FAIR OAKS, Calif. โ Itโs customary to pop some bubbly when christening a new building, but students at Bella Vista High School in Fair Oaks, Calif., werenโt quite old enough for that yet. Instead, their celebrated the opening of their new Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) wing on Aug. 10 by โpopping bubblesโ โ literally packaging bubbles.
โWeโre having a โpop party,โโ said Anne Tweedy, a science teacher at the High School, in a video tweet August 10. โWeโre christening the room.โ
Teachers and students didnโt hesitate to jump into the activities and check out the flex space that has been nicknamed โThe Atrium.โ In the video, students seemed to delight in wrenching the air out of the packing material, resulting in a joyous cacophony of snap, crackles and pops.
Ms. Tweedy’s class christened their brand new Bella Vista High science classroom with the popping of bubble wrap. #movedin #SJFirstDay17 pic.twitter.com/72apyulWFy
โ San Juan Unified (@SanJuanUnified) August 10, 2017
Tweedy said the bubble wrap signified that โthey are moved in and no longer need the packing material,โ according to the schoolโs website.
The innovative new building is a long-anticipated addition at Bella Vista High, a public school which has earned a reputation as one of the regionโs leading high school science programs. (The school won the 2012 Sacramento County Academic Decathlon among other accolades). The school now has 22,000 square feet centered on STEM education. The building also features a 5,000-square-foot, flexible learning space.
The new building is part of a major overhaul on campus by the San Juan Unified School District. The district-wide improvements total more than $117 million in signature projects at nine high school campuses. The project was overseen by Miyamoto International, a global earthquake structural engineering and project management company, which maintains a Sacramento office.
The project entailed performing a design-assist expansion and retrofit of Bella Vista Highโs existing science building, which joined two concrete shop buildings together to create 11 new state-of-the-art โSmart Classrooms.โ STEM-themed school construction has seen uptick throughout the nation, withย many new facilities opening this year.
The installation of a steel-framed Makerspace unified the once-divided area, which not only visually connects the units, but also provides for seismic gaps to diminish the possibility of future earthquake damage. The Makerspace, a popular trend on school campuses, complements the efforts of STEM-based education by providing a hands-on, creative lab are that encourages students to design, experiment, build and invent while deeply engaging in science and engineering concepts.
Scheduling and phasing the construction was key to the projectโs success since the campus remained operational throughout the retrofit. Moreover, Miyamoto introduced AB 300 matching funds into the district (thanks to a California legislation passed in 1999 to seismic retrofitting of Kโ12 public schools) and led the Division of the State Architect (DSA) process to deliver an additional refund of 14 percent of the project budget back to the district.ย The school is part of the San Juan Unified School District in Sacramento County.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony will commence at 5 p.m., Sept. 6, 2017ย at Bella Vista High School.
Source: School Construction News