With assist from College Specialty, a STEM-focused elementary college in Dallas has furnished and outfitted its tutorial areas to help collaborative, hands-on studying and exploration that may place college students for achievement on no matter path they in the end take.
The design of the varsity and its alternative of furnishings offers college students the vibe of: “We’re right here to work—and we’re going to get our fingers messy,” says Principal Gina Maffucci. Biomedical Preparatory at UT Southwestern is a “transformation college” developed by the Dallas Unbiased College District in partnership with the College of Texas Southwestern Medical Heart.
The college opened in 2022 with college students in prekindergarten by first grade. As these college students have superior by their training, Biomedical Preparatory has added one other grade degree every year and can proceed to take action till it serves college students by the eighth grade.
With the beginning of the 2025-26 college 12 months, Biomedical Preparatory has accomplished the ultimate section of renovations to its constructing. Not solely does the varsity now have area to accommodate as much as 600 college students in grades preK-8—however its furnishings and décor “replicate the mannequin we’ve got for studying,” Maffucci says—and College Specialty has performed a key function within the course of.
An Modern Educational Mannequin
As its title implies, Biomedical Preparatory offers college students a well-rounded major training, however with a particular deal with the biomedical sciences. As a change college, it’s open to all households within the Dallas ISD by way of a lottery system.
“Our college students are gaining publicity to biomedical sciences in a number of methods,” Maffucci says. As a part of their science block, academics are main age-appropriate biomedical items for college students based mostly on a selected scope and sequence. For instance, pre-kindergarteners and kindergarteners are studying about their our bodies and the varied programs that enable their our bodies to perform. As they grow old, they acquire a extra subtle understanding of those programs and the way they work.
The college additionally holds what it calls Science Fridays. Throughout these occasions, varied biomedical professionals go to with college students and work with them in hands-on methods. An anesthesiologist may are available in to speak about ache administration and the way they assist folks really feel snug throughout surgical procedure, or a pulmonologist may need children create a mannequin of their lungs out of Play-Doh.
“Our college students are experiencing real-world profession days regularly,” Maffucci notes.
The college’s tutorial mannequin is predicated on six central “bio-values”: curiosity, empathy, creativity, innovation, management, and resilience. “These are values that may arrange college students for achievement in any area,” she observes, “however particularly the biosciences.”
How the Furnishings Helps This Mannequin
The college’s tutorial method entails lots of collaborative and hands-on studying, and the design of its tutorial areas completely helps this method.
“Our studying areas lend themselves to creativity and exploration,” Maffucci says.
As an example, a makerspace space is furnished with Childcraft cellular STEAM tables that embody built-in shelving to carry provides, in addition to dry-erase whiteboard surfaces for college students to put in writing on as they work by their designs. Lecture rooms are outfitted with Classroom Choose desks and chairs that may simply be organized in lots of configurations to help totally different group sizes. An open studying space consists of comfortable seating choices for college students to calm down in as they learn or work both independently or in teams.
The school rooms additionally characteristic varied seating kinds, equivalent to conventional chairs, NeoRok fidget stools, and NeoStak stools. “This versatile seating offers college students totally different choices for how one can interact with classes,” Maffucci says, “to allow them to search what they want” as a way to focus and excel.
Having fashionable, snug, and versatile furnishings permits college students to “discover their place” the place they really feel most relaxed to have interaction in studying—and it empowers academics to make use of many alternative tutorial methods to succeed in college students.
“Our academics are so excited,” Maffucci says. The finished constructing “offers them the area to be inventive. And our group is so excited as effectively. They’re in awe of the area and the way it got here collectively. We now have a state-of-the-art college that was definitely worth the wait.”
All through the method, College Specialty labored with Maffucci and her colleagues to recommend furnishings that may successfully help the varsity’s imaginative and prescient for instruction.
“College Specialty has been so nice to work with,” Maffucci concludes. “They have been all the time so prepared to help us by every section of the constructing mission. I actually worth our partnership.”
Discover Making a STEM-Supportive College in Your District
A properly-equipped college can help collaborative, hands-on studying and pupil exploration of STEM subjects. This helps set college students as much as develop a lifelong love of studying and to expertise future educational success. Be taught extra about how College Specialty might help your college develop a STEM supportive surroundings by calling (800) 305-0174, emailing projectsbydesign@schoolspecialty.com, or going to www.schoolspecialty.com/projects-by-design.