After months of designing, planning and building, the Honeycomb Lab opened for Manual students on Sept. 27. Manual hosted an official opening beginning at 10 a.m., inviting members of the Crimson Mission, several news stations and political figures in Louisville.

Some of these people included Mayor Greg Fischer, JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio, Councilwoman Barbara Sexton Smith and Councilman David James.

The Honeycomb Lab is a high-tech and modern computer lab built for student innovation and project exploration.

“I don’t want to see it as a typical computer lab where kids come to do word processing. Students demonstrating what they learned through deep instructional and innovative things happening in the classroom,” Pollio said.

Joshua Lakes, Senior Director of Communications & Marketing at Kindred Healthcare, designed the lab. Kindred sponsored the entire project with over $250,000 for equipment, following the recent opening of the Hive at the University of Louisville.

“Education is not as linear as it used to be and you can have ‘leapfrogs’ with technology. A big part of that is making sure people, in this case, youth, have access to the best technology,” Fischer said.

This kind of space for students is the first of its kind in any JCPS school. Rooms like the Honeycomb Lab are planned to be spread throughout other schools in the future.

“I said we can make it happen as long as this would be a model for other schools, which he agreed to. Kindred is the one who funded this, so in the end it will be their decision, but we will approach them soon to try to push for next year,” Pollio said.

The goal of this lab is to integrate new technology into the class curriculum and go beyond a standard computer lab. Each desk, which moves up or down, has a dual monitor computer. There are also two 70-inch WebEx boards, a private workspace, couches and other stations to aid in student productivity. 

Due to renovations on the northwest wing of the second floor, the Honeycomb Lab will not be open for students for eight weeks.

According to Assistant Principal Greg Kuhn, the only thing that will change in the lab is the HVAC system. No other changes will be made to Kindred’s design or layout.

The lab should be open right around Winter Break in December and various classes and students can resume use of this new space.

Gallery • 20 Photos

Each individual desk available for students includes a wide desk that moves up and down and a dual-screen computer. Photo by Maddie Gamertsfelder.

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