• Learn to create secure and resilient CTE learning spaces through controlled access points, clear circulation paths, and durable materials, designed to protect building users while supporting dynamic learning environments.
• Explore how to enhance student wellbeing through integration of natural light, exterior connections, and indoor environmental quality.
• Evaluate equitable access and sustainability for all users, integrating interdepartmental and inclusive spaces, while prioritizing sustainable practices.
• Analyze community connections and workforce development, fostering equity by providing students with access to cutting-edge resources and professional-grade facilities, while benefiting the broader community.

• Discuss the logistical, budgetary, and pedagogical challenges of creating a comprehensive and integrated CTE program.
• Identify opportunities for industry, educators, regulators and designers to effectively collaborate to optimize a successful outcome.
• Explore design strategies that help to seamlessly integrate CTE programming into the High School and make it welcoming to varied learners.
• Understand the programming and technical requirements of integrating diverse CTE spaces.

• Learn more about curating and engaging students in a co-design project.
• Deepen understanding of students’ feelings about belonging in school today.
• Identify design criteria for belonging as determined by student perspectives shared during the co-design sessions.
• Recognize how the research findings can inform future education projects, with the proposed design interventions as examples.

• Understand the advantages and disadvantages of combining school facilities into a shared single building using nationwide examples and a unique case study
• Understand guiding principles and project goals early in programming to facilitate the process with all stakeholders.
• Learn the program elements of combined school facilities, sharing opportunities, and operational and funding considerations.
• Understand the programmatic impacts on students, staff, and administrators and how to use the design process to gain buy-in from the community.

• Understand the Key Differences: Identify and compare the structural, logistical, and educational differences between integrating CTE programs into high schools and integrating high school programs into CTE centers.
• Evaluate the Impact on Student Engagement and Learning: Analyze how each model influences student engagement and motivation, including how access to specialized resources and hands-on training affects learning outcomes.
• Examine Career Readiness and Workforce Preparation: Assess how both models contribute to career readiness and real-world skill development, and explore the benefits and limitations of each approach in preparing students for the workforce or higher education.
• Explore Practical and Logistical Considerations: Understand the practical challenges related to scheduling and resource allocation when high schools are integrated with CTE programs versus when high school programs are integrated into a CTE center.
• Explore Collaboration Opportunities: Investigate potential strategies for schools and CTE centers to collaborate and combine elements of both models, creating a more flexible and responsive educational pathway for students.
• Discuss the Future of CTE in Education: Discuss the evolving role of CTE in education and how different integration models align with the demands of a rapidly changing job market, focusing on how schools can better prepare students for the future.

• Identify strategies for balancing budget constraints with the need to modernize aging school infrastructure while fostering sustainability.
• Learn how to incorporate high-performance design strategies and integrate efficient technologies to achieve energy goals.
• Explore innovative funding methods, including leveraging state grants, utility incentives, and federal tax credits, to support sustainable construction and renovation projects.
• Learn how to design flexible, interdisciplinary learning spaces that promote student engagement, support STEAMM education, and enhance academic success within sustainable environments.

SESSION CANCELLED

• What if the spatial design of the environments was through the lens of brain development?
• What if our learning spaces were living extensions of the brain? And
• What if our spaces could breathe and flow with learning though the learning landscapes just as neural networks adapt and reorganize in our brains?

1. Movement Built Brains: Creating flowing spaces with different zones, to not just make things interesting but creating the critical connections between physical movement and brain development. Those million neural connections per second? We know that they form better when kids are moving, exploring, and engaging with their environment.
2. Experience Shaped Wiring: Our brains develop through sensory experiences. So when we design spaces with varied textures, natural light, and thoughtful sound design, we’re not just making good environments – we’re providing the diverse sensory inputs crucial for healthy brain development. That’s why outdoor learning spaces and natural elements aren’t luxury add-ons – they’re brain-building essentials.
3. Flexibility Drives Learning: Young brains are incredibly plastic, constantly rewiring based on experience. Our learning spaces should share this flexibility. Moveable walls and adaptable spaces don’t just provide variety - they support the brain’s natural tendency to make new connections and reorganize information.
4. Social Spaces Build Social Brains: The teenage brain is literally wired to seek social connection. When we design collaboration spaces and social learning hubs, we’re working with this natural tendency, not against it. These spaces become tools for developing the social-emotional neural networks crucial for future success. When we align our spaces and teaching methods with brain development, we create a powerful feedback loop.

• Learn about creating a project vision and using it as a guiding principle during the entire project duration.
• Understand how crafting a specific stakeholder committee comprised of diverse groups can help a project succeed.
• Learn different techniques for stakeholder communication during each phase of the project.
• Explore examples of dynamic learning environments infused with the school’s culture.

• Identify unique niche opportunities that institutions might provide through their programs.
• Initiate STEAM, career, and technical programs supporting inner-city youth and supporting a segment of the workforce that is currently underserved.
• Implement unique construction required to support STEAM technical training.
• Initiate construction projects in an urban environment with positive support from neighbors.

• Learn about how to set the stage for engaging a P3 team.
• Learn about the financing leveraged to realize the program.
• Learn how sustainable, high performance schools are being delivered on diverse sites using flexible prototypical designs.
• Learn how to schedule, procure, and construct nearly $800 million in new school facilities in three years.

• Understand how interdisciplinary collaboration between academic and CTE programs can create innovative and impactful learning opportunities. Attendees will learn how integrating core academic subjects with hands-on, real-world agricultural education enhances student engagement and outcomes.
• Identify design strategies that promote sustainability and environmental stewardship in educational facilities. Attendees will explore how features such as green roofs, composting toilets, and flexible outdoor spaces enhance learning and environmental awareness.
• Recognize the importance of community engagement in shaping a school’s vision and fostering long-term success. Through the example of Bristol Aggie’s annual Fall Show and robust partnerships, attendees will understand how strong community ties can elevate educational experiences and outcomes.
• Explore how purposeful campus and building design can support equitable access, safety, and lifelong learning. Attendees will discover how accessible pathways, specialized lab spaces, and adaptable learning environments create inclusive and forward-thinking educational spaces.

• Explore the creation of community and collaboration based-school spaces, and the creation of seamless transitions between interior and exterior in a public park setting.
• Analyze community connections, fostering equity by providing students with access to cutting-edge resources and first-class facilities, while benefiting the broader community.
• Examine the creation of dynamic, flexible and secure collaborative learning spaces using clear building organization and zoning, and natural building surveillance.
• Evaluate the concept of the creating a community school with integrated interdepartmental and inclusive spaces, while prioritizing sustainable practices.

• Understand the Benefits of Experiential Learning: Gain insight into how hands-on learning strategies enhance student engagement, critical thinking, and foster deeper understanding across different educational levels, contributing to the overall development of students’ cognitive, emotional well-being, and real-world problem solving skills.
• Explore STEAM Integration at All Educational Levels: Explore case studies of successful STEAM integration from Early Childhood through Postsecondary education, identifying effective practices and outcomes that promote holistic student development, including health, safety, and emotional support in learning environments.
• Evaluate the Future of Education: Reflect on the future of education, considering how the continued integration of hands-on and STEAM learning approaches can prepare students for an increasingly complex and technology-driven world, while promoting social and emotional development and sustainable practices in educational environments.
• Apply Lessons to Diverse Learning Environments: Learn how to adapt successful hands-on learning strategies to suit different age groups, learning styles, neurodiversity, and educational settings, ensuring these practices contribute to creating safe, inclusive, and supportive learning spaces for all students.

• Discover how art is not merely an enhancement but a vital ingredient in the school curriculum that significantly promotes social and emotional growth in students.
• Understand how art facilitates this foundational preparation and equips students for successful futures.
• What challenges do schools face when incorporating art into the curriculum, and how can they overcome them?
• Identify tangible constraints and opportunities for integrating art into existing school buildings.

• Explore best practices in designing green roofs for STEAM education.
• Analyze how green roofs contribute to environmental and economic benefits for schools.
• Learn about essential safety design elements for new and retrofitted green roofs on school buildings.
• Understand how green roofs can be used to enhance students’ health and wellbeing.

• Explore how active, experiential learning is reshaping educational environments.
• Increasing engagement.
• Boosting college and career readiness.
• Ensuring equitable access to programs that inspire and prepare students for success.

• How adaptability in design can pave the way for creative integration of new programs that pique the interest of students through thoughtful design and furniture selection.
• How the selected furnishings in the commons, learning neighborhoods and specialized classrooms has increased student engagement, diminished absenteeism, and supports agile STEAM and career prep environments.
• How to build interest at the primary school level to help grow and anticipate new programs at secondary education facilities.
• How post occupancy and exploratory data results influence administrative decisions in curriculum, space utilization and supporting personalized learning combined with career technical education for the future.

• Understand the role of a dedicated Executive Director/Planning Principal for STEAM programs for a successful project.
• Learn how methods of community outreach can be used to identify high-growth programs for CTE and STEAM programming.
• Understand the challenges of fitting an innovative STEAM program in a historically sensitive building.
• Discover how an inter-disciplinary approach to learning can be supported through the built environment.

• Understand key factors contributing to human flourishing, including how CTE programs can enhance student engagement, skill development, and overall well-being through practical, hands-on learning.
• Understand student success, connecting research on vital engagement, sensory design, and learning with the unique needs of CTE environments that prepare students for meaningful careers.
• Identify spatial strategies, key priorities, and behaviors needed for learning and development in support of well-being, with a focus on how spaces can support CTE programs by fostering collaboration, innovation, and technical skill mastery.
• Understand the benefits of play, maker, active, and informal learning environments on young learners, with an emphasis on how these environments align with CTE principles to inspire creativity, foster problem-solving skills, and prepare students for industry-relevant opportunities through case studies, lessons learned, best practices, and educator perspectives.

• Identify best practices for enhancing physical safety in schools that address the unique challenges of the modern world, including technology integration and spatial planning.
• Understand key trauma-informed design elements that create environments fostering emotional well-being and positively impact students and educators.
• Analyze real-world design strategies from case studies that effectively balance physical security with emotional support and openness.
• Develop an actionable design plan that incorporates holistic safety principles, ensuring both physical and emotional security in future school projects.

• This will provide attendees with the ability to take this knowledge to stakeholders to improve current programs and build new ones that are fit to industry standards.
• Learners will understand the needs within innovative CTE and STEAM spaces.
• Learners will connect trends in industry to trends in this educational space.
• Learners will be able to call out the needs of today's students .
• Learners will be able to apply specific enhancements to CTE spaces that will improve and innovate both current and new spaces.

• Demonstrate how early, hands-on engagement with students during the design phase informs design choices that create an inclusive and collaborative environment in the space.
• Highlight best practices on how incorporating student feedback gained during the design phase enhances diverse curriculum programming and meets long-term goals of the school.
• Understand how students experience interdisciplinary spaces through benchmarking and interviewing other charter school’s STEAM programming.
• Illustrate how design strategies for renovating existing facility assets can enhance school programming and sustainably manage a limited budget.