Andrew lead us through an empathy map to demonstrate how they use this in the school. The first time they did this in the school they mapped who they thought an ideal graduate was so Design Thinking was born.  They wanted to nurture business connections and deep thinking in our classrooms. Homegrown was developed by GH teachers to increase awareness; build interest within students, families, and community; to create business partnerships with class; and to empower students to bring their learning to life.

The businesses go through a bootcamp.  Teachers and business partners work together to develop a driving question and project timeline. The students work on site at the business, the business partners visit the classroom to give some feedback positive or negative, then the students showcase their work at a night time event, and the the leaders reflect on the project with the students.

 

2 years ago Homegrown was recognized as the second best innovative thing in the state. The best learning experience that you can have is STEM, place based learning, business community partnerships, project based learning and design thinking.

Design thinking uses the creative sequence.  Observation, investigation, incubation, solutions, and validation.  The teachers take the students through this process that was adopted by the OAISD. They used this process for imagination station as well. The ISD is looking at employability skills now and doing the same process to develop this k-12. They are looking at Mindsets - optimism, persistent, empathy, flexibility, resilience - as mindsets that everyone needs to be successful in the work community.

 

Andrew is a pretty amazing guy and is doing great work for our kids!  Thanks for the update Andrew!