Cubix
The Next 21st Century Classroom of the Future
Current Project Stage: Surveying in Classroom
Education is a complicated concept for students to grasp, especially those in the public system, where every day they are constantly tested mentally and 
physically. Teaching resources, teacher experience, and curriculum play a role in laying the foundation to education, but what about the physical condition of the school facility itself? Does the design of a school impact the way a child learns? A number of public schools are faced with the challenge of keeping up with maintenance and facilities repairs. With a growing number of students every year, the question arises as to whether or not schools are able to provide suitable classroom facilities for students. Outdated facilities relate to a lack of resources to maintain classrooms and can result in negative outcomes for student learning.
A plausible solution is writing a proposal for a local district on how to allocate funds to revamp facilities over the next ten years. The proposal would highlight how the district's budget can designate funds to coordinate and distribute to “X” number of schools to upgrade or restore facilities. Revamping a school would consist of maintenance, repair, and replacement of outdated facilities and implementing technology into the classroom. This would allow all children equal access to a quality educational setting. Renovating facilities in a school would also benefit the community by providing a safe and clean learning environment for local children.
For this project, our team developed a survey questionnaire that was distributed to two groups of students (fifth and sixth grade) asking how a classroom should be designed for students to be successful. Students came from different socioeconomic backgrounds and attended schools that offered dramatically different access to resources, particularly technology. By surveying these two groups our team hoped to learn about different perspectives related to outdated facilities. Taking into consideration the responses from the student surveys, our team designed the ideal classroom for the 21st century.
Next Step: Writing Proposal
Design Studio: Glendale Community College
Student Design Team: Rubina Sefyan, Ariga Eyvazi, Erika Herrera, Miguel and Anthony Martinez