1. Cabinetry and Sinks for Lab Work:

New perimeter cabinetry will be critical for lab material storage. Right now, both 7th and 8th grade classes have boxes of materials sitting out on our curing lab tables because there is nowhere big enough to store it. This limits the space that students have to work. Additionally, our current cabinets are worn down from 50 plus years of use. There are old burn marks and stains left behind from when this classroom was a high school chemistry class, which was more than 20 years ago. Sinks are imperative. Both 7th and 8th grade state standards require students to learn about the water cycle, water erosion/deposition, and chemical reactions, which require easy access to water. It is not possible to leave a classroom full of students to go fill up a bucket in a janitor’s closet and haul it back to class. I also would not trust students with this responsibility. Currently, lab tables are missing sinks or have sinks that leak when used. Leaking sinks cause tripping hazards and safety issues for students during labs. The new classroom plan gives both 7th and 8th grade plenty of perimeter cabinetry for storage of materials, making it easier to organize and find lab supplies. It will also give students more opportunities to be involved in lab set-up, which is part of teaching students scientific inquiry standards. New sinks will give students easy access to water necessary for labs and make it easier for teachers to clean and re-use glassware for experiments.

2. Dry Erase Surfaces on the Wall Cabinets and Work Tables:

Dry erase surfaces provide new and engaging ways for students to do group work. Students love writing/drawing on tables. Daily, I tell students to stop writing on my tables. Giving them the opportunity to play review games, write out group discussion answers, or plan out an experiment in an easy-to-edit format without having to get extra materials out both supports students’ interests as well as ease of transition. Cabinet dry erase surfaces allow me to label where supplies are and provide a homework board that students can easily see when they walk into class. All modern science classrooms that we visited on our tour had these dry erase surfaces around the classroom (Mason, Sycamore, Deer Park), and the teachers used them for announcements, group work, and other interactive lessons with students.

3. Small Group Room and Prep Room:

Our small group room is used daily. Intervention specialists will pull small groups to work within there. Students who were absent go in there to work on make-up work. Right now, the small group room also serves as our prep room, which causes disruptions when I need to prep labs during my plan and 7th grade students are in there working. Additionally, our prep room/storage area is lacking proper chemical storage and is an outdated/inefficient use of space. The new plans separate the small group room from the prep area, which will minimize distractions and students interacting with lab supplies as well as maximizing proper storage of lab supplies. Proper storage and better organization makes setting up, running, and tearing down labs easier, which means more time helping students’ with their questions and needs.

4. Height Adjustable Tables and Varied Student Seating:

The design of the new science rooms is focused on flexibility and largely based on what we saw at Deer Park and Mason. The tables were chosen to easily shift from a traditional classroom setup to a lab setup. The height adjustable tables can be paired up and pushed against the perimeter counters to create lab tables next to the sinks for when students are running labs. However, when we are doing instruction, independent work, or more traditional, the tables can be easily arranged back into rows or columns that face the point of instruction to minimize distractions. If we’re doing group work but don’t need sinks, the tables can be put together in large lab tables without the temptation of turning on the water. This will create a lot more space in the classroom than we currently have with both tables/desks and lab tables, which allow me to have space for more lab groups. Currently, I can run 6 groups for labs, which leads to problems when I have a class of 25 or more. 4 people is the maximum lab group size that keeps everyone involved and participating. With the renovation, I would have 7 lab group set-ups, which would give me better group sizes and increase each individual student’s ability to be hands-on.

When considering this renovation, we really wanted to maximize the flexibility of the classroom to meet the multiple ways that we work with and teach students. Varied student seating was incorporated to support neurodivergent students. The rocking chairs look almost identical to regular chairs but allow students subtle movement as a fidget, which is a common strategy for many students with ADHD and autism. By increasing these options in the classroom, we are making learning more accessible and comfortable for students every day without major or obvious changes that students can feel awkward about.