The Math of a Classroom

The art and science of keeping students and teachers as safe as possible is a mindset that extends to every nook and cranny of a school and its operations. In this episode, we focus on the classroom, the hallways that connect the classrooms, and the school building itself.

Consider the question of how many students may safely fit in any classroom in our current context. Is it enough to divide the total square footage by 28.26 (the area of a circle, 6 ft. in diameter)? Not even close.

In this episode, we go into the complexity of that question. How do you consider the impact of furniture, pedagogy, the movement of students in a room given their age and grade not just on the final calculation of how many students can fit in a room, but in a hallway? A school?

We introduce the notion of a "pod" to address the issue of humans interacting with one another above the constraints of space in a school. You will meet Peter Nguyen, our Facilities Manager, and again from Danielle Garcia, our Director of Operations, who did the math and economics to solve these problems for our school building.

The Hypothesis is the ongoing story of a school with the ability to decide whether or not to open amid this global pandemic, and if so, how. Short episodes released every Tuesday. Brought to you by Protect the Pack Productions at Turquoise Trail Charter School, Santa Fe, New Mexico.