STEAM Learning Pavilion

Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh partnered with Hampton Middle School in Pittsburgh to create a multi-functional shared learning center to encourage collaboration between different disciplines and grades.

Located in the school lobby, the multi-purpose structure can support interactive informal learning activities outside of a traditional classroom setting. Designed as a hexagon, each pavilion provides distinct areas for both active work and display space, while also creating clear site lines that help connect all of the areas as one cohesive structure. The pavilion wall panels are flexible and responsive, and can be used by all teachers and students in the school. The pavilions let the students and teachers become the curators of their learning experience, choosing and changing the content and activities throughout the school year. The structure is a metal frame with baltic birch panels and framing. Each panel is layered with another surface material that makes it interactive, writable and buildable. Another important feature of the Learning Pavilion is equipped with a new augmented reality tool called ARCADE, created by Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center that allows students to build interactive narratives and layer educational content to the environment, using iPads and district devices. Current students participated in workshops during the school year to populate the virtual world and sync those elements with the physical elements.