WeWork was a revolutionary concept that stormed the corporate world in 2019. Despite its IPO failure, the office space provider changed how companies rent work areas, especially startups and small businesses. Since WeWork launched, similar firms like Industrious have offered that experience, providing offices, desks, phone call booths, and free food and beverages.
A Kansas co-learning space is offering a similar experience in primary education. Learning Lab Wichita, a new hub located on the second story of Wichita’s Union Station, is nothing like traditional schools. The 15,000-square-foot space has movable furniture and allows students to mingle with one another. It has phone call pods like a professional organization using WeWork or Industrious would have.
The space is really four schools in one. They’re called microschools — offshoots of four different Wichita-area public and private schools. Only 60 students attend at the moment. The whole “schoolhouse” can hold up to 220 people.
The microschools are called neighborhoods, functioning as a different educational experience like a science lab, kitchen, and print shop. Each neighborhood has a common area, which allows students to interact with each other.
Photo Courtesy Learning Lab Wichita
“These school models are examples of different ways kids can have personalized learning experiences to help them thrive,” Lydia Hampton, Learning Lab Wichita’s managing director, said in a news release. “The diversity among the four innovative models helps refine how we serve the K–12 community, so we can learn and grow together toward our goal of serving learners and educators the best way possible in the future.”
Garden & Health spoke with Hampton, and she explained the concept further. “We have what’s called organic collision points,” she said. “‘Residents’ will meet up in the kitchen, people just filling up water bottles and the crossing of paths of learners from different spaces. We also host programs where any learner can sign up for it.”
“It’s a very simple thing, but the idea [is] that you can have learners who are having personalized learning,” she added. “They’re engaged in the learning model that works for them.”
Programs offered at Learning Lab include the A/V club, technology classes, and physical education. They don’t have organized sports teams but will bring in “supplementary instructors,” such as trainers from the local gym.
The project is supported by Stand Together, the philanthropy organization created by Charles Koch, the billionaire CEO and chairman of Koch Industries. His son Chase is the CEO of Stand Together Ventures, the charity’s funding branch. Standing Together has been around since 2003 to create competition in the education sector. Hampton noted that the Learning Lab has only been open for a couple of months.
GIF Courtesy Architect Danish Kurani
Garden & Heealth also spoke with Danish Kurani, an architect consulted on the design of the space. He explained that he wanted to create a new kind of learning environment different from the traditional American education experience.
“Our schools are stuck in the Industrial model. I feel like they were quite stifling for creativity,” Kurani said about his inspiration for designing new, alternative education centers.
“I truly feel that if we were able to successfully [educate] everyone, and I don’t mean just book smart, but also how to be good citizens, we would have a better society.”
Kurani explained the neighborhood style of the school encourages the four schools to interact with each other. “The hope is they’re learning and watching other schools. They’re learning from other schools, kind of peer-to-peer learning, but at an organizational level,” he said. He’s implemented this style of school model in others he’s designed.
Hampton echoed these sentiments. “Our goal here is to create more personalized learning pathways,” she said. “We want to see that happen across all educational environments. If you can have more pathways within a community where families, parents, learners, can choose the pathway that works best for them, you have a community that flourishes more.”
Learning Lab offers possible solutions to several questions about modern schools, like how to improve the educational experience while developing a model that uses minimal real estate. Today’s public schools are almost like college campuses. You might find there’s less mingling of students due to schedule rigidity, and it can be a one-size-fits-all education approach.
The other problem is the costs associated with education. Equipment can cost a fortune, but Learning Lab aims to tackle that with its cohabitant space and membership model.
Students will learn about things like art, podcasting, science, technology, and more. The non-traditional approach may appeal to unconventional learning students. The common space can be adapted for various lessons.
“Learning Lab and its partners are establishing what could be a model of co-learning spaces advancing innovative, individualized learning for other communities and the country,” Chase Koch said in a statement. “If successful, people will be talking about Wichita as an education innovation hotbed.”
