Explore the future of classrooms
In the Future Classroom Lab, you can explore robots, laser cutters, lots of LEGO, and 3D-printers. The Educational Resource Center at University College UCC has create a space that will inspire you to rethink teaching.
The focus is on problem-based teaching, where IT and production have a natural and relevant place in problem solving activities.
Through our partnership with the Future Classroom Lab, we have helped decorate the inspiring classroom at Campus Carlsberg.
The Future Classroom Lab is built around five zones:
- Presentation
- Exploration
- Development
- Production
- Feedback
(Read more about the zones in the blog post ”Prepare for the future of learning”).
Teaching in the Future Classroom Lab takes students through the zones as they move through different work processes and thereby move through the zones.
The small rooms in the big one
The Future Classroom Lab is one big room, and the feeling of being in a big room was purposefully preserved to ensure the impression of a coherent work process. However, we found a way to create smaller rooms that allow for quiet and focus in any of the five zones.
Closets and storage units are an effective tool to creating several rooms in one big room. The closets create boundaries between the different zones and indicate which type of work each zone is meant for. At the same time, these closets are useful for storing all material and tools nearby. This can help inspire different uses of materials and approaches to problem solving.
Couches create small rooms
In the individual zones, few pieces of furniture create the small rooms. Couches with high backrests provide the possibility to work fully concentrated while screening other peoples’ activities, for instance, when you are trying to learn new academic material.
Inspiration for the pedagogical learning center
The Future Classroom Lab is evidently useful as inspiration for pedagogical learning centers or as a special cross-academic area in school. You can also take elements of the Future Classroom Lab and integrate them in classrooms – the stage boxes can be used for the presentation zone, work islands can function as an alternative to work stations, or the couches with high backrests can work as a quiet area.
