las vegas
#43
(out of 53)
in 8th grade testing proficiency levels
#51
(out of 51)
in youth mental health
#4
(out of 50)
in high student to teacher ratios
23.7
percent
of people over 25 hold a Bachelor's degree
Las Vegas is a hub for entertainment that is popular throughout the nation. It has a little under 150,000 hotel rooms and shows for all types of people. There are about 1,000 people living under the Las Vegas Strip that creates a large homeless community. Outside of the well-known part of Las Vegas, the school system is struggling. Nevada has one of the largest students to teacher ratio in the US and most of those schools are in Las Vegas or the surrounding area. Like the rest of Nevada, Las Vegas struggles with mental health and education rates. Proficiency levels remain low across the state. However, thanks to the popularity of the Las Vegas strip, Las Vegas offers lots of odd museums and learning opportunities that satisfy a large variety of interests, and it is also in a prime location to visit lots of landmarks, both natural and man-made.
site
Yakman Middle School is located in south-west Las Vegas in an overcrowded school district. The site is on what is currently desert land near a park, an aquatic center, and next door to an elementary school. Being near a park promotes a healthy mindset and outdoor engagement. The aquatic center is a unique space that exposes students to untraditional class subjects through visits to the center. There is currently lots of research supporting that elementary and middle schools should be combined to create a K-8 school. Through their research, they have found students who attend K-8 schools are less aggressive and have an easier transition once they hit middle school age.
AMENITIES
Yakman Middle School campus has two school buildings and two side buildings for the gym and auditorium. For this thesis project, I focused on building two. The buildings contain the following:
Building One:
- Administration Offices
- Counseling and Student Success Center
- Inside Recess area
- Language Classzone
- Social Studies Classzone
- Business Classzone
Building Two:
- Cafeteria
- Library
- Gallery
- Lockers and Respite area
- STEAM Classzone
- Science and Math Classzone
- Teacher work areas