Where students and community come together to discover challenges and design real-world solutions.
Fall 2023 Innovation Team Grants
This year we are shortening our Innovation Team Grants to align with our district improvement work. Our focus will be around amplifying student voice, self-direction, and collaboration. Student teams will have the opportunity to apply for funding to solve a problem at their school. Three challenges that were uncovered on recent student surveys were: How can we help students be nicer to each other? How can we help our schools be cleaner? Do all students feel like they belong at school? What other challenges matter to you?
Our 3 Questions
What matters to you?
How might we help our school community?
How will you tell your story?
Timeline:
Mid-September Innovation Team Grants Process Shared with Teachers
Late September - Meet with your student teams to learn more about the challenge and imagine some possibilities! Example Student Leadership Permission Form (If you are inviting students after-school. Thank you Gloria and Adam!), Find or Collect Baseline Data (Panorama, Surveys, etc)
October 10 - Innovation Team Grants application window closes Apply Here
Work on Sample Pitch Template Slides and budget (create a copy for your team) for Pitchfest
October 17 - Pitchfest at Monroe Middle School PLC from 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. Pitch Rubric
Late October - Selected projects launch! Teams document their journeys through their pictures, videos, podcasts and/or other storytelling media.
November - Community Check-in on Impact so far
December - Share Impact of Project (to be shared at Festival in May)
May - Celebrate Student Learning Journeys at District Showcase
We are shortening the timeline based on feedback and to align with our district 60 day PDSA Cycles.
Engineering Design Challenge
*Recommended if you would like a more structured experience
Design Thinking
*If you would like students to take on a more open ended challenge
Go out and interview people in your community and hear what matters to them!
Additional Teacher Resources
How do you design an experience?
Improving something does not always mean that we need to physically change the environment. sometimes it's about designing a new experience that happens within that environment. Remember to spend some time helping students share stories about their library experiences and to generate and ask questions that will help them gather stories from others.
One way to design experiences is to think of creating peak moments. Learn more about the power of moments, "The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences have Extraordinary Impact" and see some examples. What peak moments might be created in the library?
Here is a summary of Dan and Chip Heath's book, The Power of Moments, that may also help in designing experiences.
What is a Prototype and why do we need one?
Prototyping is the hands-on, multi-sensory part of the design process. It involves creativity and can be a place where students hit the wall with project fatigue. It can be especially challenging if you are designing an idea or experience, and aren't sure how to "make" it into a prototype. The purpose of the prototype is to help you better tell your design story and for your user to get a better understanding of the design. Rapid prototyping is about gathering valuable feedback along the build process so that you can modify and improve your design as you go. Start with sketches and drawings, and work to a more substantial and interactive prototype. Here is a slide deck with some examples of different ways to prototype.
Fostering Engineering Mindsets (from the Tech Museum of Innovation)