Since 2019, NOVA Lab has utilized Fluxspace, an innovative educational space, for project presentations and learning. The class evolved from a focus on design-thinking to more social initiatives, leading to concerns about diminishing entrepreneurial vigor. Insights from critique panels at Fluxspace prompted reflections on curriculum adjustments to restore a design-centered focus. Revisions aim to emphasize tangible outcomes, community partnerships, and enhanced student engagement.
Category Archives: Design Thinking
From Design Thinking to Futures Thinking (part 1)
In which we explore our class’s shift from a focus on Design Thinking to incorporating Design Thinking with Futures Thinking and its attendant skills in Scenario Planning, Foresight, Signal and Trend spotting, and Protopian thinking.
Dialogues on What Matters–NOVA Lab and the Future of Education
When I first imagined what today is NOVA Lab, my vision was based on years of reading and collecting of research, both quantitative and qualitative, in the fields of Project and Design-Based Learning. (Here’s a document, recently updated but by no means complete that captures a good deal of that research.) When the class launchedContinue reading “Dialogues on What Matters–NOVA Lab and the Future of Education”
A Seat at the Table(s): Designing the Space of NOVA Lab
How did a traditional classroom go from traditional seating used in untraditional but unattractive ways to a flexible, adaptable, agile set up that gives students a seat at the table when it comes to setup and usage?
Do Good Things Newsletter: Design for Inclusion
Today, during a half-day of professional development, we high school teachers sat through a Zoom presentation with author and educational consultant Jenna Ruffo as she introduced and discussed the salient points of Universal Design for Learning. Ms. Ruffo has spoken to us before, on our opening day, and so we had already been primed toContinue reading “Do Good Things Newsletter: Design for Inclusion”
Do Good Things Spotlight: “Cleanliness is Next to Goodliness”
Two NOVA Lab Entrepreneurs design and prototype a device for the common good.
From Great to Good
I’d rather live knowing I tried to do all I could to make the world a better place rather than simply bettering my own place in the world.
Lightning in a Bottle…Twice: The Joy of Learning
This is the kind of experience that shifts the mind utterly, that reveals something we’ve hidden from students behind tests, and rules, and most of all, grades.
This is the Joy of Learning embodied.
Design Build Challenge: Weltanschauung–Design as World View
I still believe Design Thinking can help save the world.
Apparently my students have come to think so, too.
Build Design Challenge: Testing–“A Little Help Here?”
Life can go by fast, but living in the moment with people you genuinely enjoy being around can help slow things down.
Innovation Lab 