Smiling broadly, Adalyn Bell stood up straight and backed away from the laptop.
“A pig,” she said triumphantly, “is riding in my mine cart.”
The 8-year-old was showing some of her classmates how to build a train track in the popular video game, Minecraft, and how to make the carts ride in a circle. Their third-grade math teacher, Beth Hobbs, wanted them to learn how to play the game before they began their first-ever math lesson in the Minecraft lab, part of the new, roughly $50 million, 173,000-square-foot Montour Elementary School.
Last week, Ms. Hobbs’ class used the game to learn about digits and numbers. Vinyl Minecraft characters adorn the walls of the lab, where students sit at tables with small groups, bouncing on green poufs.
“They learn so much more,” Ms. Hobbs said. “And they know more than I do about Minecraft.”
That emphasis on student-focused learning is what led to the creation of the Minecraft lab, and what inspired leaders of the Montour School District when they designed the building. The district educates students in Ingram, Kennedy, Pennsbury Village, Robinson and Thornburg in Allegheny County’s western suburbs.
While few districts in Western Pennsylvania are building new schools, Montour decided it would be more cost-effective to construct one from the ground up rather than paying to renovate its older elementary school buildings. And as part of that process, district leaders were able to design the school in a way that they say promotes collaboration among students and teachers and places even more emphasis on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) learning.
The district raised taxes by 0.7427 mills and furloughed 16 positions last year, primarily at the high school and middle school, in an effort to balance the budget, but leaders said the district did not have to raise taxes to pay for the new elementary school. Plans for the new school have been in the works for several years and builders broke ground in 2015.
“I think it was outstanding, and I think that goes to the community and their support of education,” said Justin Aglio, Montour’s director of K-4 academic achievement and K-12 innovation.
The new school, which was built on the same property as Montour High School, welcomed the district’s more than 1,100 students in kindergarten through fourth grade.
The new building features state-of-the-art technology and was constructed in a way to promote student and teacher collaboration, leaders said. Each classroom has an 80-inch, interactive television and charging stations for their Chromebooks. The school has two full-time STEAM teachers and a STEAM lab where students work on computers or use blocks to build models.
Some teachers, including Ms. Hobbs, are working with the Minecraft company to develop curriculums that can eventually be used in classrooms across the country, district leaders said. The school is working on creating a similar partnership with Lego, to work out of the school’s “maker space” in the classroom above the media center — which has a massive fireplace.
The classrooms are equipped with yoga balls and stand-up desks for students who want alternative seating. Some hallways were painted with dry-erase paint. Eight “kiva” spaces throughout the school allow teachers to lead small group lessons outside of the traditional classroom space. The builders painted and color-coded the piping in the utility room so students can better understand how the school building is heated and cooled. Even the teachers’ lounge was inspired by the decor in Apple stores.
The idea behind the design of the new school was meant to motivate and inspire the students in the classroom, using technology to help them “think outside the box” and tailor education to each child, superintendent Christopher Stone said.
“We don’t want to put kids in rows of desks and have them just listening and being passive learners,” Mr. Stone said.
The emphasis on innovative and STEAM practices is nothing new for the Montour district. The district is the home for Carnegie Mellon University’s in-house education research lab and the Allegheny Intermediate Unit’s satellite location for the TransformED “digital playground,” where educators can share best practices.
The district has been recognized nationally for its efforts to teach students “digital citizenship” and internet safety, Mr. Aglio said. The new school will host the Three Rivers Educational Technology Conference this fall, a professional development event for teachers across Western Pennsylvania.
“Even though it indeed is a beautiful, beautiful building, what’s going to occur within the building is what’s going to be special,” Mr. Stone said.
Elizabeth Behrman: Lbehrman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1590.
First Published: September 18, 2017, 11:00 a.m.
