USFSP – INQ STEM Lab

Under the leadership of it’s new Dean, the College of Education at USFSP initiated a project to transform its dated space on the second floor of Coquina Hall – a 1980’s building with little to no updates in its history. The College had limited funds – initially starting with $185,000 grant to embark on its project. The design team worked with the College to raise additional funds while master planning the College and assisting with a branding campaign. BFrank Studio developed the brand “INQ” STEAM Innovation Classrooms to express the culture of the College. Ink, Inc., and Inq(uiry) capture the concepts of iterative making (inking), collaboration (incorporation) and the creative process (inquisitiveness and inquiry). As part of the deliverable, the design team is also providing graphic design services – including the development of logo for the program.

The design team worked with the Dean of the College of Education, faculty and staff to develop a plan that transformed existing classroom and office space into a series of new, interconnected STEAM spaces: STEAM Classrooms, Prep Room, STEAM Lounge and Conference Room.

Scale-up classrooms are bisected by a series of 4, 6-foot wide glass pivot doors. In the open position, the rooms become one and can accommodate STEAM education seminars for up to 80 educators, workshops, camps, and cross-section course instruction. The glass can also serve as marker boards for interactive collaboration sessions. The Dean’s conference room connects to the rooms with the use of sliding glass doors – allowing the space to be used for breakout sessions.

The program will incorporate robotics and coding – including innovative use of flooring materials to delineate a robotics competition course per national standards. In order to bring daylighting into the space, the design team was able to recommend the demolition of three faculty offices on the building’s exterior perimeter. The space was transformed into much need student lounge/study space – space that can also be used as class breakout or pre-function space when the College hosts events and seminars. This project was completed under a continuing service contract.