{"id":299527,"date":"2021-06-18T09:49:12","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T09:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mage2prod.smartdesks.com\/knowledge-center\/?page_id=299527"},"modified":"2022-03-23T10:07:54","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T10:07:54","slug":"chatham-middle-school-new-jersey-campus","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/smartdesks.com\/knowledge-center\/case-studies\/chatham-middle-school-new-jersey-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Chatham Middle School, New Jersey Campus"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Chatham Middle School's Innovation and STEM Lab, New Jersey Campus<\/h1>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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SMARTdesks Powers Up its Collaboration Furniture for Robotics,\nCoding, and Computer Aided Drafting & Design (CADD) <\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDownload Case Study PDF<\/span>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDanielle Romero Dagounis, Supervisor of Instructional and Design Technology (K-12) was interviewed November 28, 2018 to describe the design process that led to the grand opening of the Innovation Lab in September of that year. She says that the need for this new facility became evident\nsoon after the iSTEM Program was adopted by the District in 2013. \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t“The process started over five years ago,” Dagounis explained. “We historically had a computer lab, and that was just used for teachers to come visit with their classes. There weren’t any scheduled classes that went on in there. Five years ago, we started our STEM Program\u2014Science, Technology, Engineering and Math program\u2014 offering a wide array of programs: an integrated 6th grade STEM robotics course, 7th grade creativity and innovation course, CAD\u2014Computer-Aided Drafting & Design\u2014and coding, or digital game design class. Three of these necessitated computers with robust\nprocessing capability. To accomplish this, we had to take over the computer lab. The downfall of that is:\nit’s a computer lab. As such, there are no supports to allow the students to collaborate.”\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnother issue was the inefficiency of three teachers sharing a computer lab that wasn’t\nserving any of them well. Danielle notes, “We had three STEM teachers and only two classrooms. They\nwere constantly running between the different classrooms during passing time. We would be having\nrobotics in [the computer lab], then the teacher would have to run to teach another class in another\nroom, making it very difficult for them to keep everything set up.” \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAfter two years of operating with these deficits and inefficiencies, Dagounis presented her\nanalysis to the administration indicating the need to resolve the “serious space issue.” The\nAdministration responded by issuing a referendum. Dagounis explains, “The District was moving\nforward with a referendum, which the tax payers vote on, whether they wanted to provide additional\nfunds for certain projects. We first did a referendum that had six different projects built within it.\nSchool District of the Chathams referendum included a bunch of different things: update the fields,\nfund a new Performing Arts Center, and a new STEM facilities for the middle school. Unfortunately,\nthat bundled referendum did not pass, so we decided to separate the questions. After doing so, the\nSTEM question passed with flying colors, as did every one of the individual questions that we asked.\nOnce that was approved, we had to go through the whole process. It took about two years to get the\nreferendum together. Once everything was passed, we started working with the architect to come up \nwith our plans and designs. We also visited other districts to see what we liked and what we thought\ncould work in our space.” \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDagounis continues, “The plan was to make a new STEM focus area with classrooms set up to\nserve different purposes. The classroom we are talking about today is what we call our Innovation Lab.\nIt houses our sixth grade Robotics class, our seventh grade CAD Computer Aided Drafting and Design\ncourse, and our eighth grade Digital Game Design, or Coding course. \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t“The Innovation Lab is the room that features SMARTdesks collaboration furniture. Our Creativity Lab\u2014right next to it\u2014houses our Creativity Innovations course and our 6th grade iSTEM\ncourse. Our Design Lab\u2014all the way at the end or the hall\u2014is a workshop for materials processing,\nand has band saws and drill presses. Each room has its own purpose. Our hope is that, over the next\ncouple of years, the classes can flow between these three rooms, so if they need to do some designing\non the computer, they can come into the Innovation Lab. We would approach it as a micro campus\nwithin the school.”\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWith the design of the pedagogy defined, Danielle’s next task was to break away from the\ncomputer lab approach and find collaborative learning furniture to support robust CPUs and provide\ntop-side power for Robotics, CAD and Digital Game Design & Coding. Dagounis tells her story this way,\n“I went through the process and listed my criteria for collaborative desks. First of all, they needed to\nhandle the full desktop computer set-up, with the memory necessary to run the software. We are a 1:1\nChromebook District, so every student has a Chromebook device that they use for all of their classes.\nThey normally take it home to do homework, but in our STEM classes, we have specific software that\nwe require. \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t“We didn’t want the desks set in normal traditional rows. We didn’t want the kids lining the classroom walls\u2014not being able to look at the teacher because they are facing the wall. We needed open table top space because the kids were working with robots. They need to be able to design them, move them around, and plug them into the computer. \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWith these requirements in mind, Dagounis began her search for the perfect collaboration\nfurniture to realize her vision. She soon realized that, as she put it, “Apparently, if you want\ncollaborative computer desks, they’re like unicorns. Nobody really makes then, except for you guys.”\nAsked how she found SMARTdesks, she remembered, “I went to the New Jersey School Board\nConvention two or three years ago, and I presented with our District, and saw some of SMARTdesks’\nproducts being demonstrated in person. And when I ‘Googled’ collaborative computer tables,\nSMARTdesks was the most relevant result. So I got some measurements and gave them to my architect\nand asked if these SMARTdesks collaboration tables would fit\u2014before I got my hopes up. And they\ndid. And that was awesome.” \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJeffrey Korber, SMARTdesks CEO, added, “Yes, we had interface with the architect. They called us. We have our own design department, so we did a layout.” \n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDagounis continued, “Which was perfect, because we were able to finalize framing for the\nspace and determine the placement of the power, which was in the floor. \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t“Another thing\u2014we wanted to have a color scheme for each space. In our Innovations Space, everything is green. We also have butcher block counter tops around the edges\u2014 so, we wanted to stick with a certain color scheme and a certain look. The other rooms are blue and red. We were\nlooking for a certain level of customization. We went with a maple looking top to go with the butcher\nblock.”\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKorber observed, “So, customization was a factor in your decision making?” \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDagounis responded, “Yes. Even though that might seem silly and trivial, when you are spending as much money as we did on this space, and we are trying to go for a certain look\u2014it is important to be able to realize everything in the vision. We wanted the kids to be excited about the new innovative space where they would do new, innovative things. Paying attention to the little details was really important to us. Or at least to me, because I was the one selecting all of the final finishes.”\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKorber observed, “That is one way we differentiate ourselves. I was directly involved in the\nengineering. We don’t normally put computers into these tables. They are usually built for all-in-ones\nor laptops. So we had to find a space for the CPUs, and make sure it worked. We had six CPUs in each of\nthose pods. And we needed to drill all of the holes in the right place. I worked with my engineer to\nmake it so.” \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDagounis answered, “And that is good, because now we have an effective collaborative\nlearning classroom. It is so super important for our students to be able to collaborate with one\nanother, and not just come in and work on their own without having to work with other people.\nTechnology is really playing a huge part in education. I was getting a little disheartened when I was\ngoing through this planning process because we had all of these wonderful ideas. I knew I wanted a\ncollaborative, pod-like computer table, and I thought, ‘am I going to have to design something like this\non my own?’ I don’t know how I would do that.” \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKorber said, “That is our job. That was the first time that we made our Collab table this way, but that’s not unusual for us. That’s how we always approach it. Everything is made to order, one\ninstallation at a time.” \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKorber said, “That is our job. That was the first time that we made our Collab table this way, but that’s not unusual for us. That’s how we always approach it. Everything is made to order, one\ninstallation at a time.” \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe important combination of collaboration space appropriate for the activities, supported by\nergonomic placement of the technology and power\/data connections was what Danielle was looking\nfor. In her search, she found that many products that were offered as collaboration tables for active\nlearning did not include a configuration for the robotics curriculum, saying, “People are forgetting the\nwhole computer component of collaboration, including the use of laptops, or Chromebooks, or\nwhatever the smart device is. I suppose one could get a rectangular table and collaborate\u2014fine. But I \ncan’t build-in all of these technological components that my kids need. They also need power. They are\nworking with robots and I love the fact that in the middle of the table, we can push the top of the\npower data hub, and it pops up so we can plug in our robots. We have to. We need to, because they\nhave to charge\u2026 and also, let’s just pretend that the kids need to do some research for doing the\ncoding on their computer for their robot, and they want to do some research on their Chromebook,\nthey can plug their Chromebooks in there as well. So we needed that capability of providing power.” \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMr. Korber spoke about the commonplace rectangle-shaped tables Dagounis referred to, “One\nof things we do is provide all of these power\/data options within a choice of collaborative table\ngeometry. That’s why our service mark is “where design meets technology.” Because you want the\ndesign\u2014the space planning aspect of it\u2014but you also need to integrate technology, and that aspect\nis somewhat custom. For us, it’s standard practice. We have a wide selection of products that have\nroom for customization for technology. That’s our niche. The bigger guys can’t do that. They just mass\nproduce A, B or C, while we can pull different spices off of the spice shelf and season the soup the way\nyou want it, including a full range of colors and textures and finishes. If you need to match existing\nfinishes in the space, we can do that, too.”\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWe asked the Innovations Lab Teacher Jessica Liatys what the “before and after” experience\nwas like. Liatys said, “It’s a big difference. Before, I was teaching out of two different classrooms. I had\nto move around. I didn’t have proper storage for the equipment that I had. One of my classrooms used\nlaptops and we didn’t have proper tables or workspaces for the kids to build robots on. The classroom I\nwas in before was really tight. And it was hard to move around, and I didn’t have enough floor space to\nreally run robots on the floor with the kids.” \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhen asked how she was involved in the design process, Liatys said, “I talked to my supervisor\nand got to explain what I wanted in the space to make it work for all three of my different classes. One\nof the big things that I wanted was a lot of floor space\u2014a lot of open area to move around and work\non projects. I got to help pick out and discuss what kinds of furniture and storage and what I would\nneed for each class. The actual choice of the furniture was made by my supervisor. It was actually a\nsurprise. I didn’t know what actual furniture was picked out until it was in my lab. We had a hard time\ntrying to find furniture that would fit in the lab and do exactly what we wanted. Because of that, my\nsupervisor made it a surprise. I didn’t see it until I walked in.” \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhen asked how the students responded to ‘the reveal,’ Liatis commented, “They loved it! I\nremember the first day they came into the lab. They walked through the entire room and were in awe\nof the big space, the high ceilings, the furniture. They wanted to explore everything that was in the\nspace. The tables are nice because they have those curved edges. The kids can slide their chairs around\nand look at the computer next to them if they are not seated on the same side. The pods are spread\nout across the room with enough space to move around them. Best of all, they really opened up the\nfloor. I have 24 kids in this space, and if they were in rows, I wouldn’t have any open floor area. Now I\nhave a whole bunch of floor space they can move around in without worrying about chairs clanking\ninto each other.” \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDagounis added, “The space that we created in all those three rooms is so different from\nanything else they have in the District. The kids were aware of it being built, but they weren’t allowed\nto see it. We had it cordoned off because we didn’t have our certificate of occupancy\u2014we didn’t get\nour certificate of occupancy until the second or third week of school\u2014so, the kids started their classes\nin other classrooms. \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t“That first day that we were actually open and they could take their first class in that classroom\nthat was designed for them\u2014their faces were priceless. We have super high ceilings, with exposed\nductwork. We’re a STEM Lab. We want you to see all the different inner workings. We have whiteboard\nwalls. So they walked in and said ‘This is amazing.’ And the looks on their faces! They didn’t even need\nto say anything\u2014you could just see it in their faces. They were so excited. They couldn’t wait to find\nout what computer was theirs and where they could sit down. Attached to this room that we are\ntalking about is also a little prototyping lab. We have our 3D printers in there. We have our laser\nengraver in there. We have our vinyl cutter in there. So, it was fun for them to see all of the different\nprototyping tools that they have access to\u2014and attached right to the room they are working in. \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t“Other people are now coming in from other districts, and they are asking ‘where did you go to find these tables?’ Because you want the tops clean, and you only want the monitor on the top. We need the work space. The kids are cutting. They’re gluing. They’re building. They’re engaged. They’re\nlearning with joy. What more could you want?” \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTwenty-four students are accommodated in the Chatham Middle School Innovation Lab. This arrangement was chosen because it allows floor space for testing robots. The Collab Pod tables were chosen and customized for this criteria:\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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