- “Science and research are key to addressing humanity’s biggest challenges, now and in the future. Creating the right spaces and environments for teaching the next generation is essential.”
- “Science and research are key to addressing humanity’s biggest challenges, now and in the future. Creating the right spaces and environments for teaching the next generation is essential.”
As specialists in educational space design, we consider here the requirements unique to these highly technical spaces and how they are changing. Quality equipment can be underutilised if the surrounding lab architecture is not conducive to optimum performance and focused on inspiring students and improving learning outcomes.
Spaces should inspire – a visually striking lab space does play an important role in engaging students. This holistic approach also helps toward versatility in lab designs, particularly helpful since technology is moving faster than the labs are being renovated.
And, with the move away from Local Authority designed spaces it is more important than ever that every aspect of laboratory design is considered, including whether a space is aesthetically pleasing and is easy to teach and learn in.
WF Education set out to better understand the utilisation of specialised science spaces, the challenges, and the hopes for the future of heads of department, teachers, technicians, educational specialists and designers from around the UK.
Over the last six months, we conducted a number of discovery interviews and surveyed hundreds of teachers and technicians. Our research highlights recurring themes across teaching styles, the delivery of practical science, from demonstrations to storage and comfort levels and more. We present our findings in this whitepaper.
– 6.25% stated they liked nothing about their current space!
– 64% of teachers regularly used non-specialist teaching rooms for science lessons.
– 21% of our respondents reported that they didn’t know what would increase their student’s engagement.
Effective Science Departments
We have taken the results of our research and used them to influence our team of innovation specialists and designers to design laboratories that best support the teaching and learning of practical and theoretical science.
Our ‘Design and Build’ service has been created to assist and develop the considerations of science educators, advisers, architects, and designers.
Teachers and technicians require a learning environment which will assist students to establish a sound knowledge base and skill set to enhance their learning. The science laboratory is the practical area for teaching and learning, and all laboratories should provide work environments in which practical work may be accomplished effectively and safely.
Talk to us today, together we can create amazing spaces…