Fisher Middle takes learning into the beyond
The inaugural class of 340 sixth-graders will burst through the doors of the new Dr. Phinnize J. Fisher Middle School this morning to find exposed pipes, few books in the media center and no classrooms.
But nothing's gone wrong in the construction of the school. It's all part of the plan to carefully match the design with the school's STEAM — science, technology, engineering, art and math — curriculum.
"In my very long career, this is the first time that a building has been designed to accommodate a curriculum rather than a curriculum adapting to a building," said principal Jane Garraux.
Fisher Middle School is the culmination of plans that have been in the works since 2011, when initial concept meetings with Clemson University plotted the future of a STEM-based middle school. The arts focus was added a few months later to create a STEAM curriculum.
Traditional classrooms with their square desks and plastic chairs have been replaced by what are called STEAM studios, design labs and seminar rooms, spaces distinguished from classrooms by their flexibility and eye toward project-based learning.
"The uniqueness of the building required more than just a traditional classroom name," Garraux said.
Walls are moveable, even removable. Rolling garage-style doors front nearly every room, opening it up to a large collaborative space at the touch of a button. Amoeba-shaped "puzzle tables" can stand alone or fit together like puzzle pieces in large or small groupings. And almost every piece is on casters to make it easy to shuffle.
Each grade is divided into three learning communities, a kind of school within a school made up of about 110 students. The U-shaped areas incorporate several classrooms, collaborative learning areas, a large common space and a shared office where teachers can work together rather than being isolated in their own rooms.
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The compact media center at the front of the building is heavy on padded furniture in comfy tones of gray and yellow, but light on bookshelves. Thanks to a focus on technology, the traditional library is going digital with most titles available on students' school-issued laptop computers.
"The workforce now and even more so in the future is going to be all digital," said Garraux, who is heading Fisher Middle after 28 years in Miami's school system.
The building was designed down to the last rivet to encourage learning, said Ron Smith, principal at McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture.
Daylight is heavily relied on with huge windows in every room. Glass walls within each learning community put "learning on display," Smith said, since research shows that students are encouraged when they see their peers working alongside them.
And then there are the pipes striping every ceiling in blues, greens, reds and yellows and glass-walled rooms containing technology and other equipment.
"We want the students to be able to see all these features, see how they work and understand how the building works," Smith said. "The building is not only a school but also a learning tool."
The school also includes a prototype gallery for student project display, Project Lead the Way engineering-centric computer room, indoor and outdoor amphitheaters, and a large fine arts wing with four rooms to cater to band, chorus and an electronic music course. An innovation lab is set up to encourage involvement from corporate partners, who can bring equipment as large as a BMW or a wind turbine through a garage door to allow students to work hands-on.
"This is the kind of work environment, the kind of logic-based, team-based environment, that most of our business and industry, individuals going into work in those every day, experience," said Burke Royster, Greenville County Schools superintendent. "It helps ... us to work with students in an environment similar to that which they'll experience when they get out in the real world."
The building was also designed with an eye to sustainability. Marvin Coker, project manager with McMillan Pazdan Smith, said the school is looking to receive Green Globe certification for features such as lighting systems that automatically adjust based on the amount of available sunlight, windows that reflect heat, and recycled finishes like the bamboo flooring in some areas.
For Fisher Middle's opening year, only sixth-graders will occupy the school, and they'll be on the ground floor. Seventh grade will be introduced next year; eighth grade the year after to fill the three-story building. The upper floors remain under construction.
The students at Fisher Middle are drawn in small part from a tight attendance zone around the school's CU-ICAR campus location. But since Fisher Middle was originally conceived to relieve crowding, the majority of students are drawn by parent request from the attendance zones of crowded middle schools in the area, including Beck, Bryson, Riverside and Mauldin. A few remaining slots are filled by change in assignment choice requests.
Fisher Middle is the only new Greenville County school opening this year, but it's not the only tech-based program being introduced. The New Tech program, a project-based learning curriculum, is getting its start at Carolina High and J.L. Mann Academy this year.
There, students will work in small groups on real-world projects that span the curriculum, combining classes like Algebra II and engineering.
"I think part of the reason why we're seeing this initiative is that not only is it based on good educational practices and I think students see the connections to the real world, but it's also something that enables us to support the workforce," said Chris Burras, who oversees STEM programs for Greenville County Schools.
Staff writer Ron Barnett contributed to this report.