Our Work
This is where we are headed. By the numbers.
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The design process provides a strategic framework for creating solutions to the issues that face human beings. The process has unique steps that guarantee a consistent approach that helps organizations engage in change thoughtfully and creatively. Most importantly, design is uniquely based in an emphatic approach that seeks to deeply understand the needs of the individuals or groups that are seeking solutions.
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As such, the design process can help the Design for Learning Team engage the teachers and students of Minnetonka to understand the landscape associated with changing the spatial conditions for learners and learning, and use this understanding as the basis for the creation of solutions that support students and teachers in a new reality.
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Visit our Portfolio Page to see our Design for Learning Grants and what teachers and students are up to in their spaces.
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Below highlights other areas of our work. ​
SchoolsNEXT Design Team​/Competition
In the fall 2016, 12-4th grade students at Minnewashta Elementary School competed in Association for Learning’s SchoolsNEXT Design Competition. This competition, “highlights the importance of well-planned, healthy, safe sustainable and resilient schools that foster student and teacher achievement and enhance community vitality. The annual competition, open to middle school students, challenges student committees to design their learning environments to enhance learning, conserve resources, be environmentally responsive and engage the surrounding community.”
Art teacher Christin Congdon facilitated weekly classes in an afternoon Design Club, which met September of 2016-January 2017. Students worked on redesigning the Minnewashta Outdoor Classroom. Students researched, created, collaborated and personalized their learning, with the strong leadership of Christin and support of ATS&R Architect and mentor, Eric Anderson.
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Student Innovation Teams
In the fall of 2016, Minnetonka High School Principal Jeff Erickson sent a letter home to families and students, sharing with them an opportunity to be a part of the inaugural “MHS Student Innovation Team.” The goal of the team was;
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create a structure and process for providing students a voice in the innovation process and empowering them to make changes.
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to support students in their growth of innovation by giving them tools such as the Human Centered Design Process to solve problems.
Students interested filled out an application and 25 students, out of 125 who showed interest, were selected. Over the course of the next 8 months (April) Gregory Hicks of Unlabeled Innovation, Advisory Board Member Julie Baeb, and Project Leader Nicole Snedden worked in collaboration with Principal Erickson, Vice Principal Robb Virgin and Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Eric Schneider to facilitate and help students engage in their own Innovation Projects.
Currently each student team (5 total) are working on their own prototypes which they will present in the spring of 2016.