A high tech classroom based on the designs of two Wharton students will be built at the Charles Patterson Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, this summer.
The design ideas were developed by Scott Dzialo, a Wharton senior and Joyce Greenbaum, a 2012 graduate, two years ago.
This classroom will showcase different types of projectors, walls in the form of white boards and other forms of technology to suit any type of class, subject or situation.
"We're living in very diverse times where you really have to think about problems creatively and draw from many different disciplines, and this enables us to do that," Greenbaum, told The Daily Pennsylvanian. "The classroom will give students and professors a laboratory where they can experiment with problem solving learning."
The classroom will be located on the first floor of the library.
The reason for housing the classroom in the library building is to influence every student on campus as it represents a central focal point of the college.
This adaptable classroom will be designed by architect Scott Erdy. This project is in collaboration with Penn Libraries.
These kind of flexible classrooms have already been incorporated in Johns Hopkins and Yale Universities.
Director of Public Services for Penn Libraries, Marjorie Hassen, told the newspaper the project is seeing the light due to enormous donations by two Wharton graduates, Larry Bass and Chuck MacDonald.
The funds will be used to purchase any hardware, software or other expenditures required for the new room.
Dzialo said that this classroom will allow professors to experiment with their teaching methods in an innovative way to better capture the attention of the students.
The class will see new seating arrangements and furniture to build a sense of community among the students.
Both the students want the modern classroom to be up and running by September.
