Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Furniture That Supports Movement-Friendly Learning

  • 07/01/18
focus desk

The Focus Desk helped students at the Hyde Park Day School take control of their learning and overcome challenges in the classroom.

The Hyde Park Day School (HPDS) in Illinois provides a specialized environment for intelligent children in grades two through eight also are challenged by ADHD, dyslexia, language disorders, and other conditions. An important accommodation for their students is encouraging movement during class time. Quiet standing, shifting weight, and stretching provide sensory feedback, helping children access working memory and stay on task.

HPDS was contacted by The Marvel Group’s Nancy Dellamore, a school parent, with an idea for furniture to support a movement-friendly setting: a desk with child-operable adjustability, allowing students to self-regulate their need to move without interrupting the teacher. The desk would also address “wish list” items from teachers to support organization, versatility, and comfort.

Over the course of 12 months, The Marvel Group’s product design team worked with HPDS faculty and students on prototypes. The final version, The Focus Desk, met the school’s goals with targeted design elements, including: A silent child-operable lift system, an expandable desk workspace, integrated study carrel walls lockable casters and dedicated on-board storage spaces.

Within a year, all classrooms at HPDS were fully equipped with Focus Desks. Teachers and students at HPDS have enthusiastically embraced the desk’s benefits.

According to teacher Erin Jacobson, “The desks allow for the flexibility our students need. At any given moment in my classroom, some students are standing, sitting, using the privacy folders, utilizing the extender to hold their learning tools, or rolling desks around to rearrange for group seating during projects. It’s hard to imagine ever transitioning back to a more traditional desk style.”

www.marvelgroup.com

This article originally appeared in the School Planning & Management July/August 2018 issue of Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Minnesota Middle School Finishes $23.5M Addition and Modernization

    Highland Park Middle School in St. Paul, Minn., recently announced the completion of a $23.5-million addition and remodel project, according to a news release. Saint Paul Public Schools partnered with ATS&R Planners, Architects & Engineers for its design and Kraus-Anderson for its construction.

  • Utah Valley University Opens New Engineering Building

    Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, recently held a grand-opening ceremony for the new Scott M. Smith Engineering Building, according to a news release. The facility is one of the largest engineering buildings in the state at almost 200,000 square feet, and it plays home to the university’s Smith College of Engineering and Technology (SCET).

  • Pitzer College

    Designing for Change in Higher Ed Learning Environments

    Higher education will continue to evolve, and learning environments must evolve with it. By prioritizing adaptable infrastructure, thoughtful reuse, strong energy performance, and wellness-centered design, campuses can create spaces that support learning today while remaining flexible for the future.

  • Texas State University Completes Stadium Renovations

    Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, recently announced that it has completed a series of additions and renovations to its football stadium, according to a news release. Formerly known as the Bobcat Stadium End Zone Complex, the Johnny and Nathali Weisman Football Performance Center is an 85,000-square-foot expansion featuring hospitality spaces, banquet spaces, exterior concourses, and upgrades to the field house.