Elementary School Plan Grows Up.

What makes an elementary school design successful doesn't necessarily translate directly into a middle school prototype. Here's how one plan graduated to the next level.

The one-story campus elementary school design was so well received it has been built more than 50 times throughout the state of Florida -- a record for a prototype plan. School board members and administrators in a variety of districts preferred the plan's functional and flexible design; simple, attractive, teacher-student

friendly environment; cost effectiveness to build and operate; and ease of maintenance. They desired to build middle schools to match. So once again they turned to Florida-based BRPH Architects Engineers, Inc., the firm responsible for the elementary school design. Could they repeat their success?

Growing Pains

A true elementary school plan, however, is not designed to meet the needs of an adolescent middle school student body, nor the instructional or programming needs of their teachers. John Allen, senior program manager of the Educational Market at BRPH, understood the reasons for the campus school plan's popularity and accepted the challenge of redesigning it with middle school students and teachers in mind.

Allen and his team of planners, architects, and engineers set out to see what aspects of the elementary school concept could be adapted to a middle school environment, what needed to be added, and what needed to be changed. Their efforts have resulted in the construction of this new middle school design in Collier and Putnam counties, where the first two schools of the type will be completed by summer 2000. The design will be marketed as a prototype as well.

Before beginning the redesign, BRPH gathered input. The design team talked with dozens of school personnel, probing to learn what middle school educators considered an ideal design. They also studied a middle school education specification from one of the counties that wanted the elementary plan redesigned. Once this feedback was obtained and the ed spec carefully reviewed, the team analyzed the data and compared the differing needs of both elementary and middle school educational populations. They studied everything from teaching methods to restrooms.

They found three key design aspects considered necessary for development of the optimum middle school that differed significantly from their elementary prototype:

* educational program,

* instructional methodology, and

* social concerns.

Several key changes were in order.

Learning Differences

The educational program for a middle school builds on the elementary basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic by adding social studies and science as core subjects. Art, music, and PE are all expanded in emphasis and program content. Additionally, students of middle-school age begin to explore a variety of interests, from pre-college prep classes to pre-vocational exploration labs in technology and vocational subject areas as electives. Unlike their younger counterparts, middle-schoolers participate in more varied extracurricular activities, such as band, chorus, dance, cheerleading, and intramural sports and clubs.

To support these programs, BRPH designed an additional vocational wing, music suite, and full-size gymnasium, each to be accessed by all students. These areas occupy different strategic locations on the campus, creating focal points and distributing the students to several areas.

The gym is located on the campus periphery adjacent to play fields and sport facilities, yet connected directly to the campus commons area. By placing the gym at the perimeter of the school, the facility could easily be accessed for use after school hours and on weekends.

The music suite was designed as a part of the cafetorium building, where most performances would occur. This suite provides facilities for both chorus and band, in addition to the normal music support areas. The cafetorium location on the campus forms an outdoor amphitheater for both formal and informal student performances and gatherings.

The vocational wing adds to the academic group of facilities and provides all of the needed labs and lecture spaces required by these elective courses. These specialized classroom spaces are located as close as possible to the regular classrooms in order to support integration into the mainstream curriculum.

Teaching Differences

BRPH found that teaching in a middle school occurs in several ways. Included are choices such as interdisciplinary team teaching or integrated thematic instruction, students working independently or in small teams, small or large group instruction, block scheduling, and distance learning.

Whereas an elementary school typically has uniform classrooms where students remain for most of the day with one teacher, middle school instruction requires a variety of space types and sizes, and typically involves students moving from space to space and teacher to teacher. The new middle school design uses flexible academies, clusters, or houses to meet this multiple need. Each house contains all of the core classrooms and support facilities to allow a student to access at least four class subjects per day, while providing teacher work spaces for team integration and planning.

The design team also researched the role that technology would play in student learning. Middle schoolers will be expected to master three major competencies: Search and Research methods, Summarize and Analyze skills, and Prepare and Present techniques. For this, all students must have computer access to a fully equipped multimedia center from their classrooms. Multiple forms of media retrieval, as well as CCTV production facilities and satellite downlinks to and from the classroom itself, are needed. The multimedia center, used by all students and teachers at various times, becomes the literal and virtual center of the campus and acts as the focal point in the design.

Social Differences

The educators told the design team that another important aspect of middle school design is the social concerns of the adolescent population. With adolescence come issues of self esteem, socialization, and behavior that are not as much a consideration at the elementary level. These concerns must be integrated into school design, while still providing a necessary level of control and the highest degree of safety.

Since middle school students change classes every period during the day, they interact with a number of teachers in the process. This movement creates a much more dynamic pattern of traffic flow within the campus than is found in elementary school campuses. House clusters with either interior or exterior corridors help limit that movement and contain students with their peers. A clearly defined "avenue" or "boulevard" facilitates movement from building to building and allows easy supervision of this movement. Also, group restrooms replacing the elementary's many single restrooms are located with easy access from these circulation nodes, while separating the girls' and boys' entries as far as possible to reduce disruptions.

Additionally, middle school students need a place within the campus to socialize with one another, a function not addressed with younger students who typically move from place to place in supervised groups. This gathering place needs to be close to, but separate from, the classrooms so talking and laughing won't interfere with instruction, and supervision can be nonintrusive but effective. The boulevard provides the perfect space, with landscaped paved areas and benches encouraging groups of students to share their free time, while providing easy access to the cafetorium, gym, multimedia center, classroom houses, and guidance offices.

After extensive research and evaluation of both elementary and middle school needs, BRPH was able to complete a one-story campus redesign plan that was suited for a middle school population. This new plan incorporates the best of the lower school's design elements, while adding many critical features the design team believed necessary to accommodate the unique needs of middle school students and teachers.