Australian Maths & Science School

Narratives

Architect Narrative

A Key feature of the school is replacement of classroom and laboratories with “learning commons” and “learning studios”.

Student centered spaces foster collaborative syndicate and project-based learning. “Home-base” work stations exist within learning commons providing personal desk and storage stations for 50 students. Students organise their ‘home-bases” to meet social or study group needs.

Zones are allocated for visiting teachers to collaborate and observe the innovative approaches to teaching, learning and research. Academic staff from University faculties also collaborate in these staff development exercises.

The primary learning spaces are the Learning Common areas, comprising 3 zones corresponding to year level, each subdivided into home groups.

The Learning Studios contain specialist services and ‘hands on’ facilities enabling students to undertake practical work and experiments which support activities in the Learning Commons. Operable walls or partial partitions between Learning Commons allow flexibility.

The heart of the school, the Central Common, promotes a sense of community within the school and provides a strong visual identity to the school with an impressive two storey space providing outlook and access to the bushland gully and outdoor spaces.

Teacher areas located within each Learning Common comprising workstations for four teachers and support staff in a semi-enclosed space, open to the Learning Common and accessible to students.

For the school to show leadership in science and technology, the building design incorporates best practice in environmentally sustainable design and can be utilised as an educational tool to develop an understanding of how buildings, people and the natural environment interact.

From a strategic perspective, the project achieves significant cost benefits which would not be available to a traditional school through its location and integration with the University infrastructure and shared facilities use. This outcome required a high level of participation by the architect in dialogue between the University and ASMS stakeholders and is critical to the design.

Materials for the building have primarily been selected for consistency with overall design objective to express the school’s role at the leading edge of science and mathematics education. This has led to selection of materials and systems which, wherever possible are highly engineered and technologically advanced, rather than traditional.

Educator Narrative

The Australian Science and Mathematics School (ASMS) opened on January 28th 2003. After initially using the facilities at the Flinders University the school occupied the new building on March 3rd 2003.

The design of the ASMS involved a total change of thinking about how a school should look and function.

Based on extensive research and analysis of overall and emerging best practice in teaching and learning, the school provides a range of learning settings, suitable for groups of varying sizes and different configurations.

Research demonstrates that features such as lighting, air quality and temperature, acoustics and noise control, colour, material finishings and textures and views affect the behaviour and learning of students. However the size and shape of spaces and their relationships, furniture, information and communication technology and the use of both outdoor and indoor spaces for formal and informal learning have a more fundamental affect on nurturing and sustaining reform.

The ASMS has nine learning commons: three singles and three doubles. Each learning common provides home desks with secure storage stage for fifty students. These home desks are often grouped together to stimulate project work or perhaps to support pastoral care groups. Home desks occupy about forty percent of a learning common. Students can change their home desk to another area in the school in a matter of minutes. A teaching wall with state of the art ICT and audio-visual functions is available in each learning common. A number of teaching and learning tables catering for eight students each allow for teacher directed sessions. The combination of these features allows teaching to groups ranging from one to seventy-five. Networked computers can be used individually in a learning common or can be situated adjacent to home desks or teaching and learning tables. Teacher podiums provide fingertip and remote control of ICT and audio-visual functions.

Staff workspaces are adjacent to learning commons and there are no walls between these spaces.

Nine learning studios for practical and research work have been designed. Again six of these studios have been paired to create greater flexibility in the resources available to students and teachers. Learning studios provide both individual and group work stations, access to specialised equipment and networked computers, teaching walls and teaching and learning tables for teacher directed work. The learning studios support the following academic areas: physical sciences, applied technology, environmental sciences, life sciences, multi-media, presentation/performance, human performance, mathematics and ICT.

Five meeting rooms and three seminar rooms, all with ICT and audio-visual facilities exist to support the work of ASMS students and teachers and participants in the professional development and curriculum enhancement programs.

Most learning studios and commons open to outdoor areas, which are furnished to support learning, recreational and social activities. The ICT infrastructure is supported by both a cable and wireless infrastructure thus allowing a high degree of mobility for this tool.

Central common space exists on both floors. Learning commons open directly to these spaces. These common spaces can be used for circulation, informal learning activities, socialisation, student displays, large group teaching and assemblies.

Consistent with the moral, ethical and environmental issues which are strongly associated with the “new sciences”, the school building incorporates a range of environmentally sustainable features and its mechanical, electrical and hydraulic systems are exposed as much as possible in order to serve as a learning resource.

Some of the environmentally sustainable features include mixed mode air-conditioning, extensive use of natural lighting, high performance glass to reduce solar penetration and extensive acoustic features to reduce noise spillage and interference.

After newly two months of use of the building, it works brilliantly. It strongly supports the paradigm of teaching and learning, anyplace, anytime from any to any and in many ways. The work culture and engagement of the students is very high and their identification with the facilities and the building is manifested in the complete absence of damage, graffiti, and litter. Already the school has attracted approximately 700 visitors including many from across Australia and overseas.

This building is a break through design for schools of the 21st century.