First of all I’d like to say a special “Thanks” to Kelly Hardy (khardy@color-art.com) and the team at Color Art. They do amazing work and would LOVE to work with you!
Now, about our event:
In an evening that brought together educators, architects, and designers, Connected Learning partnered with local education furniture dealer, Color Art to continue the conversation about the importance of physical space design in schools. The evening was highlighted by Jolene Levin, designer for Norva Nivel. Norva Nivel, who began as an Australian based company, has been now working in the US for the past few years to design furniture that solve the issues in classrooms around movement, flexibility, and choice. This event, like the previous two that Connected Learning has supported this school year, featured active learning through design activities. Participants designed some amazing spaces with the help of Color Art Designers. They presented some incredible ideas based on this design sprint. The event concluded with two local speakers discussing projects that have enhanced schools locally. Jim Brockmann, assistant principal at CBC High School, talked about the genius of their Innovation Commons including pictures of how the space is being used by the young men at CBC. Dr. Robert Dillon discussed his work at Saint Louis Public Schools to enhance their pre-k classrooms to enhance literacy through creative spaces. Both projects showcased how the design process was essential for building momentum for the projects. Color Art and Connected Learning look forward to future events that help to cross-pollinate ideas around design and support innovation throughout the Saint Louis community.
Photos from the event
Schedule
5:30 - Network (15 minutes) - K-12 showroom
5:45 - Speaker 1 - NorvaNivel (20 minutes) - Classroom
6:05 - Design Sprint (30 minutes) - Groups will meet in Various Spaces in Color Art
6:35 - Share Designs (15 minutes) - Classroom
6:50 - Speaker 2 - Jim Brockman (20 minutes) - Classroom
7:10 - Speaker 3 - Dr. Dillon (20 minutes) - Classroom
7:30 - End
Speaker Info
Jolene Levin, NorvaNivel Director
Topic "How Purposeful Space design impacts learner autonomy and engagement"
Bio:
'Jolene is passionate about designing creative and innovative spaces that allows all students' needs to be met for learning success. Since NorvaNivel was founded in Australia in 2010, she has personally partnered with hundreds education leaders to help their schools navigate from traditional teaching and classroom design to create agile learning spaces to support the pedagogy of today and tomorrow. With a view to the direction of education, Jolene creates the vision of learning spaces of the future. She brings with her hundreds of successful case studies and a commitment to improving education in the United States with inclusive learning spaces. She is inspired by her children and transforming the world in which they learn'
Jim Brockman, Assistant Principal and Director of Admission as CBC High School
Topic "Why Innovation? Why Now?"
Bio:
I graduated from the University of Missouri in 2003 with a Bachelor's Degree in the Science of Education. I earned my Master's Degree in Educational Leadership from Lindenwood University in 2009. I have been at CBC for 16 years. I spent the first 5 as a Social Studies Teacher. The next 7 years were spent growing and improving the Admissions Program as the Director of Admissions. The last 4 have been spent in my current role as Assistant Principal for Enrollment Management. During this time, I have been part of several projects and the creation of programs and processes at CBC, both big and small. The latest project was the redesign of the library into the Dunne Family Innovation Commons, an 8,000 square foot space completely dedicated to innovative thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity, and connected learning though experiences that cannot be replicated in the "traditional" classroom setting.
Design Sprint
We will break up into 5-7 small groups. Each group will move to a different area within Color Art and be grouped with one our designers/application specialists with technology to share and create. In our furniture designing software, each designer will have a prebuilt classroom with preselected 'inventory' of furniture (located outside of the classroom to begin) to be placed and arranged in the room. The groups will be able to use whiteboards to sketch out ideas. Each group will be able to watch their classrooms and ideas come to life 3-dimensionally. At the end of the sprint, each designer will send Ashley and I a 2D & 3D of their classroom. We will then gather back in our classroom and share these with the group and have a little time to discuss. I am super excited about the design sprint and the ability to let our guests design in 3D!
