lean & green schools

Much of science education is dependent on the use of water. Chemistry needs it for use in some experiments and for cleaning; same for biology. I still remember using water in Physics for experiments in optics and understanding waves (and not just for surfing!).

If you have water, you have sinks. Many science classroom designs put the sinks as close as possible to where the water needs to be used. That is laudable from an “efficiency” standpoint, but it is expensive from a construction and utilization standpoint. Here are more considerations:

• Placing sinks at workstations throughout the classroom means water and drain lines must be run throughout the classroom. That is expensive.
• It’s also expensive because those sinks are not used all that often.
• Placing sinks at workstations makes those workstations permanent, so the classroom cannot be reconfigured to teach other subjects, especially outside of science. Sometimes science classrooms go unused during the day because they are not conducive to the teaching of those other subjects.
• Even if other subjects are taught in those classrooms with sinks at workstations, either the workstation arrangement itself is not conducive to learning and/or the sink (and water) offers tremendous temptation for students to perform water science experiments in non-science subjects (if you get my drift!).

Cost saving solution:  just put the sinks around the perimeter of the classroom. You can get by with fewer sinks despite the “rush hour” crunch to get glassware cleaned, etc. Fewer sinks, fewer water taps, fewer water and drain lines. Seems simple, and it is. So try it. What do you get? Less costly science classrooms, but also consider:

• Chemistry may still require running water and this idea may not work in those particular labs.
• If you are using modular buildings (another good cost saving idea), it is easier to run water throughout the classroom during “construction.” There is no need to “trench” concrete floors.

Another idea: Don’t put a lab area in every science classroom. Instead have a dedicated lab that is scheduled for all science subjects to use. Now you have fewer actual labs. Of course, a dedicated lab also cannot be easily used for actual lecture situations for any subject.

- By Dave Withee