As mentioned in previous posts, design thinking has been embraced by the Lower School faculty, and students at all grade levels have been engaging in projects that feature design thinking (both big and small). While all of this was happening, it came to pass that there were some capital projects for maintenance upgrades on deck for the Lower School that would be completed over the summer. This presented a unique opportunity to the leadership of the Lower School to actually create a "design center" in part of the campus.
The Division Head began by drafting out the possibilities, and then meeting individually with several folks who would be involved in the process. He then vetted the idea with the Lower School leadership team and got their approval. Finally, the plan was shared with the full faculty at a faculty meeting in early February, and once again, it was met with approval. Several discussions with capital project managers and facility developing personnel ensued, and it appears that starting in the 2015-2016 school year, our Lower School will have a true "design center" on its campus!
The way this will be achieved is to take several classes and programs that had been spread across campus and move them into more natural adjacencies. For example, the space where the design center will be currently houses our library, two science classes, a junior kindergarten class, and a language class. The library and science rooms will stay. The language class will move to be near the other language teachers, which means our art room can move into the area with our library and science rooms. The junior kindergarten class will also relocate into a better adjacency with other junior kindergarten rooms, which will allow our wood shop program to also move into the building.
As a result, our art, wood shop, science rooms, and library will all be in one facility together, which we'll be referring to as the "Design Center" for Lower School. These adjacencies will allow students to more easily engage in interdisciplinary projects that incorporate classroom learning, science, and art/design. Very exciting!
