New trends in K-12 facility design are creating fresh challenges for education storage. Don’t let common storage issues slow down learning. Innovative thinking can help you come up with the unique solutions needed to accommodate all of the stuff students and teachers need to access, organize, and secure.
The storage needs of different student populations vary by age and education level. The kindergartner’s crafts and the high school senior’s chemistry textbooks will be stored differently. Nevertheless, hands-on learning is a common expectation across the curriculum for all ages. This new focus shifts storage system requirements:
- Instead of storing paper and books, you need to provide a place to put in-progress project work
- More lab work means more equipment to stow securely
- Increased group work demands more space-efficient, collaborative spaces
Meanwhile, facility design is moving away from a single, home classroom. Many schools are asking teachers to share a flexible suite of rooms designed to encourage more co-working. The resulting shared space can create storage concerns - stressing teachers out about how to find efficient storage for their class materials.
Flexible educational storage solutions
Classrooms too are becoming more flexible spaces. Learning commons are replacing the one-stop classroom. Big entryways open into common areas. Recognizing the need for more daylight, bigger banks of windows are cutting into the previously available wall space.
Storage solution: Support collaborative spaces and flexible classroom design with movable walls. Our Genius and Lightline glass, movable walls allow more light into the classrooms while offering agility and noise reduction.
While rethinking what a wall looks like, you might also reconsider cubbies. Sure, they’re common in elementary school classrooms. But the many different types of cubby-style storage can be useful in other settings too. For example, our adjustable shelves are completely configurable to the needs of your classroom, and can adapt to your changing needs.
Science labs, meanwhile, are a common locale for hands-on learning. Lab equipment and chemicals need to be stored safely to protect students from potential dangers. Stainless steel, powder-coated steel, and laminate modular casework and cabinetry are great solutions for safe, lockable storage.
Technology in Educational Storage
Simply put, modern classrooms require technology. Students are reading fewer hardbound textbooks in favor of online access. Smartphones and other devices are common in the modern classroom. But where can students safely secure their laptops and personal devices? What about ensuring their devices have power?
Storage solution: Day-use smart lockers provide students with the opportunity to stow their belongings - electronic or otherwise. Lockers come with integrated USB ports to ensure personal devices can charge while they're stored. And administration can assign and release lockers as needed.
Of course, traditional laminate and durable steel lockers are still viable options for schools as well, offering both the security and flexibility educators are used to.
Educational Challenges Meet Storage Solutions
School extends to more than just the classroom. Athletics, performing arts, even facilities and equipment managers all require storage for vital materials. But where can all this stuff be put so it's out of the way during the school day?
Storage solution: High-density mobile shelving systems can prove useful for storing athletic equipment for gym class or school teams. Brentwood High School pulled Patterson Pope off the bench to provide storage in its equipment room for the football team.
“Both areas look really nice right now. Everyone loves it,” said Coach Gabriel Evans. “The kids especially love the shoulder pad room because it just looks really cool. The students think it looks more like a college setup. They take pride knowing that their stuff looks great, is super organized and clean. I like them feeling that they’re being taken care of and that we’re doing things the right way.”
But high-density storage isn't just limited to athletics. Our mobile storage systems can store all kinds of heavy or unwieldy equipment, all within your existing footprint.Key Takeaway
Any teacher will tell you students are distracted enough already - storage shouldn't be cause for additional distractions. Taking a creative approach to K-12 and educational storage design can provide solutions that are as agile as students in gym class.
Let Patterson Pope’s experts teach you a few things about education storage solutions. Then, you can focus your efforts instead on supporting your students’ success today and in the future.
Contact a Patterson Pope storage expert today for a free space survey and suggestions of unique solutions.
