Design and Innovation Lab opens at Allendale Columbia School; board and community members attend ribbon cutting

Brighton, NY A new collaborative student working space, the Design and Innovation Lab, officially opened at Allendale Columbia School. The two-floor, 925 s/f lab is one of few (if not the only) of its kind among primary and secondary schools in the Rochester area, and is a milestone celebrating Allendale Columbia’s 125th year. It has been in the works since June. The lab was conceived with the goal of offering students in kindergarten through grade 12 the time and space to create, invent and work collaboratively across the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, arts, research and mathematics. To those ends, the lab has been outfitted with a 3D printer, moveable drafting tables, a utility chest with tools and floor-to-ceiling glass walls, allowing access to and inspiration from the surrounding natural environment. Projects housed in the new space will include drone construction, physical computing using microcontrollers, app design and programming, design and construction of environmental scanning robots, and more. Allendale Columbia leadership has pointed to the lab as a prototype for the direction the campus is heading, citing its alteration of the popular STEM (the integration of science, technology, engineering, mathematics disciplines) model adopted by schools across the country. Instead, Allendale Columbia is following a STREAM model, with the addition of research and the arts. The choice to include research, rather than the more common reading/writing in the STREAM model, comes from the fact that research spans all academic disciplines and is rooted in curiosity — a fundamental prerequisite to any educational pursuit, according to Allendale Columbia Head of Schools Mick Gee. “Research is born out of curiosity and the arts grow out of imagination,” Gee said. “While STEM’s technical skills are important and certainly represented in this new space, we wanted the lab to reward and excite the curiosity and creativity that makes those skills useful in new ways.” The ribbon cutting was attended by faculty, board and community members. Speakers included Liza Cotter, an eighth-grade student who has already begun using the Design and Innovation Lab for projects; Tina Duver, a science teacher and head of Allendale Columbia’s middle school; and Mauricio Riveros, executive vice president of The Pike Co. and ardent supporter of the project. The Design and Innovation Lab has been identified by Allendale Columbia leadership as a way to meld the fundamental principles of the past 125 years with a modern design, creating an authentic education that will aid the students in college and beyond.