21st Century learning environments for Victorian schools
Friday, 14 August 2009
Delivering 21st century learning environments for Victorian
schools was the top priority in Melbourne recently when 70 Victorian
schools came together to discuss their successful funding bids under
the Science and Language Centres for 21st Century Secondary Schools
element of the Building the Education Revolution.
Forum participants discussed Victoria’s state of the art science
and language centre templates designed in partnership by Melbourne
architectural firms Hayball and Gray Puksand, Dr Julia Aitkin, and
the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood
Development.
The new school facilities will feature a number of modern and
environmentally sustainable design elements such as:
- Weather stations that display temperature, water and gas
usage as well as electrical power and light use;
- Automated ventilation louvres which will sense CO2 levels
and adjust the ventilation to create the ideal climate in which
students can concentrate;
- Water conservation through rain water collection tanks that
will harvest water for use in the toilets, and record water
usage on the weather stations;
- Energy efficient light fittings and fluorescent lamps, as
well as daylight sensors and motion detectors that dim or turn
off lights when they are not needed.
These specially designed facilities are expected to transform the
way students learn about science and language, and increase
participation in science and language subjects in later years.
One of the chief designers, Richard Leonard, said “All of the
templates are based on student-centred learning. The approach has
been to create an architecture, which fosters the idea of
establishing learning communities.”
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