The Ideal Classroom

In this case study activity, students use their knowledge of the National Building Code to examine classrooms in their school. Students are given assigned readings on the National Building Code as homework. Individually, students pick a classroom they want to assess and visit the classroom when it’s unoccupied. They take notes about what they observe (e.g., if the room follows the Code, its design, the function of the space, etc.). Students then take their notes and produce a small presentation (~5 minutes) which they will present in class. Students take turns presenting their summary (observations and opinion) of the classroom they visited, and the class discusses their observations.

Because of the limited size of a school, multiple students may pick the same classroom to visit, or will have picked classrooms of similar design. After the presentations, the instructor divides the class into groups based on the classrooms/similarity of classrooms the students visited. In these focus groups, students work together to answer more specific questions based on the National Building Code as it pertains to the classroom design they visited. Groups submit their answers to these questions for evaluation by the instructor.

Students will be able to:

• Examine a classroom based on the National Building Code
• Explain if the classroom they observed adheres to the National Building Code or not