The New S.T.E.M. High School at Passaic County Technical Institute in Wayne, NJ is currently under construction and is due to open for the Fall 2018 School Year. The facility contains collaborative opening learning area on all three floors. These areas are designed to engage students and faculty with an educational approach to teaching and learning that involves groups of students working together to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product. The collaborative learning environment challengers students both socially and emotionally as they listen to different perspectives, and are required to articulate and defend their ideas. In so doing, the learners begin to create their own unique conceptual frameworks and not rely solely on an expert’s or a text’s framework. These areas allow for social interaction using a computer or through the Internet. This kind of learning is characterized by the sharing and construction of knowledge among participants using technology as their primary means of communication or as a common resource.
