Collaborative Learning Spaces Designed Nationwide by the MiEN Company
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Jan. 4, 2023 – A growing number of schools chose MiEN to support learning and collaboration in their schools and districts. Twelve schools and one district-wide project are a few of the most recent educational institutions to make MiEN Company their furnishing and design partner. The schools are choosing the MiEN Company to create or upgrade collaborative learning spaces within the school campuses. MiEN helped its new partners to renovate spaces for cafés, esports, teacher lounges, student unions, common areas, makerspaces, and even an entire school building.
The categories of projects and the participating schools are listed below:
Café Space Projects
Kirkland Ranch Academy of Innovation in Wesley Chapel, Florida
Teacher Lounge Project
Voorhees Township Public Schools in Camden County, New Jersey
Makerspace Projects
H.B. Whitehorne Middle School in Verona, New Jersey
Ecole Dickinsfield School in Alberta, Canada
Esports Projects
New River Elementary in Wesley Chapel, Florida
Bangor High School in Bangor, Maine
Media Center Projects
St. Stephen Catholic School in Riverview, Florida
Lamphere High School in Madison Heights, Michigan
Tates Creek High School in Lexington, Kentucky
Student Union/Common Spaces Projects
Valley Christian Schools in Chandler, Arizona
Foster Heights Middle School in Bardstown, Kentucky
York High School in Elmhurst, Illinois
Full School Project
The Movement School in Largo, Florida
Although all the renovated learning spaces have a main purpose, many of them were designed to be multifunctional. An example is the collaborative learning space, the “Commons” space, that Lamphere High School created from an unused computer lab. The Commons is now used for weekly English classes as well as for staff and districtwide meetings. In addition, students use it as a makerspace and study area. Principal Rodney Thomas said that the comfortable seating, functional furniture – and espresso coffee station – are a huge draw. “We wanted students to really enjoy being at Lamphere High School, relax a bit, read a book, do their homework or just hang out in the space,” Principal Thomas said.
Another example of a MiEN collaborative space is at Voorhees Township Public Schools. MiEN designed and created teacher lounges where educators can have lunch, socialize, and decompress. As well the teacher lounge is a space for teachers to collaborate, plan, and receive professional development. The project consisted of six teacher lounges in five different schools. To make the collaborative lounges into places where school staff could both recharge and work together, MiEN incorporated several soft seating options and collaboration tables along with private work areas.
Voorhees Township PS was so pleased with the project, that they commissioned the MiEN Company to work on a collaborative learning space media center in 10 new kindergarten and pre-k classrooms.
“Our focus is on creating spaces where students feel engaged to learn but also comfortable taking risks, making mistakes, and exploring their academic passions,” said MiEN Company President and CEO Remco Bergsma. “We are honored to work with such forward-thinking school leaders and educators who are committed to creating the best possible learning environments for their students.”