None of us do well with anonymity. To answer this need for smallness in large school systems, facility planners are creating spaces that break students into more manageable groups. For example, the 1,600-student Park Hill High School, to be built in Riverside, Mo., will have four pods of 400 students each. Within each pod are 14 classrooms for core classes, elective courses, science and foreign languages. Students will spend most of their time within their own pod, associating with the same group of students and teachers.
Elective classrooms are accessible from a common area as well as within the pod.
Evolutions in teaching styles are also changing school design. Instructors may combine lessons from more than one subject to give the student a more thorough understanding of both topics. Science labs, in particular, are used in many interdisciplinary sessions. To facilitate interdisciplinary teaching, classrooms can be clustered in groups of four to six. At Summit High School, some rooms contain movable walls to create one large area from two smaller ones.