About Us

Building on a foundation of almost two decades of PKAL activities related to facilities planning, we announce a new initiative, The PKAL Learning Spaces Collaboratory. This new initiative complements the ongoing work of Project Kaleidoscope, now in partnership with AAC&U, in facilitating efforts of leaders taking responsibility for transforming institutional policies, practices, and programs to ensure robust learning in STEM fields for all American undergraduates.This Collaboratory is a work-in-progress, being developed with the advice and counsel of a wide range of stakeholders. An initial steering committee and advisory group has been established; goals and strategies drafted.

Since 1992, Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) has been a champion for the creative and productive planning of spaces for undergraduate learners. From an initial focus on spaces serving students in mathematics and the various fields of science and engineering, the PKAL facilities planning portfolio has expanded, incorporating activities and resources that address the wide range of issues that campus planning teams must address in ensuring broader institutional goals are served by the physical spaces—formal and informal—in which all students engage as learners.

Current Funding:

• National Science Foundation grant #1147341:
  Building a new community of practice: Translating what we know from research and from the field into planning 21st century learning environments 
   
• The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation:
  Cognition and Context: How Space Affects Learning and Creativity in the Undergraduate Setting

Funded in part by the National Science Foundation, Grant # 1059603

and Herman Miller