The Why & The What?

In today’s educational landscape, a critical gap exists between the potential of student creativity and the limitations imposed by inadequate resources. When students lack access to the tools and spaces needed to bring their ideas to life, the process of ideation is stifled, imagination is underutilized, and opportunities for innovation are lost. This challenge calls for a shift in both pedagogy and practice—one that encourages students to be creators, problem-solvers, and active participants in their learning journey. To support this shift, we must invest in environments that empower learners to move from concept to creation. The Innovation Center aims to be that transformative space—where ideas are not only imagined but made real, where students and educators alike are inspired to expand the boundaries of creativity through access to cutting-edge resources and real-world design experiences.

Observed Issue in Education:

Limited Access Yields Limited Learning

• The process of ideation becomes limited due to constraints in the resources available to materialize those ideas.

• Limitations of capabilities cause us to exercise less imagination. 

• We lose out on a chance to foster and nurture creativity as well as innovate new solutions.

We have experienced instances where the process of ideation becomes limited due to constraints in the resources available to materialize those ideas.  As this occurs more we begin to exercise less imagination and we lose out a chance to foster and nurture this creativity. 

Pedagogical Approach and Student Mindset

• Students should constantly be in a mode of creation as part of their learning.

• Students should strive to be solution minded.

• Students should actively seek opportunities to apply what they are learning.

Our pedagogical approach is grounded in the philosophy that students should constantly be in a mode of creation as part of their learning.  They should strive to be solution minded when they engage with any subject matter and they should actively be seeking out opportunities to apply what they are learning.  As such, it becomes imperative that their creative possibilities are not limited by the resources they have to realize their ideas.

Innovation Centered Solutions

• Provide Students with the resources to fabricate and test any idea.

• Expose students to unbounded opportunities to fully exercise their imagination. 

• Expand on student creativity and through innovative curriculum and real world design.

Our goal with the Innovation Center is to afford students access to resources that counter these barriers.  With access to the proposed lab resources we will provide greater opportunity to transform ideas from theory to practice.  Ideas become tangible to test and iterate.  We close the gap between theory and practice.  The innovation center will also afford educators opportunities to be more imaginative in designing more engaging curriculum.  The impact is not only measured in the number of people served but also in how they are served.  Our ideal lab would provide students the ability to create objects that are typically out of reach for public schools; using processes and materials that are used in industry to move beyond simple proof of concept into fully functional models and prototypes.