Abstract: A large public school district, design team, furniture partner, and university research collaborators will present findings from a recently completed year-long study examining how biophilic classroom design may support students with Emotional Behavioral Disturbance (EBD) in self-contained middle school classrooms.

Participants will examine how classroom design strategies were selected, implemented, and evaluated through a research framework that included observations, surveys, interviews, and district data collection. The session will also explore how furnishings were intentionally selected not simply for flexibility, but to support movement regulation, sensory comfort, student agency, posture variation, and access to instruction within the broader environmental strategy.

The study is grounded in the educational experiences of students identified with Emotional Behavioral Disturbance (EBD), whose emotional, behavioral, and sensory needs may make the physical learning environment especially important for access to learning, self-regulation, engagement, and overall well-being. To the research team’s knowledge, students receiving special education services under the EBD category have not been the focus of prior empirical research on biophilic classroom design. The primary goal of this study is to explore how biophilic design may support the educational experiences, well-being, and quality of life of students whose disability may include difficulty learning not explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors; difficulty building or maintaining peer relationships; or a persistent mood of unhappiness. At the same time, the study is expected to offer transferable insights for designing more inclusive, sensory-rich, emotionally supportive, and choice-based environments for a broad range of diverse learners.

Through an interactive visual analysis activity using classroom images from the actual intervention spaces, participants will work collaboratively to identify environmental features, discuss intended student outcomes, and consider how educators, districts, and design teams might evaluate whether those outcomes are being achieved.  

Learning Objectives:

1. Explain why students with Emotional Disability may be affected by the physical learning environment and how biophilic design strategies may support regulation, engagement, well-being, agency, and instructional access.
2. Identify how selected classroom design strategies—including natural light, calming spaces, sensory-rich materials, and student choice—can support emotional regulation and learning readiness.
3. Describe how furnishings can function as part of a broader environmental support strategy by reinforcing movement, refuge, sensory comfort, flexibility, and student agency.
4. Through an interactive activity, apply lessons from a biophilic special education classroom study to the planning, design, and evaluation of inclusive learning environments serving diverse learners.