This conference, sponsored by the AIA Committee on Architecture for Education, was held in Cambridge, MA, April 11-13, 2002.

Conference Sessions

Overview

Lifelong Learning—What Do We Expect?

The Campus as Classroom: Issues and Opportunities

Sustaining and Promoting an Educational Facilities Design

Keynote: Lifelong Learning on a 21st-Century Campus

Learning from Living

Technology: The Unifier in a Multidiscipline Educational Environment

Equity and Excellence-Making an Urban School System Work

Sustainability-Massachusetts Sustainable Schools Pilot Program

Planning at MIT

Tours at MIT

Dreyfus Chemistry Building

Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Distance Learning at MIT

TEAL Room (Technology Enabled Active Learning)

Albert and Barrie Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center

Simmons Hall Undergraduate Dormitory

Ray and Maria Stata Center

Learning from Living
Peter O'Connell, director, Tsongas Industrial History Center

Peter O'Connell presented two case studies in Massachusetts—Lowell and Old Sturbridge Village—that demonstrate how museums and historical parks can be more than mere field trips for students.

Sturbridge's education center is a modern building located 180 degrees from the main entrance to keep the school groups and the tourists separate. The center has two levels and a variety of nooks and crannies for learning spaces.

Enclosed floating pods connected by ramps serve as introductory spaces into themes such as farm life or family life during the 1830s. Downstairs is the hands-on portion of the center. Kids can try on 19th century clothes, work a loom, sit in an 1830s schoolroom, operate a printing press, and even cook over an open fireplace.

The idea of the building transformed teachers' expectations of the museum, O'Connell said. The design process was very collaborative among staff, teacher advisors, and architects. Also, there were no other models to follow when this was built in the 1970s. "It was a very new idea," O'Connell noted. One of the key requirements was to make the space flexible.

Lowell, Mass., hails back to the 1820s and mechanized cloth production, is now part of the National Park Service. The Park Service is renovating and maintaining much of the old town, including a museum in one of the old mill buildings.

Within the museum is a working weave room, a traditional museum exhibit floor, and an experiential learning center for kids.

"These are two different yet highly effective models of experiential learning," said O'Connell. "Neither would work if the teachers weren't involved and didn't attend workshops. Both also require involved leadership."

Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.