The School of the Future contest, hosted by CEFPI, is a competition in which groups of students design future schools using new concepts and technology. This video is a presentation by the 2012 student design team from Teeland Middle School in Wasilla, Alaska, which features their award-winning concept and design: Aurora Outreach Middle School.

Features examples from 18 campuses highlighting their efforts to design, implement and evaluate Eco-Rep Programs.

Provides curriculum and resources to K-12 students and teachers. The GEF Green Building Program educates K-12 students on green building attributes and benefits, and provides them with the educational resources necessary to understand, identify, and improve environmental inefficiencies within their own school buildings.

Plan for recruiting and organizing students to build a green campus movement. Step-by-step guide to starting a powerful and functional student group, identifying the greatest needs on campus and creating a campaign to address them. This toolkit is written for the student who wants to change their school, their environment, their community and their future. 40p.

The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Texas Wesleyan University undertook a project to find out what a classroom would look like if it were designed by faculty and students—and then to build that classroom. The goal was to promote innovation in learning space design and to advance instructors’ understanding of how classroom design impacts teaching and learning. Classroom.NEXT initiated a campus-wide dialogue on the design of informal and formal learning spaces, and faculty, students, and administrators identified flexibility and interactivity as key attributes to be promoted in all Texas Wesleyan learning spaces. Collaboration, particularly student-faculty collaboration, was a central component of the success of Classroom.NEXT. Faculty participants commented that they learned as much from their students about learning space design and technology as they did from the research. [Authors' abstract] 6p

Design studio aruliden, together with Bernhardt Design, conceived Tools at Schools as an initiative to teach eighth graders the value of design as a problem-solving tool at The School at Columbia University. Forty-four eighth grade students were immersed in the entire design process, from research to ideation to 3D modeling and ultimately launch of chairs, desks, and lockers. The lockers, for example, feature a doorknob (inspired by one student describing her locker as her bedroom for the semester) and a wealth of storage, including seven shelves and a tilt-out bin. A clever addition is the name tag that doubles as a mail slot –- which won raves among the students. Includes a description of the process, photos, and videos.

Examines an initiative that would fulfill two complementary purposes: to enable 2nd year architecture students to understand the discipline of landscape architecture; and to enable senior school students to have a voice in developing a critique of their outdoor environment. The client was a comprehensive secondary school, G. Boys High School (GBHS). Architecture students worked collaboratively with GBHS students to develop landscape and design proposals that would improve their experience of school life- and learning, as well as contributing to social and environmental sustainability. As the architecture students worked through their brief, school students were consulted regarding their responses to the ways in which various proposals were evolving. Year 11 and 12 students provided feedback at key points in the design process, when university students were on site, and a design and technology class was identified as one that would act as the representative group who would be more substantially engaged. 14p.

Students learn from being involved in the design and construction of their educational buildings. This paper reviews the Smart Green Schools linkage project over 2007 to 2010, looking at how the design and construction of school buildings with the students was used as tools for teaching sustainability. The research, through a case study methodology using observation, interviews and surveys, shows that the teachers and the students involved in the real world physical process of designing and constructing their buildings, led to an increased understanding. [Authors' abstract] 17p.

Provides a toolkit for teachers to help make the most of the learning opportunities created by building a new school or refurbishing an existing one. The resource provides ideas for exploiting the whole process The teaching activities are organized in five stages: getting started, looking closely, development and design, construction, and moving in. On the way schools will encounter a crash course in architecture and a range of other activities that respect the creativity of teachers as well as providing some stimulating material directly linked to the curriculum. 28p.

Compares drawings by children from two very different school environments. The project investigates how children and teachers in three recently built new schools in different regions of West Bank evaluate and use their school buildings. These three schools were chosen for this study because special care has been given to their spatial layout. Similar data are collected from children going to school in three old school buildings with more traditional spatial lay-outs. In their drawings, children from the new school give much more place to the surroundings, playground, nature, trees, open space, sun and also school friends (drawings of children in the courtyard) when compared to drawings from the old school. The authors suggest that this has to do with the fact that there is generally speaking more space and transparency in the new school. This could also be a hypothesis for explaining the more positive evaluation that children of the new school give about their school. 8p.

Advises on using the LEED green building certification program as a framework for developing and evolving campus-wide sustainability plans that include "green" building construction and operation, as well as engaging the occupants in green behavior. The Roadmap references more than 100 tools and resources to support campus greening efforts, profiles institutional success stories, and was created with the support of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. 118p.

Explains how students can be involved in green campus projects and contribute to LEED certification efforts. The guide outlines three options for engaging students: coursework, internships, and volunteer opportunities. It details the benefits of involving students and outlines ways to initiate the process of developing an engagement program, such as planning considerations and LEED-related activities and tasks that students can perform. The guide also contains profiles of three campuses that are engaging students on green campus projects with great success.

26p.

In 2001, England's Richmond upon Thames Council assembled a team to work on a vision for the classroom of the future. The result is Ingenium — a completely new approach to classroom design reflecting the demands of 21st Century learning. Core members of the design team were students from the three partner schools. They said they didn’t want a rectangular box with desks: they wanted to be able to arrange the space to suit themselves; to have the resources they needed to be available on demand; and above all they wanted to feel comfortable, in every sense, in their classroom. They said they wanted plenty of light, colour and air. Video shows the resulting classroom and the design process.

Discusses how post-secondary institutions must reconsider how they use classroom space to meet the learning expectations of Millennial students and to increase their engagement in the classroom space. Educational leaders must identify and adapt to their students’ needs, provide amenities to enhance learning, and design classrooms that will encourage certain behaviors. Learning spaces should complement the students’ habits by being as adaptable and flexible as the students who occupy them. 10p.

Examines the link between how one learns and where one learns. Case studies, interviews, and written contributions are organized under 79 practical topics for how design can be used to transform teaching and learning. The book is a collaborative effort among school architects, school furniture suppliers, and designers. The Third Teacher encourages teachers to develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions of designers and understand that we all create the world in which we live. This book also shows how even the students can become designers of their learning environments. 257p.

Provides a workshop resource to support people who are thinking about, or currently undertaking school renovation or rebuilding projects. It includes a set of activities, tools and techniques that can be used to facilitate workshop sessions to help people in the visioning and pre-engagement phases of projects. It specifically aims to engage practitioners with activities to support critical and creative thinking about the future of education, related practices, approaches, relationships and technologies, and the implications these might have on future educational spaces. It also offers a set of workshop activities that can be undertaken with pupils as part of a wider commitment to actively engage and involve them in the redesign process. 122p.

Offers an online audio-visual and document summarizing findings from the American Architectural Foundation's 2008 Voice of the Student on School Design essay contest. In 250 submissions, the student authors expressed what they wanted in the school built environment. They spoke as designers, able to articulate the cause and effect between their environment and their learning and the cause and effect between their environment and their experience of school. 35p.

Districts are getting creative and looking for energy savings through occupant engagement initiatives, and, at districts like Douglas County, finding that engaged students are also highly effective facilitators of energy savings.

Describes the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s project DiscoverDesign, challenging students to redesign their schools, one piece at a time. The projects stimulate three essential areas of learning. Sketching and drawing out blueprints exercises art and drawing skills. Thinking about how people behave and want in, say, a technology wing provides an education in social science and government. Finally, writing up how a new tech wing would force students to organize their thoughts and present a coherent argument.

School ground greening projects may result in a multitude of benefits for pupils, schools and entire communities. This field report describes a project called “Green school grounds” in Malmö, Sweden and an interdisciplinary research project investigating vegetation establishment and management as well as the effects of the project for children. The project consulted researchers and involved teachers and children at the schools during the process of planning and construction. This field report presents the first results from a pretest evaluation of school ground activity at two schools, part of a larger intervention study. [Authors' abstract]

Physical settings in schools have a complex relationship to teaching and learning practices. Uncomfortable tensions can result when the intentions of learners and teachers conflict with each other or with the affordances of the environment. Yet, change may be difficult to achieve and stressful for those involved. This paper considers a case where there has been minimal involvement of staff or students in the design of a new school, but there is a desire to prepare them for the changed environment. Changes will include an integrated curriculum and an “enquiry approach,” which it is hoped will be facilitated by large, shared spaces in the new premises. We discuss an “experimental week” of enquiry learning that took place in the middle of the 2010-11 school year with half of the Year 8 group (12-13 years old) in an existing large space (a school hall). The alteration to the learning environment included changes to both the use of space and the organization of learning time. We concentrate here on the student experience of learning in this new way, rather than the views of the teachers. An enquiry-based approach was enabled by the more fluid, flexible use of school space and time. Overall, students enjoyed the experimental week, but they understood it to be a limited experience. If these changed practices are to be successful they will need to be accepted as more permanent. The challenge for those managing the change process is to remain mindful of the differing needs of students, and continue to develop a shared understanding among staff and students of what learning is or could be. [Authors' abstract]

This paper explores the views and expectations of children regarding their school environments and has constructed a framework for the school design process based on children’s information and reflections. The research objectives required analyzing secondary data, as well as qualitative and quantitative empirical studies— each one leading to the next. The issues raised by children about school design emerged through an analysis of three previous studies in the UK. The empirical study involved 260 children (11-12 years old) in two secondary schools in England. The findings highlight the importance children attribute to various issues. The overall findings have been developed as a school design framework to guide the design and decision-making processes of architects and designers. [Author's abstract]

On campus food service facilities benefit both students and the entire campus community, especially when students are invited to participate in the design process. Discusses four dining halls and student centers.

Young people know and understand that more traditional group teaching in formal layouts is necessary at times, but these are moments and should not be the whole approach. Extols the importance of including students in the design of their learning environments.

Discusses the School of the Future Design Competition, illustrating the kind of creativity that students bring to the school design process.

Recounts how the University of Georgia kept students in the loop when selecting furniture and furnishings for the recent expansion of the Tate Student Center.

The last decade has seen a wave of new building across British universities, so that it would appear that despite the virtualization discourses around higher education, space still matters in learning. Yet studies of student experience of the physical space of the university are rather lacking. This paper explores the response of one group of students to learning spaces, including virtual ones, preferences for the location of independent study, and feelings about departmental buildings. It explores how factors such as the scale of higher education and management efficiency tend to produce rather depersonalized and regimented environments that in turn are likely to produce surface engagement. Responses of hospitality, criticality, and solidarity are briefly explored.

Discusses the British approach to student involvement in school design, which was encouraged under the previous labor government, but is not under the current conservative regime. Advantages to education of student involvement in design and construction are discussed, as is the poverty of excluding them from the process.

Presents photographs and comments on spaces offered by students in schools deemed both excellent and inadequate facilities. Desirable features and undesirable features in schools slated for renovation are documented.

The study presents a phenomenologically based research procedure, whose intent is to examine people's school experience and the meaning they ascribe to "school." Participants in this investigative endeavor are instructed to sketch an "ideal school," present their plan in a visual-schematic manner, and provide an oral and written description of their design. Proposals are presented through a Location Task--a tool originally intended for use by architects in their routine work with clients. We discuss the rationale behind this procedure and describe the research tool and its application potential. Finally, we illustrate the data processing via the analysis of one proposal designed by a 17-year-old male student.[Authors' abstract]

Highlights the work of the Sorrell Foundation in encouraging school architects to include a "client team" of students when forming the building program and design. Steps in collaborative architect/student research are suggested, and three British schools created via this process are profiled.

Discusses student involvement in school planning, with an emphasis on accessibility and proper furniture sizing. Advice on how to effectively engage students is included.

Advises on the importance of getting student input on school design and renovation, as well as suggesting ways to engage young people in the endeavor.

Sets out a strategy and plan to involve all constituencies for planning green schools. A summary "Top Tips for Developing an Energy Conservation Plan with Ease" is included. The authors'priorities are: create a dedicated team; identify where you are, where you are going; collaborate with experienced ESCO experts; identify roles and responsibilities; implement an action plan; measure, share, recognize; and remember to involve the students.

Recent inclusive policies are promoting the involvement of individuals with disabilities in identifying barriers that limit their full participation and inclusion in public spaces. The present two studies explored the contributions provided by different stakeholder groups in the identification of architectural barriers in elementary and secondary schools. In each school, the principal, special education resource teacher and a student independently identified architectural barriers using an observational walkthrough method. The first study consisted of 29 schools where the student evaluator had a physical disability and the second study consisted of 22 schools where the student evaluator did not have a disability. The results of both studies showed that students identified the greatest number of barriers and principals the least. The type and location of identified barriers are explored and the conclusions are examined in relation to person-environment congruence. The results highlight the efficacy of youth involvement and provide support for collaborative assessments that equitably involve all stakeholders in inclusive environmental assessments. [Author's abstract]

References the many reasons that students might drop out of high school, especially poor learning learning environments. The article offers suggestions from students about school design that foster interest in education and offer ideas for forums to gather student input.

Describes a consultation that was undertaken in a British secondary school as part of a participatory design process centered on the rebuilding of the school. A range of visual methods, based on photographs and maps, was used to investigate the views of a diverse sample of school users, including students, teachers, technical and support staff and the wider community. This article documents the experience of using these tools, considering the success of different visually-based methods in engaging a broad cross section of the school community and revealing useful information. The study, therefore, contributes to knowledge about specific visual research methods, appreciation of the relationship between tools, and a general methodological understanding of visual methods' utility for developing understanding of the learning environment. 46 references are included.

Profiles existing schools that are seeking to be more environmentally friendly through retrofitting. Illinois' Bloom High School is featured. The prudence of incremental improvements to existing buildings, funding options, and the education benefits of student participation in the upgrade process are cited.

Describes the winners of the Council of Educational Facility Planners International's School Building Week School of the Future awards, a program for middle school children to design a school. The Award of Excellence went to the Imago Dei Middle School, in Tucson, AZ.

Examines current learning styles and teaching methods in order to suggest a new form of learning environment for young students. Features such as different activity settings and small group activities aimed at enhancing learning resulted from the participation of students, teachers and parents in the design of the Gibsonville (North Carolina) Elementary School. Teachers, working in small groups, compared different classroom arrangements along with criteria to compare and evaluate each alternative and unanimously selected an "L" shape classroom, which became the basis for the design of the school. Another critical design feature that emerged from the teacher workshop was direct access from each classroom to the outdoors, allowing teachers to create outdoor classrooms that could enhance student's ecological awareness. The final design featured four academic houses of six L shaped classrooms each around an open courtyard. A post-occupancy evaluation was conducted several months after completion of construction and revealed a high level of satisfaction; however, the findings pointed to the need for a subsequent workshop to focus on the effective arrangement of furniture in L shaped classrooms. The participatory process was identified by the students and teachers as the key factor contributing to the design.

Reviews findings and proposed designs from the American Architectural Foundation's "Redesign Your School" competition. Significant themes that emerged were connection to the outdoors, nontraditional spaces, spaces for social learning, and a desire for physical and emotional comfort.

Proposes that engaging future users in designing learning spaces increases the likelihood that those spaces will accomplish the mission of achieving student learning outcomes. As research on the physiological aspects of learning has revealed, active engagement with the learning object--whether a lecture, laboratory process, text, or creative medium--increases the likelihood that the learner will both retain and be able to use information and skills later. As it turns out, spaces that are created to engage students in active, collaborative learning are best designed by facilitating similar processes with users to identify their learning space needs. A challenge for designers and planners is how to most effectively bring the user's voice into the design process and, ultimately, deliver the richest use of spaces for learning. Includes seven references.