funding, and
increasing enrollments. This is further compounded by the demands of additional classroom
needs, technology, security, sustainability, and community usage.
Districts have struggled for years with determining how to balance these needs within their design
and construction procurement process. As a result, many districts have enacted legislation for the
use of alternative delivery methods. These delivery methods bring with them subtleties relative to
best project usage and contracting, which is very different between the public and private sectors.
The session will cover the strengths and weaknesses from an owner's prospective of the
Traditional, CM-at-Risk and Design-Build Delivery Methods, and the Bridging Method. Bridging is
a hybrid of the Traditional and Design-Build Methods, using the best aspects of each from an
owner's prospective.
Midway University: A Creative Learning Environment for Grades 2-8 on the USS Midway
Tom Silva, facilities planner, San Diego County Office of Education
Sandra Kate, senior educational facility planner, associate, HMC Architects
What does the optimum learning environment look like? Is it just the right mix of day lighting, good indoor air quality, good acoustics, and comfortable furniture? How often do we try to reinvent the classroom box to create the best learning environment possible? Perhaps optimum learning and teach environments can be found outside a traditional classroom.
The USS Midway is a World War II era aircraft carrier moored in the San Diego harbor which functions as a museum ship visited by thousands of tourists and school groups every year. However, the San Diego County Office of Education - Classroom of the Future and the USS Midway Museum Board saw this as a unique opportunity to create more than a typical school field trip experience. They wanted to really engage local schools in incorporating standard California science and math curriculum in a very hands-on environment for children called Midway University where learning activities are tied back to the home school classroom with results and experiences linked by technology. They challenged a diverse design team to realize this vision which included the educators who would be working with students on the ship, teaching staff from local schools that would have students attend the university, navy staff, navy shipbuilding experts, educational technology experts, education facility designers, as well as representation from the Midway Museum board.
This interactive work session will start by the presenters sharing the experience of creating this high tech learning environment on the USS Midway. They will explain some of the challenges including dealing not only with the unique construction of a Navyship with curved walls, sealed hatches, and extremely low ceilings, but also how to address safety and egress regulations, accessibility regulations, and a fire department request for totally non-combustible materials. Then the project team will discuss elements that create dynamic and engaging learning environments such as Midway University and how to make them successful for learning. Everyone will then break into small groups to develop a concept for a very different learning environment based on 4 different scenarios handed out to the teams. Each group will then present their concept in a mode or medium of their choosing. The interactive portion of the work session will be 30-35 minutes. We believe that many unique and thought-provoking ideas for better learning environments will emerge from such an interchange. We also believe that such concepts and elements could be incorporated into either traditional school environments or used as encouragement for school districts to seek out non-traditional environments in which their students can learn.
The Future of Facilities
Paul Winslow, AIA, principal and managing partner, Orcutt/Winslow
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