Alvin ISD Breaks Ground on Shadow Creek High School
Alvin Independent School District has broken ground on Shadow Creek High School. Designed by SHW Group, now Stantec, the 500,000-square-foot facility will feature learning spaces tailored to meet the evolving needs of 21st century students.
“Upon completion, Shadow Creek High School will allow the students of Alvin ISD to pursue their passion, and learn at a deeper level. The entire concept of the campus was designed from the ground up based on the current and future needs of our students,” said Dr. Elizabeth Veloz, Alvin ISD deputy superintendent of academics.
The high school’s design was driven by an intensive planning and visioning process, during which district stakeholders established specific goals outlining how they wanted students and educators to use the facility.
Student goals centered on providing a learning environment that groups students in non-traditional teams, promotes collaboration and hands-on learning, and explores different learning styles. Educator goals focused on giving teachers the opportunity to recognize diversity in student learning styles, and the option to create and tailor teaching methods to individual topics and learners.
“Shadow Creek High School is especially unique because of the time and thought that Alvin ISD put into the visioning process,” said Erin Machac, SHW Group, now Stantec. “Because the district took the time to establish exactly how they wanted the school to function for students and teachers, the design team was able to work backwards in a sense and design a facility that is customized to meet the district’s unique goals for their school.”
The resulting design features an environment that removes physical barriers, incorporates collaboration space, and has an abundance of technology, transparency and natural light.
The school’s 2,500 students will be broken down into five learning houses, each featuring two learning hubs. Each learning hub will have 240 students, 10 educators, and will feature a variety of instructional spaces for both individual and group learning. These spaces will include traditional classrooms, large group settings for direct instruction or collaborative work, learning studios for individual learning through technology, seminar rooms, small group project rooms, and both wet and dry labs with current technology.
The project is slated for completion in 2016.
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