TIME names Seneca Valley Elementary and Middle School a Best Invention of 2022

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November 10, 2022

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We are thrilled to share TIME Magazine has selected Seneca Valley's Ehrman Crest Elementary and Middle School as one of its best inventions of 2022. The breakthrough project dares to explore what can happen when we design K-12 schools more like children's museums.

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Each year, TIME seeks to identify the most impactful new products and ideas that are changing how we live, work, play and think about what's possible.

Ehrman Crest earned the distinction as an elementary and middle school that dares to explore what can happen when we design learning spaces more like children's museums. Our team partnered with the district and the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh to create an entirely new type of school. One that activates learning everywhere: in corridors, indoors, outdoors, in group learning spaces, along peg walls and via environmental graphics. The school is one of just six selected in the design category for TIME's 2022 list.

Testimonials

  • Schools and museums are working to solve the same problem, but we come at it through different ways. We asked the question, ‘What would schools be like if they emulated children’s museums more?'

    Mike Corb Education Practice Leader

Ehrman Crest empowers students to embark on an academic and physical journey through a series of porous environmentsa room, collaboration space, work-in-progress area or the outdoorsto exercise choice in a truly unique way. The result is a captivating environment that transforms historically unused features of a school's built environment (corridors, walls, etc.) into education elements that promote out-of-classroom learning.

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In its summary write up of Ehrman Crest, TIME says, "The school features harmonic walls that educate about sound, fractions, and energy; graphic walls with animals and numbers; and magnetic walls that let kids study local ecology. If it sounds like a children’s museum, it is: CannonDesign and the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh partnered on the project. With security features like an art wing that doubles as a storm shelter, Ehrman Crest models the future of educational institutions.