At one time, the only way people could communicate was person to person, the mail, telephone and, perhaps, the new-fangled fax machine. But, outside of emergency responders, and stock market gamblers, has there been any appreciable gain in the quality of
Navigating postal regulations is like reading a treasure map: It can be difficult to know which end is up or even where to start, but once you reach the treasure (for school districts, the treasure is postage savings), you realize the journey was well wor
America's Schoolhouse Council (ASC), a national consortium of educational architects, planners and designers, conceived the demonstration program, dubbed "Flip This Classroom: Learning Environments Matter." Inspired by the Dunn & Dunn L
These three little known fire and life-safety tools fire curtain, smoke vents and stage curtains must be present and in working order if a fire marshal shows up and wants to inspect your theater or auditorium stage.
Learning to view the world through a different lens can be most revealing. Maximizing our efforts to build safer facilities by problem seeking can be an invaluable tool to reduce risk, exposure to civil liability and, most importantly, to improve safety.
We need a quality education system in order to grow the students who will become the talented scientists and engineers needed to keep us ahead of the curve. But in order to improve education, we too must invest in innovation.
When the headmaster of Cushing Academy, James Tracy, announced his school's plans to remove all the books from its library, the pronouncement did not go unnoticed. Not only the school community, but the public at large, had swift and strong reactions to t
The level of difficulty in trouble shooting a noise problem varies greatly as well. Sometimes the problem is easy to solve in theory, but the solution is arduous to implement in the field. Other times the only item prohibiting a solution to the problem is
Tablets like the iPad are extremely useful to individual members of our society and are really cool devices. However, it seems they fall short of providing both the receiving and generation of content capabilities required in an educational environment.
Ask yourself, if you were constructing that same building today, would you install the systems you installed 50 years ago? Could they run mechanical and electrical systems at the highest efficiency, recapture waste heat and at the same time provide year-r
If you've never thought about the idea of green or sustainable or eco-friendly IT, you may be surprised to learn that green computing has a huge and growing following among IT directors generally and a number of K-12 school district IT directors.
The design and construction industry had a difficult year in 2009, to say the least. However, green building has been a bright spot in an otherwise lackluster year, and there is no sign of that changing in 2010. Eco-friendly school design is on the radar
The annual energy bill to operate America's primary and secondary schools totals nearly $8 billion more than is spent on textbooks and computers combined. With rising operating costs and tighter budgets, a growing number of school districts ar
A design strategy was developed to maintain an exceptionally compact building footprint, maximize shared public spaces, utilize renewable and recyclable building materials and incorporate teaching tools within the architecture. The new campus supports the
Green cleaning for hard surfaces has progressed on a continuum from reducing toxic chemistries to eliminating them wherever possible. Now technology and cleaning science have helped us to return to the most essential of cleaners and solvents water
Master planning begins with creating appropriate standards for world-class facilities. A comprehensive condition and educational suitability assessment will bring focus to district facilities that fail to meet these standards. The condition of a single fa
As the use of technology grows, we have enjoyed increased capabilities, global networks and faster results within personal, professional and educational realms. Unfortunately, this shift to a technologically based global culture has introduced one of the
We all know young children learn through play and discovery. The coordination of intellectual and physical development, with guided play and fun activities, is vital to their development and must be one of the focal areas of elementary schools. Good movem
During the last 10 years, the modern high-performance schools movement has invited design elements focusing on energy conservation and occupant comfort. Multi-level lighting systems have allowed teachers to switch lights on only when needed, day lighting
In security, risk minimization is everything. You can never completely eliminate the possibility of a school shooting or other types of breakdowns in security, but you can make the system as secure as possible by using your resources efficiently and using