Nova Lab Day 4–The Challenge and Promise of Community

(For most of the rest of the year, students in NOVA Lab will be blogging their reflections on the day’s events.  Here is the next chapter in our story)

Period 3–

Today in class, we gathered in small groups and discussed our first thoughts on A Whole New Mind. We talked about how the reading was important not only for the class but for all students our age. The conceptual age that Pink, the author, talks about is the future us students will live in, so it is important to understand what is coming.

After this, we began to investigate a problem in the classroom. There is a clear divide between those students who have had Mr. Heidt and those who haven’t. The students who haven’t had Mr. Heidt before seem to be less comfortable in the class because they are not as familiar with how Mr. Heidt teaches. In our groups, we started the design process to find solutions to the problem. We are currently in the “Define” part of the process, where we are getting a better understanding of the problem. In the next class, and in the coming week, we will be coming up with potential solutions to the problem and exploring the design process. It is important that we resolve this issue, as it will strengthen the community we are building and allow the students to collaborate more effectively in the future.
Brandon S.

Period 9–

The class began with everyone gathered in the usual circle of desks. Mr. Heidt began by reflecting on his recent concerns with Nova Lab.  He discussed the clear divide between the students he had taught in previous years versus those he had not. The latter group, not having the same experience, caused an unequal foundation.  To solve this issue, he introduced the class as a whole to design thinking. This tool will then be used to flesh out and test ideas throughout the course.

After being introduced to design thinking, Mr. Heidt separated the large classroom into several small groups. Our objective was to utilize design thinking for coming up with solutions for the classroom dynamic. The separate groups used the first two aspects of design thinking, empathy and define, to analyze the gaps caused by a lack of prerequisite coursework with Mr. Heidt. The rest of the design thinking process will be expanded upon in future classes.
Andrew V.