Designed ‘School of the Future’—

NMS Students Head To National Design Competition

By Eliza Hallabeck

A group of four Newtown Middle Schools students is preparing to head to Washington, D.C., in April as representatives of the Northeast Region of Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI) after being named finalists in the School Building Week’s School of the Future Design Competition.

Last year, NMS student Baxter Hankin was interested in learning more about architecture. He did some research online and discovered the School Building Week’s School of the Future Design Competition.

Now he and team members Arnav Singh, Lyle Lee, and Sean Lee are waiting for April, when the group will head to Washington to attend the competition’s national round.

“We competed in the regional level of the School of the Future Architecture competition,” said Baxter, and afterward the Newtown students were selected to represent the Northeast Region of CEFPI at the national level of the competition.

According to the CEFPI, the competition offers an opportunity for students to illustrate the kind of creativity students bring to the planning and design process. The annual competition, open to middle school students, challenges student teams to design schools that enhance learning, conserve resources, are environmentally responsive, and engage the surrounding community, according to the council.

The multidisciplinary solution requires students to follow a planning process from the concept phase to completion of the project, with thorough documentation, said NMS science teacher Jason Adams this week.

“Essentially, these kids designed a very modern and ecofriendly school with architectural drawings,” said Mr Adams, Baxter’s teacher.

Last year the group did not place into regional level of the competition.

“So we went pretty far this year,” said Baxter.

To prepare for the competition this year, the students said they researched much more than they had last year. Baxter said the students interviewed roughly 50 people, including Newtown Middle School Principal Diane Sherlock and First Selectman Pat Llodra. Many of the interviewees were fellow middle school students, Baxter said, and many named technology a high priority for a “School of the Future.”

“Some people like higher quality lighting,” said Lyle, while others named a peaceful environment as a priority. Additional perspectives were also named that would be important in a “School of the Future.”

The students said they took the interviews into consideration when planning and designing their school, writing an essay, and creating a PowerPoint presentation for the competition.

“We also learned a lot about collaboration and teamwork,” said Lyle, noting other differences in the group from last year.

While the students are from different clusters at the middle school, the eighth graders involved in the project, Baxter, Arnav, and Lyle, are using the undertaking to go toward the required eighth grade science project. Seventh grader Sean, Lyle’s brother, is working on the project for fun, as the other students did last year.

Leaning over a table and flipping through a thick stack of paperwork, documenting the group’s school design, Baxter pointed out the first floor of the “School of the Future.”

“We built it in contrast to our school,” said Arnav.

Included in the design is a garden in the school’s main lobby, waterfalls throughout the building, an underwater aquatics laboratory, and a telescope dome. When planning the school, the group members said they took LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) guidelines into consideration.

Baxter explained the school was built as a teaching tool itself, because students will have the use of the aquatics laboratory and the telescope dome.

The group also took the middle school’s clusters and switched the layout of their school to be designed around “subject clusters” rather than by grade level. Each subject has its own section of the floor plan, and near the designated areas are “research centers” corresponding to those subjects.

“There’s plenty of technology,” said Baxter, adding the school’s planned library will offer students the ability to download both text books and library books. He also pointed out the school will have a control panel that will monitor the school’s energy use.

The school, if built, would make use of natural lighting, with glass walls and a sky light. Each classroom would also have views of a river and gardens around the building.

“We’re really excited about going to Washington,” said Arnav.

When in Washington, the group will present its project to a panel of roughly 20 judges, and will be given a tour of the nation’s capital. The middle school students will also have the chance to meet with state representatives. If these Newtown architects win the final round of the competition, what will they do with the $2,000 prize money? Most likely split it, said Lyle.

Baxter and Arnav both said they would put the money toward college. Sean said he will spend it on “whatever I feel like.”

The students will bring their PowerPoint presentation, essay, and architectural model with them for the national competition, scheduled for April 11 through 14.