New high school designed by and for students | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com:
"Most years, Chris Freeman's Advanced Placement Environmental Studies students design a hypothetical, sustainable house for a class project.
More recently, they've been designing a high school - theirs. That's how plans for the rebuild of Kellam High came to include courtyards full of vegetable gardens and native swamp plants.
They're just a few of the features that designers claim make this a school building unlike any other. Instead of separating English, math and other departments, the new Kellam will have six "learning communities" - wings that each house multiple subjects, designed to foster collaborative, interdisciplinary learning. Flexible, open spaces will abound alongside environmentally friendly, energy-efficient features. And at every step of the way, designers have included ideas from the teachers and students they say best know what a modern school needs.
"Most years, Chris Freeman's Advanced Placement Environmental Studies students design a hypothetical, sustainable house for a class project.
More recently, they've been designing a high school - theirs. That's how plans for the rebuild of Kellam High came to include courtyards full of vegetable gardens and native swamp plants.
They're just a few of the features that designers claim make this a school building unlike any other. Instead of separating English, math and other departments, the new Kellam will have six "learning communities" - wings that each house multiple subjects, designed to foster collaborative, interdisciplinary learning. Flexible, open spaces will abound alongside environmentally friendly, energy-efficient features. And at every step of the way, designers have included ideas from the teachers and students they say best know what a modern school needs.
