Educator Challenges
"You Learn the Work by Doing the Work." - Harvard Graduate School of Education
Educator Challenges within futurePREP'd
Within futurePREP'd we believe wholeheartedly in the simple notion that "you learn the work by doing the work". As a result, within each of our experiences for educators they have the opportunity to both (1) assume the role of a student and actually experience the techniques and tools that they will be using with their own students and (2) practice those tools and techniques with students in a summer program prior to implementing them with the students in their classrooms.
When the educators assume the role of the student, they are faced with a real-life community challenge and progress from the Observation Stage of the Creative Sequence (e.g. - What is the challenge and how will we form teams to tackle it?) to the Validation Stage (e.g. - What is the final solution that best addresses the challenge and does an authentic audience actually "buy" it?)
Challenge for 2014 - Redesign the Holland Armory
Background
Project Clarity (a community initiative to permanently clean, restore, and maintain the waters of Lake Macatawa), the Model Communities Initiative , and the Holland Museum are interested in having educators involved in futurePREP Explore the following driving question:
HOW CAN WE RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING THE MACATAWA WATERSHED CLEAN?
These organizations would like participating educators to address this driving question by developing recommendations for the use of the Holland Armory (the third largest exhibit space in the state) in downtown Holland, Michigan as a K-12 and community destination to learn about and appreciate the importance of the Macatawa Watershed.
Process
In addressing this driving question, each of the groups of educators went through each step of the Creative Sequence. In particular, within the Investigation Stage, the educators utilized the following techniques among others:
Empathy Map
Educators worked in small teams to produce "Empathy Maps" to gain empathy for students and educators that might utilize the Armory space in the future.
Empathy maps that the educators created
Protocol for creating Empathy maps
Heart, Hand, Mind
In order to ensure that their solutions addressed the needs of both students and teachers, participating educators created "Heart, Hand, Mind" maps to show what would make a solution practical, what would touch the student or teacher's emotions, and what would make the solution useful.
Heart, Hand, Mind maps that the educators created
Protocol for creating Heart, Hand, Mind maps
Pain/Gain
Educators worked in small teams to produce "Pain/Gain" diagrams for educators and/or students that will utilize the Armory space. This diagram later served as a filter to ensure that the solutions that were developed would best serve the intended users of the space.
Pain/Gain maps that the educators created
Protocol for creating Pain/Gain diagrams
Mood Board
Along with each of the techniques listed above, educators also created Mood Boards to show what they would like the Armory space to feel like. This also acted as a filter to ensure that the solutions that were developed had the proper "feel".
Mood Boards that the educators created
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