Dean Marks: Competitions: Inside the box - Devise a classroom upgrade kit

Registration Deadline: May 3, 2021; Submission Deadline May 4, 2021

PREMISE

The in-classroom learning in the past few decades have seen significant changes, but not like the one it saw a few months ago. Online learning and offline learning have different value propositions and levels of acceptance in our day to day life. But the year 2020, the scale of change has turned so huge that it brings the entire offline way of tuition under serious doubts. When entire academic institutions were resistant to change, the times have moved the most resistant teachers to deliver lectures online tells a lot about these times. And similar stigma which was held earlier, mainly of students learning everything 'digital' or 'technological' are now being appreciated and rewarded in many ways. What does this mean for our existing classrooms?

CLASSROOMS OPENING BACK

The design of existing classrooms (K12 Systems) is based on the antiquated means of book-based learning. They arrange pupils in rows and columns as a way to efficiently deliver a static way of learning courtesy to our past from the world over. Not everything about this structuring is bad, but the limited options to education are visible due to not embracing technology earlier phases of life. But instead of being a rift, the way online learning embraced every academic class - can the reverse happen to prepare students for this rampantly shifting? Can old school designs be upgraded more than a projector screen by giving more personal control to children on what and how to learn, using current and upcoming technologies to build more cohesive delivery models?

BRIEF

The problem statement looks at a classroom upgrade kit that includes new furniture design, classroom layout methods, the inclusion of taught and DIY learning, with equipment that will help deliver a more robust and fun way of learning than today. The budget is not a constraint, but the size of the classroom is. Will it involve expert installation? Or it can be set up manually by the class itself? What devices or teaching systems are possible in this kit? What age group are you designing this for? What safety precautions may arise with such changed new teaching apparatus?

The solution finding looks at traditional schools and its classrooms at large all around the world as target sites. The user group looks at 30 students and 2 teachers in any (one or multiple) of the K12 classes. You can pick an average classroom size for the problem and choose a single class or multiple based on your design.

Ensure you communicate these choice level details especially the minimum applicable area of your kit and maximum area on your sheets. Assumptions and choices similar to these will be crucial in evaluating the designs received.

YEARBOOK

Winners of this competition will get annually published with us in our e-yearbook and annual publications.

TIMELINE

Registration Closes: 3 May 2021

Submission Deadline: 4 May 2021

Result Announcement: 1 Jul 2021

PRIZES

Prize pool of worth 16,000$

First Prize: 3800$ (For students only)

Runner Up: 6 x 1000$ (For students only)

People’s Choice: 4 x 350$ ( For students only )

Honorable Mention : 12 x 400$ Each