Better logistics, digital technology and behavioral economics are used to renew Västerviks Gymnasium

In the autumn of 2016, a renovation and extension of Västerviks Gymnasium began. They completed the work in January 2019. The buildings on Östersjövägen in the city of Västervik will accommodate both a high school and a municipal adult education, connected by a shared reception. With flexible furniture and well-planned logistics, teachers and students can better use the premises and other physical resources. Digital development will improve the school’s overall activities.

IoT - the Internet of Things

Västerviks Gymnasium is one of three RISE partners in the recently started research and development project IoT-hubb Skola (IoT-hub School). It is a three-year project comprising SEK 24 million, run by RISE in collaboration with Stockholm University and Microsoft. Vinnova - Sweden’s innovation agency - is financing 50% of the project within its Strategic Innovation Program for the Internet of Things.

IoT is short for the Internet of Things. The expression means connecting physical spaces and everyday objects to the Internet and collecting data using sensors and other built-in electronics. It is possible to understand processes and create new knowledge to develop and change businesses in many areas by analyzing data.

IoT-hubb Skola aims to create better learning environments, ease administrative work, improve student health, and contribute to more sustainable and efficient use of its physical resources. The goal is to meet concrete challenges and needs and give a glimpse of how IoT can renew school education.

The school as a flexible meeting place

Jörgen Jonsson and Jenny Gustavsson, high school principal and curator at Västerviks Gymnasium, lead the renovation and extension and are responsible for the local work with IoT Hub School. In the development work, they collaborate with reference groups that bring together representatives of the school’s various staff categories. The students’ thoughts and views are of course important. There are many perspectives and opportunities to consider and make use of, states Jenny Gustavsson.

- Västerviks Gymnasium will be a meeting place where we create opportunities, build trust, and develop good relationships. By understanding and learning from each other, we can grow together and together. It provides a stable foundation for building and strengthening the school’s operations.

Västerviks Gymnasium offers eleven national theoretical and vocational high school programs and an introductory program with four specializations. Several of the vocational programs have workshops. When the rebuilding is complete, there will be a makerspace that opens up fresh ways of working. Classrooms, group, and meeting rooms must be flexible and easy to adapt to the programs’ varying needs and teaching.

The restaurant is a part of the school’s compensatory mission

When the construction work is completed, there will no longer be any staff rooms. The school cafeteria will be homely, and you will feel a welcoming aroma of coffee when you enter. School staff members will socialize with the students. And instead of having different canteens for teachers and students, everyone will eat in the school restaurant. We should not treat students in high school and municipal adult education as younger students, but as adults, says Jörgen Jonsson.

- The interior will be central to the new restaurant. There should no longer be any long tables, as in the traditional school canteen. Instead, we will create rooms in the room with different furnishings, just like regular restaurants. Here, too, flexibility is an important keyword. We want the restaurant to be a learning environment during the larger part of the day when no food is being served there

Jörgen Jonsson emphasizes the importance of seeing food as part of the school’s compensatory mission. Essa Academy in Manchester is one school that has shown that excellent and nutritious food, eaten in a calm and stimulating environment, is crucial for students’ performance.

- Many students do not get any cooked food at home on weekdays. The food served at school, thus, becomes extra vital. When we discuss the school’s compensatory mission, we usually think of the teaching, but it extends much further than that. We should look at the whole picture.

Technology will reduce food waste

The restaurant will have a cooking kitchen. It gives completely new conditions for both cooking and more efficient use of the resources. Next to the restaurant, a recycling house is being built, making it possible to handle source sorting and recycling. The ambition is for the restaurant and recycling house to be connected to the Internet. We want to measure and analyze everything, emphasizes Jenny Gustavsson.

- Our goal is to produce the best weekly menu for Västerviks Gymnasium by using digital technology. That’s why it is necessary to know how many eat every day and check the food waste. By analyzing the collected data, we can see which dishes are most popular and consider this when planning the menu.

Today, leftover food from the restaurant - an average of 50-60 kilos per day - is used to produce biogas. The plan is, instead, to reuse leftover food. Next to the kitchen, there will be a cold storage room where the leftover food will be kept. The boxes with leftover food must also be able to be followed. It should be possible to see what food each box contains, and it should be possible to track for how long it is sustainable and serviceable.

The reselling plan requires that the restaurant’s opening hours are limited to two hours a day, as food must not be left for longer if it is to be reused. We believe that this will give Västerviks Gymnasium better opportunities to manage and reduce food waste, says Jenny Gustavsson.

- It is, of course, vital that we can anchor this in the students. They need to understand that they can be involved and influence outcomes. We want to use the money we save to buy more organic and locally produced raw materials. One or two days a week, the lunch will be completely vegetarian.

Facilitate conscious choices

Insights from behavioral economics research can be used together with IoT to find working ways that guide development in the desired direction. Researchers such as Richard Thaler and Robert Cialdini have shown that positive experiences are useful when someone wants to influence and change others’ behavior. For example, it can be about sneaking in vegetarian dishes similar to the traditional dishes. Another way could be to use screens on the school premises that show how much food we reuse, what it means for the environment, and how the money saved can be used instead. We can also use this information in the classroom, Jörgen Jonsson points out.

- The general parts of the curriculum and several subject plans address health, the environment, and sustainability. Here, it is exciting to bring in practical teaching elements that engage students and deepen learning. The kitchen and restaurant work can concretize many important arguments about food, health, recycling, and a long-term sustainable society. We can use the collected data in subjects and areas like mathematics, science, and social studies.

Time to develop technological solutions and to realize the ideas

It is a matter of concretizing thoughts and visions and to go from idea to reality, states Jörgen Jonsson. Besides this, it is essential to create stories that make employees and students understand what needs to be done and to become involved in the work.

- Together with researchers and developers from RISE, Stockholm University, and Microsoft, we will create test beds where ideas and technological solutions can be tried out during the developmental phase. At the start of the next school year, we will have a start-up meeting to make plans and strategies. Then it will be full speed ahead!