Collaborative Learning
Home /Academics/Distinctively Blair
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.

Community Learning Hub
The Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration's highly configurable spaces provide flexible, inviting learning and meeting space for clubs, study groups, conferences, guest lectures and a host of other co-curricular educational opportunities. The atrium-ceilinged Collaboration Forum, the building’s effectively sized and technology-rich centerpiece, is home to Blair’s renowned Skeptics lecture series, and experts from many fields and every corner of the globe share their knowledge with the Blair community in this exciting venue.
Technology
With computer science, engineering and robotics anchored in dedicated and well-equipped classrooms in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center, Blair’s technology curriculum now has room to expand and grow. Students and faculty working in technology take advantage of their proximity to the Chiang-Elghanyan Center's art studios, media labs and maker space to collaborate with student and faculty artists on any number of projects, and students can easily continue to work outside of class hours in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center’s facilities.

Fine Arts
Blair’s fine arts department holds classes in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center’s ceramics studio, two fully equipped media labs and airy, light-filled drawing, painting and architecture studios. Beyond the academic class day, these facilities are available to all members of the community, making the Chiang-Elghanayan Center a place where ideas pertaining to many disciplines come to life. Students are empowered to use the Chiang-Elghanayan Center’s tools and spaces to create real-world solutions to issues and problems they encounter in any class.