Collaborative Learning

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The Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration is the first academic space at Blair that is open, where you can literally walk into the midst of intellectual discourse. It emphasizes what we've always said about learning at Blair: that it extends beyond the walls of the classroom. The creation of classrooms without walls is a visual representation of what is happening intellectually.

Nathan Molteni, Dean of Academics

Opportunities for collaboration abound across Blair's campus and curriculum as departments come together to make learning truly interdisciplinary. Every grade level learns the importance of teamwork and problem-solving, beginning with Blair's freshman seminar and Blair LEADS coursework, and continuing through junior and senior years as classes across departments underscore these skills as necessary for success in the 21st-century world. Perhaps nowhere is this more true than on Park Street, where student “makers” from different academic disciplines are fleshing out a wide range of ideas in Blair’s maker space, a laboratory/workshop where students are engaged in hands-on, design-and-build work.

The Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration provides even more dedicated space for young innovators to engage in multidisciplinary academic study that inspires creativity, promotes innovative thinking and fosters collaboration. This flexible, modern facility serves as a community-wide learning commons that powerfully augments students’ curricular and co-curricular Blair experience, providing enhanced opportunities to apply intellectual concepts to real-world issues and for the relationships at the heart of the Blair experience to flourish.

To further amplify learning across campus, Blair repurposed Bogle and Weber halls for the study of science and math, respectively. Weber Hall was renovated in 2017 and now serves as the math department's home. The larger project of renovating Bogle Hall to best accommodate the teaching of biology, chemistry, physics and an array of science electives was completed at the start of the 2019-2020 school year, allowing students to engage in more sustained and in-depth labs and undertake more independent research projects.