Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

School's Innovation Lab Greeted With Success

  • 03/01/19
SMARTdesks

Chatham Middle School in New Jersey partnered with SMARTdesks to create collaborative learning spaces for their STEM Program.

It took some time to accomplish the STEM micro campus serving the 960 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders at New Jersey’s Chatham Middle School, Danielle Dagounis, supervisor of Instructional & Design Technology, will tell you. “Five years ago, we started our STEM Program, offering a wide array of programs. To get things started, we had to take over the computer lab. The one downfall of that is: it’s a computer lab,” she explains. “You didn’t have any supports to allow the students to collaborate.”

Dagounis continues, “The plan was to make a new STEM focus area with classrooms set up to serve different purposes. The classroom we are talking about today is what we call our Innovation Lab. The Innovation Lab is the room that features SMARTdesks collaboration furniture.”

Dagounis had a difficult time finding collaborative computer desks. “Apparently, if you want collaborative computer desks, they’re like unicorns,” she says. “I went to the New Jersey School Board Convention two or three years ago and saw some of SMARTdesks’ products being demonstrated in person. When I Googled ‘collaborative computer tables,’ SMARTdesks was the most relevant result. I got some measurements, gave them to my architect, and asked if these SMARTdesks collaboration tables would fit. And they did.”

“Yes, we had interface with the architect,” adds Jeffry Korber, SMARTdesks CEO. “They called us. We have our own design department, so we did a layout. That is one way we differentiate ourselves. I was directly involved in the engineering.”

“And that is good, because now we have an effective collaborative learning classroom,” Dagounis says. “It is important for our students to be able to collaborate with one another, and not just come in and work on their own without having to work with other people.”

www.smartdesks.com

This article originally appeared in the School Planning & Management March 2019 issue of Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • 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.

  • University of Arizona Approves New Residence Hall

    The Arizona Board of Regents recently approved plans for a new residence hall at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Ariz., according to a news release. The new facility is scheduled to open in fall 2028 and have the capacity for more than 1,200 students, enforcing a new university expectation that all first-year students live on campus.

  • University of Rhode Island, Gilbane Partner for Three New Residence Halls

    The University of Rhode Island in Kingston, R.I., recently announced a public-private partnership with construction development firm Gilbane, according to a news release. Gilbane will soon start construction on three new residence halls with a total of 1,100 beds: two with apartment-style suites in northwest campus, and a reconstruction of the Graduate Village Apartments for graduate students.

  • Countway Library at Harvard Medical School

    From Shadows to Sanctuary: The Transformation of Light at Countway Library

    The renovation of Countway Library at Harvard Medical School demonstrates how biophilic design and advanced lighting strategies transformed a formerly dark, insular space into a vibrant, welcoming hub that supports wellness, learning, and community engagement.