LOOK: FROG Schools
- Posted by: Adam Starr
- on June 8, 2009 at 8:00 am
California’s classroom conditions are among the worst in the nation, according to studies by the Air Resources Board and the Department of Health Services. Some 85,000 trailers—euphemistically dubbed “learning cottages” by manufacturers—pepper the state’s poorest districts. Cheaply built and designed to be towed down the highway, the trailers were originally intended to provide a temporary solution for student overflow. However, they’ve become a permanent problem, as 2 million students now attend classes in them every day. Often saturated with volatile organic compounds, the trailers leach toxins into the air. Those toxins cause asthma and respiratory infections, which beget absenteeism. Absenteeism, in turn, translates to shrinking allotments of state and federal budgets for schools.
Enter Project FROG, a design company that’s building energy-efficient classrooms to tackle this problem. “As you would imagine, the way that we learn best is completely unrelated to the size of an interstate freeway,” explains Adam Tibbs, FROG’s president. “That’s why building a trailer is the wrong learning environment to create.” Tibbs’s goal is to replace all of California’s portable classrooms with green buildings by 2015. Unlike trailers, FROG classrooms are made from prefabricated modular units, and can be arranged in different sizes and shapes to fit each school’s needs. They also maximize and optimize natural light, and the Heschong Mahone Daylighting Study found that simply providing students access to daylight could raise standardized test scores by 10 to 25 percent.
Stimulus funding for the construction of new classrooms has gotten caught up in red tape, but Tibbs argues that going green actually saves money in the long run, especially if you look at the life cycle cost of both the building and the student. While formaldehyde plywood might be cheaper to produce, its long-term consequences are expensive indeed.
Images courtesy of Project FROG.
DISCUSSION: 32 Comments
Even wealthier school districts such as La Canada have trailers. The funding’s bad everywhere.
Rich or poor, our kids deserve better!
There are so many problems with trailers: poor indoor air quality, poor temperature regulation, higher instances of mold, poor daylighting etc. It’s great someone is providing a safer and greener alternative!
There are so many problems with trailers: poor indoor air quality, poor temperature regulation, higher instances of mold, poor daylighting… etc. I’m so glad someone is providing a safer and greener alternative!
unbelievable that the state with the 4th largest economy in the world has a faltering economy and the first thing they want to cut is funding for schools! green schools are the best investment because they reduce medical costs (fewer kids and teachers seeing the doc) and help kids learn better, which ultimately will help california’s economy. duh. go project frog. wish my old schools had buildings like that.
Very inspiring. It would be great to know more about replacing these trailers. I wonder how parents in local California school districts can best help influence these kind of building decisions?
As we continue to climb out of the economic crisis, we need an increasing focus on education and it seems ProjectFrog understands the value proposition of bridging education and energy efficiency.
I grew up going to some classes in portables and it was like being in a tiny prison. ProjectFrog has come up with an amazing solution to the portable trailors, and I hope that the CA school districts will all catch on.
I remember very well the awful smell of my elementary art building. My oldest is starting school next year and I pray he does not have an classes in the school’s portable buildings. His asthma is triggered by places with poor ventilation and/or mold. If he were going into a Project Frog building…….I would have no worries.
I’d love to learn more about Project Frog. Glad to hear of this innovative solution to substandard learning environments.
Project Frog and other innovative green building entrepreneurs are showcasing new technology and talking about how to build better structures at the Green Building Summit on 6/11/09 at SRI International: http://www.greentechmedia.com/events/live/green-building-summit/; Hosted by Greentech Media
http://www.greentechmedia.com/events/live/green-building-summit/
Why not use all those empty shipping containers that come from China to build classrooms? What could be greener than finding a second use for a discarded item?
Makes sense, eco friendly hubs that get kids education off to a fresh start.
whenever I had to learn in a trailor, it was like so much more distracting. Hut as balls and the air just seemed so hot since everything was all closed in. Definitely not the best learning enviornment imo.
I’d love to hear more about Project Frog, ex.: will they bring their innovation to the east coast? Seems like ground schools allnpver this country could use them
I’m hoping that by the time my little guy hits first grade this will no longer be an issue. Wishful thinking.
my classrooms never looked that good <weeps>
Hopefully the funding comes through for FROG – what an awesome project!
Make sure to check out the Open Architecture Network and its Classroom Challenge.”The Open Architecture Challenge is an open, international design
competition hosted once every two years on the Open Architecture
Network.”
This should be a top budgetary priority-
where can i find one of these?
Of course environment for students is a factor in students abilities to learn and focus, but I would like to see the stimulus money used to decrease the student to teacher ratio. Teacher are being laid off nationwide and the results will be catastrophic on some communities.Needless to say, these educational facilities are way cool!
I’m a substitute teacher and am in different classrooms each day. I can see a vast difference in the classroom environments of portables and non. Portables feel so stuffy and they’re very uninviting. I definitely think it affects the students both in their academic performance and behavior.
As a teacher who has worked in a portable classroom, I am thrilled to learn that this project is underway. I know that the conditions in older portable classrooms (including limited natural light and poor air circulation) have a direct effect on student learning. Hopefully, this project will be a stepping stone to many more positive changes that will help students and teachers succeed in the classroom.