This was a long week, but I wish it were longer. And that is due to the B.Phl Innovation festival. Centered at the Independence Blue Cross (IBX) building (1901 Market), with Ground Zero being the IBX Innovation Center on the 13th and 14th floors. However, the festival spread out around the city, from the UniversityContinue reading “A Day in the Life of a BPhl Innovation Festival Attendee”
Category Archives: Design Thinking
Philadelphia’s B.Phl Innovation Festival
A few weeks ago one of the students in NOVA Lab informed me of an innovation festival being hosted in Philadelphia. After checking it out on the web, I was convinced this would be a place for our students to learn why innovation and design thinking were so important to the economy they’d soon beContinue reading “Philadelphia’s B.Phl Innovation Festival”
Open Ideo: Design Thinking For Social Impact
I’ve grown fond of the way we’ve been discussing people’s ideas, offering pushback and extending their thinking in new and prosperous ways. Don Wettrick’s “ROTH IRA” Cycle is something we’ll have to struggle through a few times before we get the pacing and rhythms down, but that’s the same with orchestrating any large group (andContinue reading “Open Ideo: Design Thinking For Social Impact”
NOVA Lab Branding
Consider the story: A class about turning the learning over to the learner, but with the support and structure to make sure it’s productive and purposeful A space within the school for you to put your ideas, your passions, your time to use figuring out why things are the way they are, and designingContinue reading “NOVA Lab Branding”
When a Plan Comes Together
Since Phil Holcombe’s Monday discussion with our classes on the value and methods of branding, we’ve been discovering the common signals that seem to emanate from the documents we’ve explored about this class and others like it. Today we got to the point where the two classes had (as smaller groups) defined their common signalsContinue reading “When a Plan Comes Together”
Rhizomes, Design Thinking, and Learning
This week has been a true learning curve for me. And I say that after 26 years in the classroom. I still have much to learn. We began the week by finishing up our design sprint using the Extraordinaires Design Studio. Students completed a run-through of the Design Thinking (DT) cycle and sketched a potentialContinue reading “Rhizomes, Design Thinking, and Learning”
Days 9-10: Extraordinaires Design Sprint
For the past two days, students in NOVA Lab have been experiencing the entirety of the Design Thinking Mindset through the amazing “Extraordinaires Design Studio” @Extraordinaires by Hub Games (@wearehubgames) . I’ve worked with this product before, with middle school students in 2016-17 in a middle school pilot for the company, and also with MS teachersContinue reading “Days 9-10: Extraordinaires Design Sprint”
Nova Lab Day 8: Disruptus Amongus
‘Broke out the good ‘ol “Disruptus” box and moved kids through a quick cycle of combinatory innovation. Presentations had to point to what the original objects were, then who they designed for, why they needed it, and how it worked. Though light-hearted, the presentations were prefaced by asking students to treat themselves as professionals. That’sContinue reading “Nova Lab Day 8: Disruptus Amongus”
Early Divisions & Design for Community
On Wednesday, August 28, just the third day of school, I offered to connect one section of my inNOVAtion Lab courses with an online community called “Modern Learners.” (More information about them is found here.) I’ve been a member of the community since its inception, and if you are an educator, you ought to checkContinue reading “Early Divisions & Design for Community”
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 readingContinue reading “Nova Lab Day 4–The Challenge and Promise of Community”
Innovation Lab 