Active Hallway: Math and Movement
Introduction to the “4-Hall Math” Learning Environment
This project reimagines the school hallway as a “Living Textbook“ where the architecture itself becomes a tool for teaching math. Instead of learning in traditional classrooms, students move into a high-energy “Dynamic Learning Lab“ designed specifically to support how neurodivergent (ND) and autistic students think and learn.
Photo Gallery of Hallway Designs
How It Works
The model transforms the hallway into a professional workspace through four key strategies:
- Systemic Supervision: Teachers stand at a central “hub” where four hallways meet. This creates a “Central Node” of support, allowing students to work independently while still having a direct visual “signal” to a teacher if they need help.
- Permanent Measurement Tools: Scales and rulers are painted directly onto the walls, floors, and windows. These provide a “Standard of Truth” that never moves, helping students who struggle with fine motor skills or flimsy plastic tools.
- Math and Movement: Physical activities are used as “calculators”. Students might use Number Line Hopscotch to learn algebra or perform a Calibrated Walk to practice measuring distances with their own steps.
- Specialized Learning Zones: Each hallway is dedicated to a different part of a math project, such as a “Design Studio” for blueprints on windows or a “Fab Lab” for building 3D structures.
Why It Supports Neurodivergent Students
- Focus on Strengths: The program focuses on natural autistic strengths like pattern recognition, logic, and attention to detail.
- Reduced Stress: Moving out of a crowded classroom reduces sensory overload and “proxemic stress” (the discomfort of people being too close).
- Sovereign Engineering: Students are treated like professional engineers. They have the autonomy to move between halls to “audit” other groups’ work and solve problems in a real-world way.
The Goal
By turning movement into “mathematical signals,” this model helps students see math not as a series of abstract sums in a notebook, but as a logical system they can physically interact with and master.