Many Geauga County students have been benefitting from the learning spaces designed into the new pre-kindergarten-through-grade-12 school in Burton Township.
Many Geauga County students have been benefitting from the learning spaces designed into the new pre-kindergarten-through-grade-12 school in Burton Township.
When Berkshire Schools Board of Education and Superintendent John Stoddard began planning the new campus after the district voters approved the bond issue, they wanted impactful learning spaces that would inspire creativity and innovation, and support the district’s focus on project-based learning, said John Peretz, of Inventionland Education.
“We wanted to do something completely different because it’s hard to be creative when you sit in a beige box all day,” Stoddard said.
The spaces at the end of each wing of the school include kindergarten cabins, Bert’s tree house, the castle, the pirate ship, the robot maker space and the high school innovation labs.
The immersive spaces are not just a façade. The outside areas are designed for student collaboration and brainstorming, while the inside is optimized as a maker space, creating a classroom within a classroom, Peretz said.
Berkshire and Inventionland Education earned the Learning By Design outstanding project award for the maker spaces and labs.
“It was recognized as an award-winning benchmark for its next-generation immersive learning spaces,” Peretz said, adding that Learning By Design is the official publication of the Association for Learning Environments and produced in partnership with the American Institute of Architects Committee on Architecture for Education.
Spaces4Learning awarded Berkshire Schools and Inventionland Education an outstanding project award for their unique maker spaces, Peretz said.
“Spaces4Learning is one of the preeminent national magazines and web portals serving the educational, architectural and design fields. Both competitions are peer-reviewed and highly respected,” he said.
Stoddard was pleased with the recognition Berkshire has received, Peretz said. Stoddard talked in board meetings at length about project-based learning. The award-winning parts of the new school are just part of the district’s vision that includes project-based learning for all its students.
“It’s nice to be nationally recognized, but at the end of the day, it’s all about our students,” he said in the press release.
