WILD Lab

Mr. Mardian

Director of Technology and Innovation

Instagram: @Super_Mardio

Greetings Wildcats!

My name is Mr. Mardian although some students have referred to me as "The iPad Guy" or "Mr. Martian 👽." I've been a leader in education technology for almost ten years, working with both students and teachers on integrating technology in the classroom. Whether it's digital citizenship, coding, 3D printing, or simply modeling how to sign in and out of Google, I love teaching students and collaborating with educators about the ever-evolving world of technology. I firmly believe that students should be using tech to create content, not consume it. This is why we have Westerly's Innovative Learning and Design Lab: to provide students with a space to tinker, reverse engineer, and explore the tech at their fingertips.

ENTER THE WILD LAB

Middle School Wild Lab Philosophical Overview

This year, Westerly's Innovative Learning and Design Lab will be buzzing with activity as middle schoolers build, program, create, and engineer unique designs that follow the five steps of the Design Thinking Process: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test/Refine. Students will be hands on with Micro:Bit pocket computers, LittleBit Circuits, and 3D printing as they work through and try to solve various problems that affect our community, country, and the world at large.

Each grade level visits the WILD Lab once a week on a trimester basis. You can find the trimester breakdown below:

Trimester 1 |September-November | 7th Grade

Trimester 2 | December-March |8th Grade

Trimester 3 | March-June | 6th Grade

6th Grade

Environmental Racism

Essential Questions students will explore:

What is environmental racism?
Who is affected and why?
How can we use the design thinking process to combat this growing problem?

7th Grade

Westerly Campus Field Study

Essential Questions students will explore:

What environmental, geographical, or structural problems exit on our school campus?
Who is affected and why?
How can we use design thinking to fix these problems?

8th Grade

Shark Tank

Essential Questions students will explore:

How can you use the design-thinking model to create a business model ?
How can you apply design-thinking to create a patent?
How do you pitch an idea and understand the audience to whom you're presenting?

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