HMFH Architects
Hands-On Learning Spaces: 5 Lessons
from Career Tech
In an article published in Spaces4Learning, HMFH Associate Principal Bobby Williams offers insight from the planning and design of recent career technical education schools to support the shift from traditional education design to a modern, experience-based approach to learning.
The expanding importance of STEM education and project-based learning require a rethinking of the traditional school planning and design process. A practical way to start is to adopt a broader, non-traditional mindset – especially during a school project’s conceptual phases.
Fortunately, planners and designers can draw inspiration and benchmarks from recent middle and high school projects, especially innovations in career tech education (CTE) that depart from conventional design and offer replicable lessons for improvement. These early adopter’s experiential and career-based learning focus on integrating science and math-based opportunities, and couple that mission with a hands-on, engaging, and highly relevant problem-solving curriculum.
The success of this model is found in the demand for career technical education by a broad range of students interested in today’s knowledge-based technology, science, and health opportunities.”
