Discovery Lab Decorations

School is less than a week away and I finally have my classroom decorated! Gathering inspiration from the Adler Planetarium, mission control and space lab, I tried to create a futuristic environment. Experimentation, discovery, failure and problem solving are the qualities I wanted my room to express.

Painter's tape gave decorative lines to cabinets and defined "screens" on the walls. I also organized the desks into pods or groups of four. Each group is a different color. They have a mission journal and instruction binder plus a dry erase square for brainstorming. I plan to use group interaction a lot more this year instead of isolated work by students.

While working on my room, I was often reminded of set design for theater. In a sense, every classroom is a bit like a stage where the drama of education unfolds. I might even wear a lab coat or smock as costuming in keeping with the theme!

Check out my Flickr album below to see all the different elements around my room, including a panoramic view from my desk!

The primary font I used is Nasalization and the secret code is Fam-code font based on a mason cipher system. There is a key posted but students will need to find the key, make the connection and decipher the text on their own. I'll continue to add secret codes all year long.

For the Mission Accomplished bulletin board, I plan to take a photo of each class with a color version of the unit badge and post them. So it will become a year long review of all the things we've learned and document how we've grown. The Data Center board is ideally for collecting and displaying student data. I haven't quite decided exactly what that will entail, but may become a place to display student work.

The little travel postcards are vintage looking but feature literature, science and inspirational quotes. While planning the overall look that I was going for, I used Pinterest to collect ideas. Browse my pinboard to see what inspired me!
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