This is the open source design page for creating an all-ages learning space based on the combined principles of Montessori, Waldorf, Orff, Reggio, Multi-Intelligence, Bloom’s Taxonomy, Study Tech, and Imagine Wisdom Education. We call this the Ultimate Classroom and it is designed to stimulate ideas for your own educational environment or for use as complete building blueprints and setup plans. These plans will evolve as needed for building a complete Highest Good Education school on the One Community property. As we develop this first structure and others later, we will use this page to open source share all aspects of the design, development, licensing and permitting, expansion, setup, etc. through multi-media presentations for easy viewing, downloading, duplication, and modification.
This page contains the following sections:
EDUCATION OVERVIEW | HOW TO USE THIS PROGRAM | OUR OPEN SOURCE PURPOSE
The Ultimate Classroom is a straw bale construction building designed to host the Highest Good education program. We are open source sharing the complete design, construction process, and evolution of this educational space as part of our global transformation and sharing strategy. The video below gives an overview of the structure and details for each room can be found in the Ultimate Classroom Details section.
When thinking of the Ultimate Classroom as part of One Community, it is helpful to note we are also designing the complete community environment to contribute to the education of all our students. Offering an on-property internship, children who demonstrate interest and enough maturity to be safe and proactive will be invited to participate in the daily operation activities, open source creation process (video, website, and written content creation), hands-on construction of the 7-villages, food production, preparation, and the open source botanical gardens, permaculture, animal husbandry, artisan skills as part of the Cob Village, and any other areas that interest them.
Open source developing what we consider the ultimate learning environment is part of One Community’s strategy for positive and permanent global transformation for The Highest Good of All. We see this as important because we recognize up-and-coming generations as our future. To support them as best we can is to support ourselves and all that come after us. Designing and free-sharing this classroom is purposed to stimulate ideas for new-paradigm learning and provide a complete and duplicable model for anyone interested in a community-operated education model.
SUGGESTIONS | CONSULTING | MEMBERSHIP | OTHER OPTIONS
Adolph Karubanga: PMP® and Civil/Structural Engineer
Apoorv Pandey: Mechanical Engineer
Dr. Amber Berg: PhD Eco-applied Psychology
Brian Muigai Mwaniki: Civil/Structural Engineer
Brian Mwoyowatidi: Graduate Structural Engineer
Dan Alleck: Designer and Illustrator
Ritu Damani: Graphic Designer
Satyanna Luken: Author, Montessori Teacher, and founder of Imagine Wisdom Education (I-WE)
Shuwei Liu: Landscape Designer
Xiaolu Song: Landscape Designer
Zebao Chen: Structural Designer
Ziqian Zheng: Architectural Designer and Drafter
The Ultimate classroom is designed to be an all-ages open floor and desk-free classroom with a central area large enough to host group circles, social and recreational events, presentations, and more. It includes different colored and themed sections representing all the colors of the rainbow (Idea source was I-WE) and each focused on specific subjects and multiple curriculum areas. This layout will provide a stimulating, captivating, beautiful learning environment that covers all traditional subject matter and a broad diversity of additional subjects and topics too.
We discuss each of the themed sections below:
The red room stands for life, vitality, strength, and physical nature of all things. This themed area will include a climbing and exercising component, as well as musical instruments. The subjects of Health and Music will be the focus of this room. See the Health page and these curriculum sections for ideas related to this room: Mindfulness and Fun, and Interconnectedness and Our Relationship to All Things
The orange room represents emotional growth and development. It is about understanding and exploring our feelings and responses to experiences and each other. It is also about learning to express feelings through language, art, and dance. The subject of Language Arts will also be a focus of this room. See the Language Arts page and these curriculum sections for ideas related to this room: Diversity, Differences, and Similarities, and Communication and Language Skills
The yellow room is about peaceful leadership, sharing, self-esteem, respect for others, self-control, self-discipline, calmness, and initiative. This room will contain collaborative and cooperative tools, toys, and games. The subject of Math will also be a focus of this room. See the Math page and these curriculum sections for ideas related to this room: Knowledge and Wisdom, Collaboration and Cooperation, and Sharing, Giving, and Receiving, and Honesty and Integrity
The green room is about nature, ecological systems, and our interaction and connection with both. It is also about our connections to one another as parts of the human ecological system, and how these systems are interdependent. The subject of Science will also be a focus of this room. See the Science page and these curriculum sections for ideas related to this room: Interconnectedness and Our Relationship to All Things and Love, Connection, and Compassion
The blue room stands for technology, innovation, communication, empathy, feelings, and the ability to express oneself. This room (along with the indigo room) will contain computers, tablets, and other technology for accessing the internet and multi-media creation. Learning aids and books in this room will focus on communication and multi-media expression. The subject of Technology and Innovation will also be a focus of this room. See the Technology and Innovation page and these curriculum sections for ideas related to this room: Communication and Language Skills and Community, Family, and Social Skills
The indigo room represents global and historical perspectives and celebrating diversity. This room (like the blue room) will contain computers, tablets, and other technology for accessing the internet. Learning aids and books in this room will focus on history and different cultures and cultural practices. The subject of Social Science will also be a focus of this room. See the Social Sciences page and these curriculum sections for ideas related to this room: Contribution, Global Perspective, and Social Science, Diversity, Differences, and Similarities, and Freedom and Celebrating Other Perspectives
The violet “room” will be represented by the center of this building. This large and open space will be used for morning circle or other group activities during the day and for theater, presentations, or community social events after school hours. Here is a render of this room showing this area in the morning and representing what it may look like during regular use.
Here is an example of this area being used for an evening activity like theater.
In daily use, this area will embody imagination, self-expression, and personal enrichment. Pull-down security barriers will allow us to block off any or all of the surrounding rooms when we want to use this area for plays, presentations, social or recreational events. A portable stage, costumes, and props will be available for this area too. The subjects of Arts/Music and Trades and Values will be a focus of this room/area. See the Arts/Music and Trades and Values pages and these curriculum sections for ideas related to this room: Â Mindfulness and Fun and Collaboration and Cooperation
Here are some general classroom design guidelines from our research into the most prominent progressive education methodologies in the world:
R: Red Room | O: Orange Room | Y: Yellow Room | G: Green Room | B: Blue Room | I: Indigo Room | V: Violet Room
From Dr. Becky Bailey’s Conscious Discipline YouTube channel:
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Montessori | Waldorf | Orff | Reggio | Multi-Intelligence | Bloom's Taxonomy | Study Tech | I-WE
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Construction plans are not yet complete for this structure. Our dropbox of the most current plans we have so far though can be accessed by clicking the image below. Use of these plans, as with all of the open source content we provide, may only be used in accordance with our Terms and Conditions.
Once we’ve built this structure, we will add videos here demonstrating the complete construction process. This will include timelapse videos and overviews of how to pour the foundation, frame the structure, install the electrical and plumbing, finish it, etc. Extensively detailed videos for each of these construction components will be created as part of the Straw Bale Village (Pod 2).
COMING: TIMELAPSE AND CONSTRUCTION VIDEOS TEACHING HOW TO REPLICATE THIS STRUCTURE.
SEE OUR HOW TO HELP AND/OR CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN PAGE TO HELP CREATE ALL THE TUTORIAL VIDEOS FASTER
Once in use, we will also be supplying maintenance and upkeep videos for the Ultimate Classroom. These videos will cover maintenance and upkeep of the walls, roof, plumbing, etc. as well as maintenance and upkeep of everything within the classroom. Maintenance and upkeep of everything within the classroom will include the floor, movable walls, bathroom fixtures, storage areas, learning aids, etc.
COMING: HOW-TO VIDEOS FOR MAINTAINING ALL EXTERNAL COMPONENTS OF THIS STRUCTURE
SEE OUR HOW TO HELP AND/OR CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN PAGE TO HELP CREATE ALL THE TUTORIAL VIDEOS FASTER
COMING: HOW-TO VIDEOS FOR MAINTAINING ALL INTERNAL COMPONENTS OF THIS STRUCTURE
SEE OUR HOW TO HELP AND/OR CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN PAGE TO HELP CREATE ALL THE TUTORIAL VIDEOS FASTER
The Ultimate Classroom was originally designed to use a Projection Dome for the primary structure. These domes are most commonly used for promotional events and festivals and allow for 360-degree projections on the the ceiling and walls of the dome. They can be set up in a day by two people and are considered temporary structures that may not need permitting in many locations.
We redesigned the Ultimate Classroom designs to the ones above for a diversity of reasons:
We still think the original designs or some other version of a projection-dome design could be a good option for the right situation though. So we share here our original images showing what we’d planned:
Our classroom design using these domes included elevating the entire dome and adding a central loft. The central loft was to provide a meeting space on top, play space below, and a mounting place for the projector so projections happen above the main classroom spaces around the perimeter of the structure. This created shadow-free projection and classroom space below that would have otherwise been wasted. It also created a safe place to keep the projector.
This classroom design, like the updated one, also included different colored and themed sections representing all the colors of the rainbow. This is purposed to create a stimulating, captivating, beautiful, and effective learning environment for all ages, covering all traditional subject matter, and a broad diversity of additional subjects and topics too. We discuss each of these rooms here:
The red room stands for life, vitality, strength, and physical nature of all things. This themed area will include a climbing and exercising component, percussion instruments, and animal pictures and elements. The subject of Health will also be a focus of this room. See these curriculum sections for ideas related to this room: Mindfulness and Fun, and Interconnectedness and Our Relationship to All Things See also: Health
The orange room represents emotional growth and development. It is about understanding and exploring our feelings and responses to experiences and each other. It is also about learning to express feelings through language, art, and dance. The subject of Language Arts will also be a focus of this room. See these curriculum sections for ideas related to this room: Diversity, Differences, and Similarities, and Communication and Language Skills See also: English
The yellow room is about peaceful leadership, sharing, self-esteem, respect for others, self-control, self-discipline, calmness, and initiative. This room will contain collaborative and cooperative tools, toys, and games. The subject of Math will also be a focus of this room. See these curriculum sections for ideas related to this room: Knowledge and Wisdom, Collaboration and Cooperation, and Sharing, Giving, and Receiving, and Honesty and Integrity See also: Math
The green room is about nature, ecological systems, and our interaction and connection with both. It is also about our connections to one another as parts of the human ecological system, and how these systems are interdependent. The subject of Science will also be a focus of this room. See these curriculum sections for ideas related to this room: Interconnectedness and Our Relationship to All Things and Love, Connection, and Compassion See also: Science
The blue room stands for technology, innovation, communication, empathy, feelings, and the ability to express oneself. This room (along with the indigo room) will contain computers, tablets, and other technology for accessing the internet and multi-media creation. Learning aids and books in this room will focus on communication and multi-media expression. The subject of Technology and Innovation will also be a focus of this room. See these curriculum sections for ideas related to this room: Communication and Language Skills and Community, Family, and Social Skills See also: Technology and Innovation
The indigo room represents global and historical perspectives and celebrating diversity. This room (like the blue room) will contain computers, tablets, and other technology for accessing the internet. Learning aids and books in this room will focus on history and different cultures and cultural practices. The subject of Social Science will also be a focus of this room. See these curriculum sections for ideas related to this room: Contribution, Global Perspective, and Social Science, Diversity, Differences, and Similarities, and Freedom and Celebrating Other Perspectives See also: Social Science
The violet room represents imagination, self-expression, and personal enrichment. Learning aids in this area will include a stage, costumes, and props. Books in this area will revolve around theater, arts, music, different trade skills, and self development. The subjects of Arts/Music and Trades and Values will also be a focus of this room. See these curriculum sections for ideas related to this room: Â Mindfulness and Fun and Collaboration and Cooperation See also: Arts/Music and Trades and Values
Open source developing an all-ages learning environment that is more engaging, beautiful, fun, and comprehensive is part of One Community’s strategy for positive and permanent global transformation for The Highest Good of All. This page will share the details of creating such an environment, eventually including actual blueprints, complete design and construction details, pictures, videos, cost analysis, and all other classroom specifics needed for duplication. Our purpose for creating this is to provide a new-paradigm learning environment for community sponsored schools.
Q: How do you intend to provide classroom construction blueprints?
Complete permitted plans will be provided as soon as we have a permitted structure.
Q: Why did you choose straw bale construction?
Straw bale construction is a fairly easy sustainable building method. Our research on the most sustainable insulations also showed straw bale construction as one of the best. Additionally, this structure is part of Phase 1 of our 7 sustainable villages construction plan. Building this as part of Phase 1 will provide beneficial experience that we’ll then be able to apply when we build the Straw Bale Village in Phase 2.
Q: How did you choose the shape of this structure?
This structure was designed to provide natural lighting, passive solar heating, and natural cooling. The orientation of the windows provides natural light and supports passive solar heating. Natural cooling and fresh air can be supplied by opening the clerestory windows, heat exiting the building through the roof there will draw air thought the lower windows and cool the structure.
"In order to change an existing paradigm you do not struggle to try and change the problematic model.
You create a new model and make the old one obsolete. That, in essence, is the higher service to which we are all being called."
~ Buckminster Fuller ~
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