Office Depot Inc (NASDAQ:ODP), a renowned office product, services, and solutions provider through its Office Depot and OfficeMax brands has entered into an agreement with Lovejoy High School in Lucas, Texas to set up its new STEM wing at the learning center.
The new wing is set to debut as the learning institution where a nine-day professional conference will be taking place featuring well over 50 sessions covering all subject areas, level, and roles as per the K-12 education.
The new wing spread across 28,000 square feet will have 12 classrooms, five computer labs, 2 engineering labs as well as a think tank incubator space designed to facilitate teaching science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
As per the agreement, Office Depot, Inc. will end-to-end services starting with the visioning to the complete implementation of the furniture and the needed equipment while at the same time making financial contributions to the incubator space. The incubator space will facilitate a high-impact learning environment that nurtures creativity and innovation.
STEM is also expected to help students with two unique learning areas covering two floors. The first floor is where the student will be producing projects with the help of work tables coupled with other traditional and digital tools. The students will also enjoy mentorship from top industry professionals and educators and work side by side with then to design prototypes and produce advanced products.
The second floor will host the think tank incubator nest created in a joint effort with Office Depot, Inc. and overlooking the busy workshop below. This space is designed to help ideation, observation as well as project management of the first floor. Although the two floors are separate, they are designed to allow for the collaboration in the various steps of the same student-led design processes.
The design of the new space closely resembles an industrial and a state of the art workshop featuring building systems that include plumbing, electrical, HVAC as well as a few structural beams that are left expose all the systems in place supporting and running the structure. The incubator space fitted with conference tables HD-Smart TV screens and the students’ seats replaced with office chairs.The new wing was developed with the help of the teaching staff working hand in hand with the district to lay out the goals of the program.
