The new high school technology labs opened in August after several years of planning to provide the space to upgrade student and teacher performance.

The inauguration of the three new labs in High School and one in Middle School is part of a more significant project that aims to connect Middle and High School’s technology departments. Students can collaborate and take advantage of every teacher’s expertise and improve academic rigor. Instead of the technology department being isolated in each school, they are now all connected and located in a larger space

“The rooms were established with the school’s objective of modernizing the technology department through a first-rate approach to teaching, learning, and building,” Richard Newcomer, High School Technology Teacher, said.

 The master plan for technology consists of adapting the current facility and adding a three-story building between MS and HS. The goal is for teachers and students to support each other and interconnect their learning by mixing classrooms. 

“We are currently in the first step of the School’s plan, consisting of changing the location of the Middle and High School technology rooms and connecting them through where the foundation used to be located,” Newcomer said.

High School Students have expressed how the tech rooms have helped with how they work and learn. They are used by students taking FRC, AP Computer Science, and ISC. Thus, a large percentage of the High School population uses the classroom including all seniors.

 “The change of environment is very beneficial, because even though we have the same computers you feel in a productive and more open environment which helps a lot,“ Senior Nicolas Restrepo, said.

High school is not alone in receiving these new labs. In Middle School, the tech rooms have also been modernized as part of the master technology plan. Due to the fact that labs are connected teachers are available to support students in areas where they have more expertise. 

 “At the beginning of the year many students preferred the old rooms because of their familiarity, but as time passed they got used to the new lab and understood that in a short period of time the room is going to be connected to the new building,” John Ferney Higuita, Middle School Technology Teacher, said.

 The new tech rooms have enhanced technology teaching and learning in school, leaving grateful and excited teachers and students. 

“This is a dream that the department of technology had 14 years ago when we entered the school, since we started we always dreamed of how amazing it would be to have a maker space where everyone in any area could come here and work on their projects,” Higuita said.