Design Museum Magazine: The Education Issue - Summer 2021 - Issue 019

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How learning is enhanced by design

Summer 2021 Issue 019 US $20

Leveling Up STEM Humanizing learning through augmenting the math education of young BIPOC women 7

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Page 40

Education and Extended Reality

Designing a School from Scratch

Tech is transforming the college classroom

Overhauling the high school experience

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Page 62

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Sam Aquillano, Executive Director

Bring the transformative power of design everywhere.

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Contents.

DEPARTMENTS 4

Contributors

12 Q&A

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From the Editor

14 Design Activity

Recommendations

16 Community Series

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FEATURES 22

WORKPLACE INNOVATION

Creating a Learning Organization Featuring Diana Navarrete-Rackauckas, Josephine Holmboe, Leah Ben-Ami, and Ray Coderre

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EDUCATION

Enhancing Learning Spaces with Environmental Graphics

By Lauren Haggerty, Director of Graphic Design, Arrowstreet; Donald Suthard, Senior Associate, Arrowstreet; and Jessica Grant, Jessica Grant Design

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SOCIAL IMPACT

Leveling Up STEM Humanizing the Math Journey

By Jessica Sanon, Founder and CEO of sySTEMic flow

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FRONT COVER ILLUSTRATED BY MYAHN WALKER

Summer 2021 • Issue 019

The Education Issue

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EDUCATION

Education and Extended Reality How cutting-edge technology is transforming the collegiate classroom

By Mark Sivak, PhD, Associate Teaching Professor, Northeastern University

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SOCIAL IMPACT

Why Do We Need Community?

How to design more powerful learning experiences

By Josh Kery, DME Learning and Engagement Contractor and Mimi Shalf, Designer at Scratch Foundation

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EDUCATION

Designing a School from Scratch How educators and designers worked together to build Canyon View High School from the ground up

By Phillip Nowlin, Principal at Canyon View High School and Taryn Kinney, Principal at DLR Group

Have a great design impact story? editor@designmuseumfoundation.org

Interested in advertising opportunities? advertise@designmuseumfoundation.org

DESIGN MUSEUM MAGAZINE ISSUE 019 SUMMER 2021 (ISSN 2573-9204) IS PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY DESIGN MUSEUM FOUNDATION. 100 SUMMER STREET, SUITE 1925, BOSTON, MA 02110. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO DESIGN MUSEUM FOUNDATION, 100 SUMMER STREET, SUITE 1925, BOSTON, MA 02110.

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Contributors.

Ava Liao Ava is a Graphic Design Intern for Design Museum Everywhere. She is a dual major in Media Studies and International Relations at Claremont McKenna College. In her free time, Ava enjoys playing around with video game UI, reading about medieval history, and trying to perfect her homemade bubble tea recipe.

Diana Navarrete-Rackauckas Diana is the Executive Director at the Foundry Consortium in Cambridge, MA. A museum educator and diversity advocate, Diana is passionate about creating accessible and interactive educational experiences for local audiences. Raised in an immigrant family and community, she is dedicated to holding inclusive spaces that empower participants to more confidently navigate their worlds. She has worked with museums across the country and presented her research at the Museum Educators of Southern California and Yale University, among others. She holds an MA in Art History from the University of California, Riverside and a BA in Art History and Religion from Oberlin College.

Donald Suthard Donald is a Senior Designer in the Graphic Design Studio at Arrowstreet in Boston, MA. He has designed environmental graphics for schools and organizations including Suffolk University (Boston, MA); Blackstone Valley Prep (Cumberland, RI); Clark University (Worcester, MA); and Conservatory Lab (Dorchester, MA). He has spoken at the ABX conference in Boston and taught various graphic design courses at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Clark University, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Emmanuel College, and Fitchburg State University.

Jessica Grant Jessica is a brand identity and experiential graphic designer based north of Boston, MA. She works directly with her own clients and partners with architecture and design firms on experiential graphics, signage, and exhibits. You can learn more about her work at www.jessica-grant.com. Jessica was working at Arrowstreet at the time this article was written.

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Jessica Sanon In 2017, Jessica founded sySTEMic flow, a socially driven organization aiming to advance STEM learning for BIPOC women. Jessica has worked across various disciplines and has experience in client management, program and business development, organizational assessment, and project management. Jessica sees the work that she does as a community effort, focusing on addressing their needs by continuously listening to their perspectives in an open, safe space and collaborative environment.

Josephine Holmboe Josephine is an experienced Creative Director at Fidelity with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. She is skilled in User Experience design, Design Thinking, Art Direction, Human Centered design practices, Design Strategy, and Design Workshop facilitation. She is a strong arts and design professional, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Maine College of Art.

Josh Kery Josh was the Learning and Engagement Contractor at Design Museum Everywhere at the time of this article's publication. With a background in fine arts and human computer interaction, he creates meaningful educational experiences that thoughtfully integrate the arts and technology. Josh also creates teaching materials, interfaces, and tools for digital performances. He graduated with a BFA in Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University.

Lauren Haggerty As the Director of Graphic Design at Arrowstreet, a Boston-based architecture and design firm, Lauren believes environmental graphics are integral to successful placemaking. From improving wayfinding experiences to creating memorable spaces, her thoughtful design solutions inform and inspire her clients and their end users.

With over 15 years of experience, she is committed to enhancing architecture through graphic design, wayfinding, and signage. Her portfolio includes educational and civic spaces, including the Boston Public Library, Thayer Library in Braintree, MA, and districts funded by the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

Lamees Rahman Lamees was a Graphic Design Intern at Design Museum Everywhere for Spring 2021.

She is originally from Bangladesh and grew up in Singapore. Currently, she is pursuing an undergraduate degree in Media Arts and Sciences from Wellesley College. Lamees loves to experiment with colors, patterns, and typography. She enjoys discovering new ways to integrate traditional and digital mediums into her work. She is an avid smoothie enthusiast and sticker collector. You can see more of Lamees’ work on her Instagram portfolio: @lamees.art.

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Contributors.

Leah Ben-Ami, EdD Leah began a new role as the Learning and Development Lead at C Space in October 2018. Previously, she was the Director of Academic Operations for the Lowell Institute School within the College of Professional Studies at Northeastern University for over three years. She was responsible for leading all administrative aspects of the Lowell Institute School including system and process mapping and design; performance analysis and reporting; project planning, scheduling, oversight and evaluation; shortterm and long-term goal development; and execution of operational and strategic plans. Leah worked closely with program directors, academic deans, office staff, and enrollment and marketing staff. She is also a part-time instructor for the College of Professional Studies at Northeastern University, teaching strategic human resources management and leading teams. She recently completed the Northeastern University Doctor of Education program, with a focus in Higher Education Administration.

Mark L. Sivak, PhD Mark is a Triple Husky from Northeastern University with his BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering and his PhD in Interdisciplinary Engineering. At Northeastern, he is currently an Associate Teaching Professor jointly appointed in the College of Arts, Media, and Design and College of Engineering, and is a core faculty member in the Center for Design. He does research in digital fabrication, extended reality, design education, serious games, and experience design.

Mimi Shalf Mimi is a former Education Programs Intern with Design Museum Everywhere. She now works as a designer at the Scratch Foundation. She loves learning about education initiatives centered around play and creativity.

Myahn Walker Myahn is a Graphic Design Intern for Design Museum Everywhere. She is from Philadelphia, where she is pursuing her undergraduate degree in Design from the University of Pennsylvania. Myahn is passionate about exploring the ways in which design can be used as an educational tool and as a means to mobilize social movements.

In her spare time, she loves to paint, take fashion photography, listen to vinyl, and buy marigold-colored things.

Phillip Nowlin Phillip is the founding Principal of Canyon View High School. He holds a Master’s Degree in Administrative Leadership in Education and Psychology and has been in education for 19 years, holding various positions as a teacher, coach, Assistant Principal, and Executive Director. He is passionate about fostering an environment of innovation, diversity, character, community, and pride for all students on his campus.

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Ray Coderre Ray is a people and organizational strategist with experience at the intersection of the life sciences and higher education. Currently Director of Learning and People Strategy at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Ray and his team have advanced an innovative approach to learning at work that focuses on enabling individuals to develop the technical and professional skills and networks needed to thrive in their career and excel in the Broad's unique collaborative ecosystem. Ray spent over a decade at Harvard working to advance new scientific initiatives, including the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) and the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology (HSCRB), the university's first cross-school department.

Sophia Richardson Sophia Richardson is a multidisciplinary graphic designer based in Boston, MA. Currently she is the Senior Graphic Designer at Design Museum Everywhere, where she facilitates the visual design of the museum's publications, exhibitions, and programs.

Sascha Mombartz Sascha is an artist, designer, and community builder based in New York. He works at the intersection of systems thinking, communication, and user experience design to unravel complex relationships and create meaningful interactions and frameworks that help organizations and individuals build belonging, trust, and resilience. He previously worked at the New York Times, Google's Creative Lab, and has consulted with startups and nonprofits for the last 10 years.

Sara Magalio Sara is the Editorial Production Contractor at Design Museum Everywhere, where she writes and edits conent appearing in the museum's publications, exhibitions, and programs. Sara graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX with a BA in Journalism and a BFA in Dance Performance. Sara also received an MS in Journalism from the Boston University College of Communication. Through her experience working with publications in Dallas and Boston and her background in performance, Sara connects her love for the arts with a passion for sharing impactful stories with the community at large.

Taryn Kinney To shift teaching and learning behaviors to benefit all, you must align the organizational environment with the built environment. Taryn is an architect that has designed schools for the last 15 years. She recently completed a graduate degree in organizational psychology to ensure her clients have the support to reach their future vision.

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From the Editor.

Education is Learning That’s Designed Learning is fundamental to being human, and therefore fundamental to design. Sure, all animals learn, but humans? We put the rest of the animal world to shame. Somewhere along the line we figured out how to learn, and it changed everything. We learned to adapt through experiences, to shift based on our environment, to change our behaviors, and to pass knowledge to others—or you might say we learned how to educate ourselves and others. Which leads us to this issue’s focus: education.

After reading the insightful articles within, I can’t help but think of education as learning that’s designed. Learning is so complex, it truly requires good design. We all engage, absorb, and practice differently. Plus, the pandemic has shifted education in time and space, and amplified pre-existing gaps and inequities throughout the system that must be addressed and redesigned. How do we design curricula, experiences, tools, technology, and spaces to be adaptable and accessible to everyone and meet this moment of change?

Experience design matters throughout the education ecosystem. In this issue, you’ll read about a new curriculum design and approach from Jessica Sanon, who works to teach and mentor young women of color to explore and flourish in STEM fields. We held an amazing roundtable with industry experts sharing their best practices for designing an organization that values and strengthens learning.

The design of our education environments shapes the experiences of students young and old. Taryn Kinney and Phillip Nowlin collaborated with their teams and engaged the whole academic community—including the students—in the co-creation of an entirely new kind of school in Arizona. I want to attend this high school! Lastly, community matters so much in how we come together to learn

and practice. Josh Kery and Mimi Shalf share their research and experience on the design of learning communities and what they mean for the future of education. And there’s much more to read and enjoy.

By the way, joy matters in education, too!

When we thoughtfully design learning, joy in education is possible. I hope you learn from the ideas shared in this issue, and that it helps you find joy in your educational and learning experiences.

I’ll see you out there and online, Sincerely,

Sam Aquillano Executive and Creative Director Design Museum Everywhere

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Recommendations.

From Our Contributors

The Design of Everyday Things The number one book I recommend to people about design remains The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman.

From MIT press: “A bestseller in the United States, this bible on the cognitive aspects of design contains examples of both good and bad design and simple rules that designers can use to improve the usability of objects as diverse as cars, computers, doors, and telephones.”

Mark L. Sivak, PhD Associate Teaching Professor Northeastern University

Mathematical Imagery Trainer The Embodied Design Research Lab at UC Berkeley has a great set of videos and papers sharing their ideas around embodied learning, the idea that we learn subjects like math better if we have a physical understanding of them. I recommend watching their short video about their gadget for teaching mathematical proportion, and their iPad app, MIT-P. Josh Kery Learning & Engagement Contractor Design Museum Everywhere

youtu.be/qZaZGL-vP5E

"Dare to Lead" Podcast I recommend the “Dare to Lead” podcast, hosted by Dr. Brené Brown. Brené writes, “The Dare to Lead podcast will be a mix of solo episodes and conversations with change-catalysts, culture-shifters, and as many troublemakers as possible. Innovating, creating, and building a better, more just world, requires daring leadership in every part of our daily lives—from work to home to community. Together, we’ll have conversations that help us show up, step up, and dare to lead.”

Leah Ben-Ami, EdD Director of Learning C Space COUNCIL MEMBER

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PHOTO COURTESY OF PROJECT ILETC

Project ILETC The University of Melbourne is doing fabulous research in a collaborative effort between the School of Education and the School of Architecture. It is complex to do design research well. Their multi-disciplinary approach has proved very effective.

Taryn Kinney

Visit iletc.com.au or @projectILETC to learn more about their work.

Principal DLR Group

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall discusses how food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues, but all too often the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. In this collection of essays, Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement, arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women.

Jessica Sanon Founder and CEO sySTEMic flow

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Q&A. Where can design make the most impact in our current educational systems?

Our educational systems have definitely evolved for the better over time, but an aspect that hasn't changed much is something that students use daily: the desk. Studies show that individuals spend around 70% of their time sitting in school. Without changes to our current desks, this amount of time sitting at once can lead to dangerous health problems.

Some small yet impactful changes can help students stay healthy and have a better experience learning. Whether it's a feature that allows the desk to be raised and lowered, or the incorporation of a yoga-ball like chair, I am not sure what the best solution is, but this is undoubtedly an aspect of our educational system that needs some advancements.

Chearim Park Product Designer UC Berkeley

I think that designers can make the most impact in our current educational systems by addressing The Great Digital Divide. By redesigning our educational systems or starting from zero with designing our educational systems for the digital age, as opposed to the industrial era that it's currently designed for, we can slow the digital divide or eradicate it.

Renada Beckwith MAGAZINE SUBSCRIBER

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The design problem facing higher education is the simultaneous action of making existing functions of an organization more effective, while seeking disruptive innovation for long-term success. A parallel exists between institutional effort and the kind of exploration that is central to design.

Designers, and design theory and practice, can play a role similar to social science researchers over the past three decades— to design solutions to higher education problems: initiatives, curriculum, support services, learning space, and the design of the organization itself. In the postsecondary setting, where most employees who engage in change initiatives are non-designers, they can benefit from the application of design theory, concepts, and techniques to better understand problems and create solutions. Many of the institutions profiled in my new book, Delivering on the Promise of Democracy: Visual Case Studies in Educational Equity and Transformation, found unity through a type of design: getting a plan and vision on paper. The agreements and conversations necessary to produce that document can be a key step in designing the future.

Dr. Sukhwant Jhaj Vice Provost and Dean Arizona State University

Design can drive equity in education by focusing on disability inclusion: this is inclusive of the built environment of classrooms, auditoriums, and playgrounds, the characters and books we introduce kids to, the emotional intelligence that we're teaching kids, and beyond. Right now, it is common to teach children with disabilities to “mask” by reading social cues, making eye contact, etc. We have not done enough work to design equity into the training of teachers and experiences of all students more generally.

Caroline J. Mailloux Principal Caroline J. Mailloux Consulting MEMBER

My teaching and practice straddle design and technology. Considering our children can use platforms like Instagram, Youtube and TikTok for hours every day, it is important that they understand how these platforms are designed to keep them scrolling for as long as possible and to make them crave more likes and follows. Understanding this will allow them to make the educated choice to continue to use, limit their use, or opt out. It is important that we introduce design thinking and making early on in the classroom. There are many students who learn best by doing and making. If we bring this hands-on mentality and design thinking methodology into the classroom, versus relying on memorization and standardized testing, students in all subjects would benefit.

It is our job as educational leaders to add new learning opportunities to students’ compartmentalized daily grind, so that they can make new connections between the work in the classroom and the work of future careers. Not only does design thinking play a major role in the organization of everyday student learning, but it is also needed to define new structures—from how students should be using media within the classroom setting, to how 2D, 3D, and game-based theory will play a role in the future of student learning, creation, and evidence of achievement. Additional structures have recently outlined the need for digital citizenship, setting students on a path toward safe, ethical, and respectful behaviors in the use of online media, as well as healthy habits when working online.

As we move forward in time, educational systems will need to rethink systems of teaching students for greatest retention, enjoyment, motivation and overall benefit.

Students that enjoy the learning process will be better able to integrate their knowledge in new and innovative ways, and be better able to meet the needs of the future.

Jessica Lazarus Media Arts Teacher Pembroke High School, Massachusetts

Danne Woo Assistant Professor of Interaction Design Queens College, CUNY MEMBER

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EMPATHY INTERVIEWa TALK HEAR LISTEN RECORDI INSPIRE EMPATHY HEAR SE RECORD NOTETAKING INT UNDERSTANDING EMPAT INQUIRINGEMPATHY IN TALK HEAR LISTEN UN INSPIRE EMPATHY A RECORD NOTETAK UNDERSTANDING INQUIRING INT EMPATHY INT TALK HEAR L INSPIRE EM RECORD UNDERS

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ING Design Activity.

EE Josh Kery, Learning and Engagement Contractor at TER By Design Museum Everywhere THY NTERVIEW NDER A KING G TERPRET TERVIEW LISTEN MPATHY

Empathy is the practice of seeking to understand and make connections with all types of people. Interviewing for empathy means prompting and listening to a person’s stories in order to get to know their thoughts, feelings, and motivations on a specific subject. Empathy interviews are important in understanding a person’s behavior and choices, so that you can learn about their needs and wants and design to incorporate them.

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Before starting, gather a few materials to have for your interview. You will need a pen and paper, or a recording device.

Choose a topic to interview someone about. Some suggestions are: grocery shopping, online learning, listening to music.

Then, set at least two interview goals: What do you want to know as a result of the interview? For example, if your subject is grocery shopping, one goal might be to see how people decide on the items they buy.

Now that you have a subject and goals, it’s time to come up with a question guide!

Think about open-ended questions that encourage a story from your interviewee rather than a yes or no answer. Always ask why they think the way they do. Write at least five open-ended questions for your interview.

Once you feel ready, find an interviewee and (if possible) a notetaker. If having a notetaker is not possible, either take notes yourself or use a recording device.

STAND6

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Conduct your interview! Remember: Ask a follow-up question for more details if your interviewee’s answer is short.

Finally, review your notes and create a brief profile of the person you interviewed.

Start with a photo or a drawing of this person on a piece of paper. Around that, write down what new things you learned about them. Write down your thoughts that have changed about the subject you chose. Lastly, write down at least two new questions you have after the interview.

To learn more, visit designmuseumfoundation.org/empathy-interviews ILLUSTRATION BY LAMEES RAHMAN AND MYAHN WALKER

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COMMUNITY SERIES

Belonging.

By Sascha Mombartz, Founder of Office for Visual Affairs and Close Knit

At the core of every community is a sense of belonging. It defines a community's who and why, its purpose, and the value it provides to its members and the world.

First and foremost, to belong is to be related to and a part of something. It is membership, the experience of being at home in the broadest sense of the phrase.

It is the opposite of thinking that wherever I am, I would be better off somewhere else. Or that I am still forever wandering, looking for that place where I belong. The opposite of belonging is to feel isolated and always (all ways) on the margin, an outsider. To belong is to know, even in the middle of the night, that I am among friends.

Peter Block, Author and Consultant on Community & Civic Engagement We will explore the following three categories, according to Peter Block,1 that comprise how someone feels like they belong: • Belonging to Community • Community Belonging to You

Belonging to Community You belong to a community when you have something in common with the people around you. This commonality can be either by circumstance or by choice. It has to be more than a superficial token and more of a deep, meaningful trait, experience, or belief that can’t easily be replaced. It needs to be believable and evoke a sense of trust. What and how much you need to have in common to pass this threshold depends on the nature of the commonality and the people involved. There's also the question of mutuality: Do you, as much as everyone around you, feel that you belong together? In its strongest form, belonging to a community also means that the community itself claims you as their own and that they will be there for you, listen to you, and support you.

Circumstance Circumstance can mean you're connected through: • Place, where you grew up or where you studied.

• Shared history, which can be an external event.

• Powerful experiences such as success, failure, or trauma.

• Your heritage, in the form of a set of shared values or cultural norms.

• Longing for Community IMAGES COURTESY OF CLOSE KNIT

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• Peers and elders that are made up of your co-workers, friends, and family.

• Inherent traits such as your age or identifying gender.

Choice Communities of Choice can be established through: • Practice and affinity, that is your profession, your hobbies, or interests to learn something from each other or create a change in yourself. Fan communities and sports clubs are some more examples.

• Action, which means you're creating change in your community or in the world. These are often movements—environmental or political for example—that are time- or goal-based.

• Intentional communities where you would select the place and people you want to be around. Co-living or cooperatives are examples.

Community Belonging to You As much as you belong to a community, it also has to belong to you. This crucial piece is often overlooked or not well understood, and it’s also one of the harder pieces of the community puzzle. How can a community start belonging 18

to its members? Members have to put themselves and their energy into the community by contributing and co-creating. This stake and say in the community allows them to become a part of it. This is a virtuous cycle, the more you care, the more you contribute; the more you contribute, the more you belong; and the more you belong, the more you care to shape the community.

We need knowledge of how to care.

That knowledge, it’s called emotional intelligence now. We need knowledge of how to share. It’s a capacity we'll need more and more in the future. In a period of privatization, in a period of extraction.

Vandana Shiva2

Co-Creation Co-creation means that members have to be invited to contribute and are given the tools, trust, and autonomy to do so. The best environment for this is one in which everyone feels like a teacher and a student at the same time, with a willingness to share but also an openness to learn. The challenge is finding

the right balance between structure, hierarchy, and authority, and creating an organization that can both be centralized and distributed as needed.

You know you have the right balance when contributors are honored for their effort and work, while also providing clear guidelines on expectations of commitments, use, and ownership. In the end, it's about finding a balance between give and get, creating and receiving, group dynamic, individual efforts, and leadership. Gillian Davis, a leadership coach, uses this analogy of a Leadership Pendulum:3

The key is knowing when to let the group dynamic flow and allow for self managed work and when it's time to step in, bring the constraints and the direction back.

Gillian Davis

Longing for Community The third pillar is the hardest to see, because it lives deep inside of us. It's part of our biology and evolution as social animals. We've all felt it.

It's a feeling of calm that arises when everything feels clear and falls into place. It can manifest itself as love for a person, a place, or an idea, and makes you feel like you belong together. It can give you purpose and make you whole.

People form social attachments readily under most conditions and resist the dissolution of existing bonds. Belongingness appears to have multiple and strong effects on emotional patterns and on cognitive processes. Lack of attachments is linked to a variety of ill effects on health, adjustment, and well-being.

Roy Baumeister,4 Social Psychologist, and Mark Leary,5 Professor of Psychology in The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation 19

FROM ME TO WE Members of a community have to move away from being consumers and spectators to contributors and co-creators: their mindset has to transform from “me” to “we.”

Me

We

Transactional

Generous

Consumer

Contributor

Co-Creator

Spectator

Participant

Stakeholder

Entitled

Expecting

Empowered

Have my guard up

Feel safe

Feel at home

Trust people I know

I trust authority

Trust strangers in group

Personal Norms

Societal Norms

Group Norms

Ignore Conflicts

Endure Conflict

Address Conflicts

Avoiding

Tolerating

Healing

Competing

Cooperating

Collaborating

Best self

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INSPIRED BY AN ARTICLE FROM FABIAN PFORTMÜLLER & MICHELLE BACHMAN6

Whole self

It’s in our Nature This belonging is deeply biological. In his book Culture Code,7 Daniel Coyle talks about belonging cues. These cues are processed in our amygdala, the part of our brain that subconsciously manages our fight or flight response. In other words, it helps us interpret a situation and decide if it's safe or dangerous. These belonging cues build and sustain our social bonds. Community is deeply ingrained in our biological survival instincts.

For our ancestors, being around the right people who cared for each other could mean the difference between life and death. Humans have traditionally been very aware of their interconnectedness to each other, their environment, and the effects of their behavior on nature’s intricate ecosystem—an ecosystem that to flourish requires harmonious and symbiotic relationships.

As an extension of that, belonging is also very much about caring. Caring is defined as feeling concern or interest for, attaching importance to, feeling affection toward, or providing for the needs of something or someone. This can be understood in a transactional way: as in caring for ourselves or our own interests, in a more generous sense: as in providing for others, or in the most selfless way: seeing ourselves as part of a larger ecosystem that we must contribute to because we are part of it.

Health & Happiness There have also been a number of studies on the effects of our social bonds on our health and happiness. In a fascinating Harvard study8 that is one of the world’s longest studies of adult life (ongoing since 1938), director Robert Waldinger revealed: “Our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health.” Susan Pinker, another psychologist, found that the biggest factors for a long life are our social integration and close relationships.9 These factors were a bigger indicator for longevity than exercising or quitting smoking or drinking.

Again, being around people you can trust, feel

safe with, and rely on is a fundamental need that we have.

Conclusion Belonging is threefold: You belong to community, it belongs to you, and you have a longing for it. We belong to community either by circumstance (through shared history, experience, traits) or by choice (through affinities, practices, actions). Community belongs to us when we contribute and co-create, and change our perspective from me to we. Our longing for community comes naturally, it’s a deeply biological need for connection, which allows us to live happier and healthier lives. A sense of belonging starts to answer the questions of who and why we are here together. This understanding can not only help you clarify and communicate your membership criteria, but also your internal and external purpose, vision, mission, and values that will guide your community. • To learn more about Close Knit and the initiative’s offerings, please visit www.closeknit.co

1.

https://www.amazon.com/CommunityStructure-Belonging-Peter-Block/ dp/1605092770/?tag=community20-20

2.

https://www.facebook.com/playgroundenglish/ videos/609794979353836/

3.

https://www.closeknit.co/blog/community-leadershipenergy-space-the-pendulum

4.

https://psy.fsu.edu/faculty/baumeisterr/baumeister. dp.php

5.

https://sites.duke.edu/leary/

6.

https://medium.com/together-institute/there-aretwo-ways-to-show-up-in-a-community-as-a-consumeror-as-a-co-creator-6c12939a8c8d

7.

https://www.amazon.com/CultureCode-Secrets-Highly-Successful/dp/ B077B1WF85/?tag=community20-20

8.

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/04/ over-nearly-80-years-harvard-study-has-been-showinghow-to-live-a-healthy-and-happy-life/

9.

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/842604367

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WORKPLACE INNOVATION

Creating a Learning Organization.

Moderator: Diana Navarrete-Rackauckas, Executive Director at the Foundry Consortium in Cambridge, MA Panelists: Josephine Holmboe, Creative Director and the Head of Human-Centered Design at Fidelity; Leah Ben-Ami, Director of Learning at C Space; and Ray Coderre, Director of Learning and People Strategy at Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Education can take on many forms and apply to a myriad of different professions and workspaces. In the following conversation, which took place in April, former Design Museum Everywhere Director of Learning and Interpretation Diana Navarrete-Rackauckas spoke over Zoom with three professionals—Josephine Holmboe, Leah Ben-Ami, and Ray Coderre—who each shared how education impacts their specific careers, and the unique challenges they faced as a result of the unprecedented events of the last year.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

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Meet the Moderator.

Diana Navarrete-Rackauckas: My background is in museum education, including informal education spaces as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting. I have worked with people who come into a museum wanting to learn something new or interact with a specific program, meaning that they are opting in to this kind of experience and they're seeking it out in their free time. I have also worked with educators to learn how to use different pedagogical samples to create experiences in their own classrooms.

On the DEI consulting side, I work both with the people who are choosing to come to me and engage in this kind of work, and with people who are required to within the context of their organizational systems, which I did not build or create. In my previous role at Design Museum Everywhere, I worked to figure out the best way to mesh the learning goals at Design Museum Everywhere with the goals of the institution, and what it is that they're looking to do themselves.

Meet the Panelists.

Josephine Holmboe: I am the Creative Director and Head of HumanCentered Design at Fidelity’s Center for Applied Technology. I’ve known I wanted to be a designer since I was 15. After earning a BFA in Graphic Design, I’ve held various design roles at ad agencies, corporate retail departments, in-house creative teams, and tech start-ups before pivoting to my current career in User Experience and Human-Centered Design, the career I've enjoyed for the past 25+ years. In my current role, I educate business associates, corporate partners, and technologists in the processes and mindsets of HCD and teach them how to define problems and craft solutions with a user-focused lens. I have also taught design at the University of New Hampshire in Continuing Ed. and found that teaching adults in real space and time versus virtually online requires a shift in approach, tools, and expectations. The challenge that I’ve enjoyed solving is how to keep students engaged and focused on learning new concepts, techniques, and tools that influence, adjust, and inspire them to always put the user at the center of everything we do.

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Leah Ben-Ami: I am the Director of Learning at C Space and hold a Doctor of Education from Northeastern University. We're known as the customer agency, and we’re focused on bringing human truths and customer insights to our clients. I've focused on continuing adult education for 15 years, most of which was at Northeastern University.

I started teaching adult learners online about eight years ago, myself, whereas before I was supporting the program. I have worked mostly with at-risk populations including persons of color, service members and veterans, and international students. Specifically, working with persons of color in STEM was a big focus across a few grant projects that we've done at Northeastern University. One example is the BusinessHigher Education Forum, a National Science Foundation grant focused on high-impact practices with STEM and interventions with adult learners. That was a really rewarding project that led to multiple phases of a virtual bonding, bridging and linking social capital mentorship programs that are still going on now. One of the biggest takeaways from my recent work is the need to make learners feel less isolated. When you do that, you can deal with the rest. I have also worked a lot in crisis management, advising students was something that I did a lot of and I found that it helped.

Ray Coderre: I am the Director of Learning and People Strategy at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. In many ways Broad serves as the nexus of biomedical science in the Cambridge and Boston area.

We have faculty and trainees from Harvard, MIT, and the Harvardaffiliated hospitals, as well as a huge staff of professional scientists. Our population of approximately 6,000 is deeply engaged in a wide range of science. We come together to learn from one another and address some of the world's most pernicious challenges, with COVID-19 diagnostic testing as the most recent example.

I spent a decade at Harvard prior to coming to Broad, where I focused on building collaborative scientific and educational initiatives, recruiting and developing faculty, and teaching adult learners. I have taught courses at the Harvard Extension School in news media and science, and at Harvard College I teach a course in neuroethics. My background and training is quite interdisciplinary. My natural tendency is to learn, and I think that has really informed how I approach my work. Being able to organize an educational framework and think about how to enable people to learn at work in a way that works for them and aligns with evolving institutional objectives is critical to what I do.

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Diana: Especially in the past year, with how the pandemic has impacted education and restricted in-person learning, those working in education have been thinking a lot about how to teach adults in the workplace, and how to actually get people involved in their learning.

I would love to hear about the specific challenges that you faced in your positions over the past year, and what it means to work with adults in the workplace generally. The central question that we are trying to answer is: What are all of the different approaches that we can take to teach adults at work in the workplace?

The first question that I will pose to find the answer to this larger question is: How would you define the difference in your mind between learning and education?

Josephine: I would say first that one is a verb and one is a noun. There's the action of learning and how people learn, and then there’s the actual concepts, which comprise the education. Everyone learns at a different level, at a different rate, and at a different speed. As any kind of educator or teacher, understanding that is really critical to knowing how to offer the information or the education you're giving students. When we talk about human-centered design and the way I teach said concepts across our organization and business, it is all dependent upon who's participating in that particular session. I am constantly having an internal conversation about how I am relaying information and showing them how to think, work, and approach a problem, but I also have to make sure that they are comprehending it and that they are absorbing it so they can then go out and use it.

Ray: I agree with Josephine and would add that to me, within organizations, we often talk about creating a learning culture, or the conditions that enable learning. That's distinct from the things that we teach people. I think a distinction that is lost in the learning space is that you have to focus on creating the right learning environment, with the recognition that that varies depending on the pop26

ulation, the circumstances, or what you are actually trying to teach. Some concepts are experiential, and some are much more technical, but if you focus on this distinction and are clear around learning objectives and the structure of what you are teaching students in this context, then you are more likely to have that effective interplay between active learning and education.

I think a distinction that is lost in the learning space is that you have to focus on creating the right learning environment, with the recognition that that varies depending on the population, the circumstances, or what you are actually trying to teach.

Leah: One of my favorite quotes that I feel applies to this question is, "I never learn when I feel like I'm being taught a lesson."

It 's important to keep in mind that you can have an education, but simultaneously have learned absolutely nothing. I think that with the STEM field especially, I'm learning a lot more about how they tinker and learn and fail and try again. Through this trial and error concept of learning, learners can gain an invaluable education that may not be the explicit lesson or “education” that was designed for them to obtain, but this is still a key notion for educators to keep in mind.

Diana: Creating a learning space definitely requires a certain amount of vulnerability from everyone involved, along with a commitment to trust in the process. So how do you set the stage for the adults that you're working with, to get people on board for the journey they are about to go on with you?

Josephine: I love that you use the word journey, because when you're talking about teaching adults, they all have learning biases that they have acquired during their lives. At the start they’re smart, they're experienced, and they have a lot of perspective on life. As someone trying to teach a concept or process, you have to understand that some adults are going to come in with their guard up. I think the hardest thing that I have to encounter is how to help adult learners suspend the mentality that the way they've done things in the past is the only way to do things going forward. I find it helpful to approach learners early on in a pre-workshop, class, or session with the idea, "Let's get an understanding of where you are."

Because if I can understand where they are, it's very helpful in knowing how to structure the way they need to learn.

I think the hardest thing that I have to encounter is how to help adult learners suspend the mentality that the way they've done things in the past is the only way to do things going forward.

Leah: I'm so happy that you mentioned that, Josephine, because I have also been working through the concept of adaptability versus customization. This is a direction that we knew we would have to go in for Continuing Ed., because there are different personas of adult learners, whether they are career changers, career explorers or career starters. These are important distinctions to help determine what's the right learner journey for each individual, but these classifications are far from finite, so what I really love to get involved with is more mentorship and coaching—providing a network to support the learner through their entire journey and really understanding all the different touch points from the beginning.

Considering learning during the pandemic last year, you have learners who are not in an ideal environment, and having to educate virtually has been a worry, because it is more difficult to determine if what you are teaching is truly resonating. You don't have as much visibility, so coaching, being vulnerable, unlearning, and focusing on a grit and growth mindset are some pieces that we've been focusing on.

Considering learning during the pandemic last year, you have learners who are not in an ideal environment, and having to educate virtually has been a worry, because it is more difficult to determine if what you are teaching is truly resonating.

Ray: Having now taught in-person, hybrid, and online classes, I think one challenge of working with adult learners is the necessary shift in delivery from instruction to facilitation. For adults, that distinction is really critical. We're not trying to tell them what to learn. We're trying to help them understand the concept at hand, relate it back to their own personal experiences, and then test it against their skepticism, through peer interaction and application.

I also think it is important to ask the question, "What are the constraints or barriers for people to enter into the learning space?" There are cultural, societal, or systemic constraints that certain populations may experience that an educator may not be in tune with, where students do not feel like they can take advantage of learning because of their work culture, boss, or manager, or because of their partner, personal life, society, or community. As educators, we have to be attentive to these unique circumstances, and try 27

to create learning conditions that are informed by where people are coming from, just as much as what we're trying to teach them.

Diana: I can see from your responses that a lot of the work that this group does is involved not only in instructional design, but also in the design of organizational systems within the education framework. Something that we touched on earlier was the idea of how to create a culture of learning in these spaces. Can you each share significant successes or insights gained from your experience in creating these learning cultures, and any challenges that you've come up against recently?

Leah: I think that knowledge management is a notable difficulty. This involves an organization’s efficiency when handling the movement of information and resources. If this knowledge management is not organized and transparent, then this added complication can cause a lapse in efficiency. My job has been to make more time for learners to become more confident in their knowledge of these components and also to adapt our model to make it easier for learners to access said content.

Helping people to be successful and think before doing is a major goal that we are continuing to work through and evolve. Now we have a learning management system, and we have focused on organizational change and behavior as a united front, starting from the top to co-create the learning culture with all the employees.

Josephine: When I teach human-centered design workshops or sessions, they're very experiential. That component has been difficult to maintain over the past year, since I've had to take these big, rambunctious, energetic, spirited workshops from an in-person presentation to a little tile on a laptop screen.

It has been a challenge to recreate some of that experience for people when everyone isn’t interacting in person and in real time.

Participants can't hear all of the other teams ideating in the background, or see tons of 28

Post-it notes going up on the wall and react to those collaborative experiences.

I think that a big win for me this past year, though, was working to find ways to retrofit those in-life experiences online, and determining what I can replicate virtually.

Fortunately, new tools became increasingly popular over the last year, like virtual mural boards, which can replicate the practice of working through problems using a communal note taking space. However, the thing that is still missing the most is that energy of interacting with people in person.

What I've been trying to find are ways to utilize more interactive prompts or other activities to get people to participate even from behind their screen. It's a constant challenge to keep people engaged in a virtual learning environment, when they may be tempted to look down at their phone or answer emails.

You just can't keep everyone's attention online the same way you can in a room. But I have found that simply prompting spontaneous actions, like having participants do jumping jacks to get their blood flowing, helps to both eliminate the feeling of a standard lecture experience, and to help the participants stay engaged and combat the mental disconnect that can occur when staring at a screen for an extended period of time.

It's a constant challenge to keep people engaged in a virtual learning environment, when they may be tempted to look down at their phone or answer emails. You just can't keep everyone's attention online the same way you can in a room.

Ray: A major realization from my learning journey at Broad has been the critical-

ity of enabling our people to engage with, teach, and learn from one another. We have become adept at helping our people connect with and learn from each other, and that has really helped shape some of our practices, especially over the past year. As an example, we just added roughly 400 people to work on COVID-19 diagnostics, so with that many people beginning a new job, how do we provide support for them at scale? We decided to use Slack to create an intentional community, with the idea of finding volunteer career ambassadors from within our scientific population, which we did. We also orchestrated conversations around career pathing and different areas of interests such as Broad science, bringing in our learning material or products in a regular cadence to provide directionality and guidance.

Finding the advisors who would guide these new personnel was actually quite easy; we had nearly 40 people sign up in a week. Our biggest concern was: How do we make sure that the staff scientists that volunteered to be ambassadors, who we surmised might not be familiar with or as willing to engage with the platform, still get engaged in Slack? What we soon found out was this challenge was a non-issue. Those ambassadors who were previously unfamiliar with Slack jumped right in and were very enthusiastic about engaging with this digital community.

However, we initially found the opposite to be true of the new hires targeted by the effort, most of whom were right out of school.

They seemed less inclined to engage publicly on Slack. We didn't anticipate the barrier of the power dynamic, and how we would need to effectively pull these younger staff members in, encouraging them to transcend any perceived hierarchies and participate more freely. We had to get more curious and creative about bringing them in slowly, and it's working, but in the beginning it was a total miss. I think this example highlights the complexity of doing this type of work, including the importance of being attentive to the conditions that are fundamental to learner success.

A major realization from my learning journey at Broad has been the criticality of enabling our people to engage with, teach, and learn from one another. We have become adept at helping our people connect with and learn from each other, and that has really helped shape some of our practices, especially over the past year.

Josephine: I love that you said that Ray, because the assumption that individuals in a younger generation will be more engaged with digital platforms because they are more familiar with them is not always the case. We as educators need to be aware of these assumptions and biases, and make sure that we're empathetic to the different levels, skill sets, and needs of the people participating in whatever our courses, classes, or workshops are, because that knowledge is critical to the success of any educational program.

Adult education is not the same as, say, a sixth grade class, where the students all have pretty much the same level of maturity, background, information, and education. We are working with people coming from all different levels of experience, and that is a big challenge. But empathy, I think, is the undercurrent that helps us be able to overcome this difficulty and teach appropriately.

Leah: I would echo what you both are saying.

I think empathy is very important especially when you're bringing in new hires, and making sure you are responsive to their needs, asking, “Where do you want to start?" At C Space we have a Pal Program, which is focused on 29

buddying up each new hire with someone that can help guide them through our culture, how we complete tasks, and who to go to with different questions.

Now more than ever, with everyone being forced to transition to a technology-first work environment over the last year, we are seeing more and more the vulnerability that's required to be able to be bad at stuff. Luckily, before the pandemic we already had about 10% of our workforce remote, so the fact that we were already thinking in this way helped us adapt a lot faster to 100% online learning and onboarding.

I think empathy is very important especially when you're bringing in new hires, and making sure you are responsive to their needs, asking, “Where do you want to start?"

Ray: When I reflect on what Leah and Josephine said, one of the things that becomes really clear is that to lead this type of work, you have to be at your heart naturally curious, and also vulnerable and selfaware enough to know what you know, and what you don't know, and be able to check your own assumptions.

As educators, we all know what works for us, and I think sometimes getting too comfortable in doing what works can cause us to get in our own way. My experience at Broad has been incredibly humbling, because it really forces me to constantly step outside of my comfort zone, as someone responsible for training and developing others. You have to make sure that you are constantly reassessing, deconstructing, and reconstructing yourself. To do this, it is essential to work in a culture or go to a culture where that's okay. I know that's not always the case, and I think that's something that we need to talk more 30

about—to provide effective learning for adults in a culture that is not supportive of it—that's a very, very difficult thing to do.

Diana: You have all noted that the environment that is necessary for people to feel comfortable and to learn well in can be very different from the environment that they're actually working in. And so how do you bridge that gap? What are some of the things that you do to make it so that people understand that those two things can't be separate anymore?

Leah: I think that it is important to remember that in many industries, with individuals who may not be directly involved with the learning components of an organization, they're not super interested in the details all the time, or understanding why fostering an empathetic learning environment is so crucial. So it's really important to make sure you're aware of your audience, and how to convey the message and the need for optimal learning conditions in a way that resonates with the audience. There is also the element of helping people unlearn and then relearn where they need to be, how to show up, how to lead, and how to set a constructive example.

I'm lucky to have a team that's also doing that with me. Together, we can actually be the example of how we're changing as an organization. We have an initiative focused on the workplace of the future. And in looking to the future, that has really required us to take a step back and re-examine how we have been operating up until this point.

An example of a facet of our organization that I think benefited from this method of careful consideration and reevaluation is our work to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. We leveraged the allies we already had in the organization to really figure out our strategic priorities, and we focused internally first before saying anything publicly, which I know a lot of brands did not do, and I think that was a mistake, because they're paying for it now. I believe that the work that we

have done on the DEI front has been so successful and has been received so well by our clients because we know and feel confident in what we're doing. We're a united front, we can deploy as needed, and our cohesiveness and open lines of communication are future skills that we have ready to go.

Ray: I think a critical component of bridging this gap is signaling. Signaling by managers and leadership that they're engaged in this work. That they're modeling this work.

That they're highlighting the value of it and encouraging people to take part in it, but then also making reference to it. The learning environment needs to be a part of the culture of the organization.

Feedback and continuous engagement are critical. An organization that prioritizes these two components will have a better chance of succeeding. To me, it is a problem when education and performance become too close. In theater, when a character breaks the fourth wall, it is impactful because they are breaking from the status quo and actually involving the audience in the conversation. In education, however, the fourth wall should never be up to begin with, because this disconnect between educator and learner, which can be exacerbated by online communication platforms, can be detrimental to the fostering of a cohesive learning environment. I am an oldschool theater attendee, but there is no space for performative, disassociated educating in the workplace.

ting generated, people get very excited. Then they leave, they go back to their business units, and they forget a lot of what they learned. To combat this disconnect, both in the in-person and virtual sessions, my team and I have really focused on asking participants, "All right, now that this is done and you've got some artifacts and ideas that you're going to carry forward, what are you going to do next?"

We generate activities that prompt participants to answer the questions, "What did you like? What are you still wondering about, and what are you going to do next?" With some teams I've even gone on to work with them to incorporate that into their roadmaps for incorporating what they’ve learned into their organizations in the future. I posit, "So these are the things that you've said are really important. These are the ideas that you surfaced, now how are you going to make them a reality?"

So within the learning environment, it’s about not only making sure the information sunk in, but that it's also got some value that is going to continue to be applicable to the learners. Something that I think is a recent development for teams that I've been working with is making sure that what they take away is actionable outside of the context of a training session, so that an environment conducive to learning can continue to thrive within the organization, whether they are interacting through screens or face-to-face. •

The learning environment needs to be a part of the culture of the organization.

Feedback and continuous engagement are critical.

Josephine: I would say that in the past, when we've done training sessions, especially ones that were in person, where there's a lot of activity, a lot of energy, and a lot of artifacts get31

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EDUCATION

Enhancing Learning Spaces with Environmental Graphics.

By Lauren Haggerty, Director of Graphic Design, Arrowstreet; Donald Suthard, Senior Associate, Arrowstreet; and Jessica Grant, Jessica Grant Design “Hello friends!” greets a staff librarian with a warm smile, as young visitors and their caregivers enter the Children’s Library of the Boston Public Library Central Library in Copley Square. The room is busy with a mix of regulars nestled into their favorite spots and first-time visitors taking in the bright colors and welcoming environment.

Six years ago, we, the designers from the Arrowstreet Graphic Design Studio, developed the custom graphics that surround the room, and we are here to learn more about the impact they have on visitors. We are eager to talk with children and their caregivers about their favorite aspects of the room, why they visit, what makes them come back, and how their experiences here differ from other libraries.

Our work integrating environmental graphics in civic and educational spaces has proven to be an incredible tool to enhance spaces. They can set the tone of a space, integrate an institution’s culture into the fabric of the building, or influence the mood of visitors and students, resulting in more profound connections between people and places. More and more libraries and schools are using graphics to increase engagement, offer surprising learning opportunities, reinforce values, and highlight building features.

Creating Memorable Spaces that Reflect the Community The Boston Public Library’s Children’s Library of today is a stark contrast to its predecessor, which was small, cluttered, and lacking views to the outside. As Michael Colford, Director of Library Services, is quoted, “What was here before this renovation was what was there in 1972. The carpet was the same carpet. We had brown panels. We had gray granite...There was never any color...Our children’s room was really substandard for a library this size."1 BPL leadership wanted to ensure the space reflected its urban location with Bostonspecific elements and landmarks. It had to appeal to both children and adults, sparking imaginations with bold colors and confident gestures. The graphics also needed to blend the theme of “Read, Play, Learn” while conveying travel, movement, and progression. Put more simply, they wanted “wow factor.”

The overall design of the Children’s Library was led by William Rawn Associates (WRA), and the layout included five distinct zones: Early Literacy, StoryScape, Collections, a Program Room, and a space dedicated for tweens. Bold lines referencing Boston’s metro system welcome visitors at the entrance and guide them to the five zones, each featuring a different color. Custom illustrations depicting areas of the city combine with elements of reading, playing, and learning to create visually distinctive areas under one cohesive theme.

PHOTO BY ROBERT BENSON

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The resulting design announces itself before reaching the door with a vibrant presence that can be seen from across the atrium. Upon entry, visitors are surrounded by original illustrations comprising five “chapters,” which tell a story of three lion cubs—the Children’s Library mascots—and their adventures in Boston. The youngest library users play alongside the famous ducklings, frogs, and swan boats of the Public Garden. Child-size townhouses create StoryScape, where children can gather for story time. Stacks of books featuring titles by local authors create the Boston skyline and provide a backdrop to the circulating collections. Curious George greets visitors at the entrance to the Margret and H.A. Rey Program Room while fishing in Boston Harbor. The story culminates with a mural featuring the Zakim Bridge, a metaphor for tweens’ transition to Teen Central on the opposite side of the floor. Each chapter is tied together with a single white line, which originates from an open book near the room’s entrance and weaves its way around the room depicting the lions’ journey through the city.

By utilizing local landmarks, an immediate connection is created between visitors and the space. By reimagining these familiar sites in a fantastical way—where books become recognizable bridges and buildings, and frogs from the Boston Common Frog Pond relax with a book under a tree—a memorable space is created for visitors of all ages.

Fostering Learning and Infusing Education Environmental graphics also provide opportunities to utilize the physical space as an educational tool. This approach played an important role for the Children’s Room at Thayer Public Library in Braintree, Massachusetts.

This well-loved but well-worn section of the library needed updating to accommodate growing demands, expanded programming, and new technology. The library wanted a vibrant, interactive, and inviting space infused with playful moments of discovery and education.

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PHOTO BY ROBERT BENSON

Boston Public Library's Children's Library 35

Patrons entering the space are greeted by a mural with a friendly “hello” accompanied by hellos in the most predominant languages spoken within the community. The greetings are spoken by friendly animals nestled within the tree anchoring the circulation desk. These greetings not only celebrate community culture, but also provide an educational opportunity by introducing other languages.

Spanning the entire length of the room, a 111-foot-long custom mural combines local landmarks and history with age-appropriate learning elements. Numbers and shapes are combined with friendly characters in the Young Readers area. Children learn about measurement and track their growth on a height chart.

Local, historical homes are nestled amongst the bookshelves and cleverly integrate a geome-

try lesson. Designed as a scavenger hunt, each letter of the alphabet is woven throughout the mural, sparking a sense of curiosity, discovery, and accomplishment for children of all ages.

The result is a rich and engaging experience that inspires visitors to explore, play, and make learning fun.

Reinforcing Values An institution’s values, history, and culture are central to its identity, and environmental graphics can be used to communicate those messages, particularly in schools. By celebrating the qualities that make each school unique, students are reminded every day of the role they play in the school’s history and culture.

Blackstone Valley Prep (BVP) in Cumberland, Rhode Island did just that. BVP students are

Children's Room in Thayer Public Library 36

Typographic accent walls at Blackstone Valley Prep

referred to as “scholars,” and the graphics we created for the school needed to reflect the same level of maturity. BVP staff members encourage the scholars to be positive and forward-thinking, and the school understands how color and environmental graphics can affect their mood, outlook, and attitude, while establishing a creative and inspiring school environment.

To develop the environmental graphic concept, we turned to BVP’s own culture and values for inspiration. Their core set of principles— Perseverance, Respect, Integrity, Discipline, and Enthusiasm—became bold, typographic accent walls with the acronym P.R.I.D.E. in large letters. Each of the letters uses a different typeface to celebrate BVP’s diverse population and is paired with quotes chosen by members of the community. Bright colors were selected to work with the school’s existing colors—blue and yellow—and provide contrast to the neutral palette of the architectural finishes.

The graphics are strategically placed throughout the school to inspire and encourage staff and scholars each day. As one student commented, “Everything felt better, like it was a new beginning.” When entering BVP, you are greeted with the school’s mission statement

and individual photos of each of the scholars; acting as a daily reminder of the important role they play in their community.

Celebrating Sustainable Efforts With the increasing emphasis on sustainability, institutions are looking for more ways to minimize their carbon footprint. This was true for the King Open/Cambridge Street Upper School & Community Complex (KOCSUS) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Designed as the first Net Zero Emissions and first LEED v4 Platinum school in Massachusetts, the building uses 43% less energy than a typical Massachusetts school and 70% less than the average school in the United States.

KOCSUS establishes a new standard for education design and high-performing buildings by creating a 21st-century learning lab.

Environmental graphics were used to increase students’ awareness of the role they play in the health of the planet. Large graphics placed in corridors and common areas educate students on the building’s sustainable features and how they can make environmentally-conscious contributions to their community. The illustrations break down complex sustainable design PHOTOS BY ANTHONY CRISAFULLI

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Graphics at KOSCUS 38

PHOTOS BY ARROWSTREET

elements into easily understood concepts, such as water and electricity conservation, photovoltaic science, insulation, recycling and composting, geothermal heating, and daylighting.

Presenting the information in the form of bold and playful graphics helps students and visitors understand these complex concepts more easily and encourages behaviors that will help the school achieve their energy goals.

The Results Not only can environmental graphics excite, educate, and inspire, but they can also help promote growth in visitorship, programming, and circulation. At the BPL Children’s Library, program statistics grew significantly in the years after the renovation. From 2014 (pre-renovation) to 2018, BPL increased programming by 420% and saw an increase in attendance of 250%. Of the people surveyed, 70% said they visit at least once a week, with 81% saying the interior design of the space impacts their decision to spend time there. As one of the regular visitors states, “We feel free here, like it’s our own living room.” Many of the parents and caregivers we spoke to pass by their local library and make a longer trip to the Central Library.

They feel the BPL Children’s Library’s programs, activities, natural light, amenities, and overall environment make the trip worth it.

David Leonard, President of the BPL, explained, “While much of the focus of effort and budget was on architectural transformation, the visual transformation represented by the graphic work is some of the most impactful and memorable.”

Environmental graphics do, in fact, have an impact with a high return on investment.

While libraries and schools are often mindful of budget, many are unaware of how a little money can go a long way. The cost to develop environmental graphics, comes in two parts: the cost to design the graphics, and the cost for production and installation. In general, the production and installation costs comprise a small percentage of the overall construction budget. The overall production costs for both BPL Children’s

Library and BVP were 0.6% of the overall construction costs.

As for the design of graphics, costs can vary depending on the content, with highly illustrative solutions being more expensive than simpler color and/or type-based graphics. However, by clearly communicating and establishing budget expectations early, effective environmental graphics can be produced to fit most budgets.

Jeremy Chiappetta, Chief Executive Officer of BVP, learned just how impactful and cost-effective graphics can be. “One of the biggest surprises to me…was the incredible impact graphics provide relative to the costs,” he said. “When people visit BVP High School, they immediately comment on the [graphics]. Rarely do I get comments or even questions about elements of the facility that are probably far more expensive [such as] flooring choices and HVAC systems. I would argue while one might be tempted to value-engineer graphics out of a project, it's likely your biggest return on investment.”

Always Room for Improvement Back at the BPL Children’s Library, we’ve enjoyed our time speaking with the librarians and patrons who have helped provide further insight into the impact of environmental graphics. In contrast to the energetic group of children in the room, an 8-year-old girl sits quietly reading a book in her favorite corner.

When asked if there is anything she would change about the space, she thinks and says, “Hmm, more unicorns.” We let her know we’ll keep that in mind for the next project. • The environmental graphics showcased in these case studies were designed by the graphic design studio at Arrowstreet, an architecture and design firm in downtown Boston. The studio specializes in signage, wayfinding, and environmental graphics.

Interviews, observations, and data were collected in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

1.

https://www.wbur.org/artery/2015/02/21/bostonlibrary-renovation

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SOCIAL IMPACT

Leveling Up STEM. Humanizing the Math Journey

By Jessica Sanon, Founder and CEO of sySTEMic flow Let's face it. Part of the reason why we do not see more women of color in STEM fields is the embedded stereotypes and assumptions of what it means to be a STEM woman.

We have seen women such as Katherine Johnson1 shift the narrative and show why BIPOC women are an invaluable resource in the STEM community; yet, these same women often do not receive recognition in our society.

Instead, when we highlight people who have made significant achievements in the STEM or entrepreneurial worlds, white male figures are the examples we show our students the most often, leaving no room or lasting impressions of what others have done and hampering young girls’ ability to imagine what is possible for them in the professional world of STEM. Social constructs have gotten in the way of the encouragement process of getting girls to remain interested in the STEM fields. Despite educational progress over the past several years, high school minority students still lack access to the educational resources that will prepare them for college success. Only about 40% of public high schools serving predominantly Black students offer physics and about 33% offer calculus.2 Additional data gathered from the Department of Education shows that Black students are much less likely to have access to Advanced Placement courses in STEM fields.3 The correlation between stu-

dents’ preparation for STEM-related jobs and the lack of access to foundational STEM skills puts Black students at a more significant disadvantage in preparing for advanced STEM courses in college and future careers in STEM. The lack of opportunity and access to a rigorous curriculum in many public school systems located in inner cities has also caused an imbalance in students' cognitive growth. From negative stereotypes to lack of encouragement from their surroundings, women, especially BIPOC women, do not see themselves in STEM. Some reasons why there are not enough BIPOC women going into STEM include:4 • Lack of mentorship or representation in the field • Negative stereotypes surrounding girls who pursue STEM • Lack of encouragement from educators, family, and peers • Self-discouragement in pursuing STEM In creating sySTEMic flow, my mission is to bridge the gap between STEM education and math literacy for BIPOC girls and women interested in STEM through a holistic approach that ultimately combats this retention issue. My personal journey to finding the STEM field began in my early childhood, when I found my passion for math. My personal experiences with grappling with my PHOTOS BY HANS VERDIEU

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identity and finding the confidence to pursue my dreams led me to found sySTEMic flow, so that other young women could feel supported in their decisions to move against the status quo and embrace their passion and potential in STEM.

The Beginning: Finding the Flow Ever since I was a young child, I always had a strong interest in all things math. I grew up in a Haitian household, and learning English was one of the biggest obstacles that I had to overcome as a young person. As a result, I was so shy, and I had a myriad of speech issues that I also grappled with, but unlike conversation, math felt incredibly natural to me. It was something that I invested my time in, that I was passionate about, and that gave me confidence throughout my childhood.

I wanted to prove my family wrong. I wanted to prove society wrong. If I didn't have that kind of mindset, I don't think I would be where I am today.

I decided to major in Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and my original goal was to be a math teacher. But as I progressed through college, I became exposed to so many other potential career pathways in science and mathematics. The fact that I did not have this realization until I arrived at a university made me realize that my lack of exposure to the various potential careers in STEM was a hindrance to my academic and ultimately professional aspirations. I also began to feel myself become intimidated by the rigor of collegiate STEM courses and lose my confidence in the very subjects that used to uplift me in my adolescence. It truly was my persistence and passion for pursuing a career in STEM and my determination to transcend the traditional role of women as caretakers that I had been brought up with 42

that fueled my ability to succeed in college and beyond. I wanted to prove my family wrong. I wanted to prove society wrong. If I didn't have that kind of mindset, I don't think I would be where I am today.

Through my journey in my four years at UMass, I realized that a lack of academic preparation, not finding people in the math field who looked like me, and a dearth of readily accessible internship opportunities contributed to my initial difficulties in college. I determined that my calling was to do everything in my power to make sure that young BIPOC girls did not experience the same hindrances that I did, and in my personal statement when applying for The Heller School for Social Policy and Management’s Master of Business Administration program in Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Management at Brandeis University, I pitched the first iteration of the organization that would one day become sySTEMic flow.

While learning the fundamentals of starting a business at Brandeis, in 2017 I had the opportunity to pitch my idea for sySTEMic flow at a startup competition event, where it won second place. It was then that I realized that people actually see the value of sySTEMic flow, that there are actually women out there who ended up switching their major or not pursuing a career in STEM because of avoidable circumstances, and that we at sySTEMic flow could combat this apprehension of women of color toward pursuing a career in STEM and elevate these women to reach their fullest potential and achieve their biggest ambitions.

The Solution: sySTEMic flow After working through various iterations of our business model over the past few years, which involved networking at local schools, cycling through different mentorship models, and recruiting interested students to work with us, we eventually arrived at our current organizational structure. In 2020, when the pandemic hit, we really assessed how we could create virtual academic programming that

Why are there not more women in STEM jobs? % of those in STEM jobs who say each of the following is a major reason why there are not more women working in STEM fields:8 Men

Women

43%

45%

Lack of encouragement for girls in these subjects from an early age

28%

40%

Difficulty of balancing work and family in STEM jobs

23%

32%

Lack of belief among women that they can succeed

22%

30%

Shortage of female role models in STEM

22%

28%

Slowness of training pipeline

DATA COURTESY OF PEW RESEARCH CENTER

could supplement the unpredictable academic environment that COVID-19 certainly exacerbated, but that has also consistently been a problem for students in underserved communities. We formulated a 13-week, after-school math program for high school students, in which students meet twice a week for 90 minutes to augment their regular math education with compelling activities such as bingo, jeopardy games, and a math escape room. We also offer office hours for two hours a week, so that students can get even more specialized attention for their math-related questions.

We also work with students who are interested in finding an internship or mentor in STEM to optimize their resumes and cover letters and help them network in the field. Every month we have a MySTEMStory event, where we engage with BIPOC women who are pro-

fessionals in STEM and allow our students to more clearly visualize the potential for a career in STEM through connecting with these role models. These are just a few elements of our holistic approach, which tackles this multifaceted problem through a three-tier process: academic preparation, mentorship, and workforce development.

Academic Preparation: Redesigning the Classroom Environment We have redesigned the classroom experience so that it is conducive to how girls see themselves in STEM. We think beyond the numbers and lectures and focus on students' individual growth through a flipped classroom and scaffolding approach. In a traditional classroom setting, students begin by learning concepts first—through instructors providing an over43

"We want to place all of our graduates in a four-year college program, and sySTEMic flow has the support needed to help our students find success in STEM programs wherever they choose."

— Wade Wisler, Calculus teacher

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view—and then students' knowledge is tested through homework assignments. The difficulty with this approach is that the problems assigned to students for homework are oftentimes a lot more complex than what they see in class. Additionally, this teaching style caters to a subset of students who can grasp concepts fairly quickly, making it more difficult for learners who need additional support in class.

Our “flipped classroom” model, however, gives students control over what they learn and how they learn. This approach is more student-centered and invites collaboration among peers.

Lessons and content are provided in multiple ways, allowing students to deepen their understanding in a way that works for them. This framework forces educators to trust students more and gives them the space to think independently and broadly, to shift their mindsets to "I know I can." Flipped classrooms provide all students an equal opportunity to learn, selflearn, encourage peer learning, and gain confidence in various mathematical concepts.

Scaffolding Approach for Designing a Math Curriculum We design our curriculum using a scaffolding approach that can modify the learning experiences of our students to optimize progress. We have created a curriculum that is easy to read, digestible to the eye, and provides youth with relevant information.5 Each lesson is divided

into specific categories: key terms, how the math topic is seen in everyday life, and a stepby-step guide on solving easy to complex problems. We use mixed written interactions within our curriculum, such as fill in the blanks, definition scavenger hunts, and underlining key phrases to engage the youth to think beyond problem-solving and really find ownership of the concepts. In addition to the curriculum, students are encouraged to research BIPOC women currently paving the way for access and employment opportunities in STEM and to share their findings regularly with their peers in the program. This shows students that beyond learning math, there are also social and communal aspects of STEM that can be tapped into through research, discovery, and collaboration.

We have redesigned the experiences and interactions girls have with math to empower them to make decisions on their own and selfguide their journey in STEM. By helping these young women to find their confidence in math concepts and discover potential careers that these skills could funnel into, we are striving to reduce the barriers or obstacles that they may face in pursuing a STEM career.

Mentorship: Amplifying Stories Designed with Lived Experiences In our programming, we intentionally bring in guest speakers who can discuss STEM concepts that students may not be exposed to in a

More than a third of Black (40%) and Latino (37%) students switch majors before earning a degree, compared with 29% of white STEM students.

Another 26% of Black STEM students and 20% of Latino STEM students drop out of college altogether—13 and seven percentage points higher, respectively, than white STEM students (13%).7

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traditional educational setting and encourage girls to explore the multitudinous opportunities that a STEM career can offer.

Women in STEM continue to call for active community participation within spaces today.

For example, Lorena Soriano, Founder of every POINT ONE, who was recently featured in Forbes "30 Under 30,” cites the powerful presence that can be achieved when women of color come together and form a community to surpass their shared sense of “imposter syndrome.” This perpetual feeling of not being up to par is reinforced by existing in a space that

In 2013, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released data9 that show white women hold 20% of jobs in the science and engineering workforce, while Black women hold just 2% of these positions.

USA Today reports10 that although Black and white students of all genders enter STEM majors at about the same rate (20%),

40% 29% 46

Black students leave those majors, comparted to of white students.11

inherently shuts Black and brown folks out, making those who gain access to it question their worthiness. At a 2017 conference tackling diversity in STEM, Olivia Graeve, a UC San Diego professor, concurred by encouraging peers to devote resources toward community-building because of the extreme impact it has on students' success (per her own first-hand experience). Women in STEM—and mainly Black and brown women in STEM—rely on creating relative space out of necessity, as it directly correlates with their ability to survive and thrive in institutions designed to keep them out.6 Workforce Development: Changing the Way We Think about STEM-related Careers We often see with our students that there is a lack of understanding of the variety of careers that are available involving math. We tell them that math is not just about solving problems; rather, you become a problem solver. The skills and knowledge gained from studying disciplines in STEM can provide students with limitless employment opportunities. Further, BIPOC women enter a world that is not designed for them, and they are forced to reckon with adjusting to the collaborative, communicative, and personal requirements once granted access to this space. Their learning does not solely come from textbooks and pens, but by working with people on a human level within a space that routinely isolates, stigmatizes, and oppresses them.

Procuring a mutually supportive environment with growth opportunities is essential for BIPOC women in STEM. Inclusivity functions as a multifaceted tool for both leveling the playing field and enabling pathways for success.

The system fails Black women in its inability to create an environment they can thrive in; thus, the industry loses all too many bright and capable minds. BIPOC women in STEM must be prepared with the necessary tools and training to assume leadership positions.

To combat these inequities, employers will need to start interacting with high school youth more, showing them what kinds of opportunities are available in the industry.

This approach will help employers understand the support required to cultivate the next generation of STEM professionals, and how organizational culture needs to be restructured to optimally support them. The more Black and brown women we see as leaders in STEM, the more role models that upcoming talent has to inspire feelings of courage and possibility for them. From there, we can begin to shape a cycle of systemic change in which BIPOC women are properly provided the opportunity to hone their abilities and achieve professional success.

It is here that we see the intersection of diversity and inclusion. Commitment to diversity broadens the scope of talent pools and is proven to fuel innovation in STEM. Simultaneously, fostering greater inclusivity provides the framework by which women of color can assume positions of power, activating a new cyclical, systemic order in which their voices and contributions can be better heard. Leaders in the STEM industry must do their part to hold diversity as a hiring priority, not just among their teams but also in leadership positions.

We tell them that math is not just about solving problems; rather, you become a problem solver.

The STEM field is in desperate need of institutional, structural change to properly nurture these young minds—both in the breadth of the positions available and in the depth of career advancement when on the STEM track. Our holistic approach to retaining women's interests in STEM and nurturing their development will serve to augment this evolution within the industry. In the future, we hope to evolve our organization to reach even more students and schools by diversifying our programming and bolstering our in-person and online presences, and to directly connect with universities, helping students to gain collegiate experience and credits in high school,

and giving them even more of an edge as they pursue their goals in STEM. Our work at sySTEMic flow seeks to prepare and empower young Black girls to take STEM by storm, not just as bright minds but as capable leaders. We are committed to filling in the gaps and instilling the lessons needed to succeed in today's world, laying the foundation for a career that will change the course of the industry. • To learn more about sySTEMic flow and how you can help them in their mission to further the education of BIPOC women in STEM, please visit their website at: www.systemicflow.com Sponsor a student by following this link: ifundwomen.com/projects/what-can-youdo-about-women-stem-right-now Thank you to former sySTEMic flow Marketing & Social Media Specialist John Snow for your work on our sySTEMic leaders articles, which are cited here.

1.

https://www.systemicflow.com/post/get-the-girlkatherine-johnson-s-legacy-and-the-science-behinddiversity-and-inclusion-in-stem

2.

https://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/ articles/2015/02/24/stem-workforce-no-morediverse-than-14-years-ago

3.

https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/fact-sheetspurring-african-american-stem-degree-completion

4.

https://edventures.com/blogs/stempower/the-pastpresent-and-future-of-women-in-stem

5.

https://www.systemicflow.com/online-math-institute

6.

https://www.systemicflow.com/post/the-bunchingeffect-dr-shirley-jackson

7.

https://eab.com/insights/daily-briefing/studentsuccess/a-third-of-minority-students-leave-stemmajors-heres-why

8.

https://www.pewresearch.org/socialtrends/2018/01/09/women-in-stem-see-more-genderdisparities-at-work-especially-those-in-computer-jobsmajority-male-workplaces

9.

https://wayback.archive-it. org/5902/20160211074856/http://www.nsf.gov/ statistics/2015/nsf15311/digest/theme5.cfm

10. https://www.usatoday.com/story/ opinion/2020/12/03/why-universities-needreform-stem-education-protect-economycolumn/6462405002 11. https://barnard.edu/news/supporting-black-womenstem-careers

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48

EDUCATION

Education and Extended Reality.

How cutting-edge technology is transforming the collegiate classroom

By Mark Sivak, PhD, Associate Teaching Professor at Northeastern University On March 11th 2020, I was meeting with senior students who were a month and a half out from finishing their degree projects at Northeastern University. It would be my last fully inperson class for over a year.

My usual concern at this time of the semester is senioritis, this affliction causes seniors to lose momentum and experience burnout. It is particularly acute at NU, because so many of our students continue to work part-time or already have accepted positions to begin after graduation. This day was obviously different; however, as the university president had announced that the entire Boston campus would pivot to remote classes starting the next morning.

This knowledge caused a haze over these meetings—usually meant for critique, advising, refinement, and feedback—turning them into discussions of moving off campus and questions about how we would meet next week. Spring break was the week before and at least one student, who had gone to Italy, decided to call in instead of coming in person.

The remaining month of the semester was a white-knuckle ride of trying to reconfigure my courses for remote learning in real-time.

Classes based on discussion, presentations, and critique were relatively easy to adjust, but my prototyping course, which had just started a module on electronics and would soon move

on to extended reality, was vastly more difficult. Shipping equipment, bending laptops to view soldering irons, recording lectures, and taking screenshots, I tried anything that could be helpful, like an academic chef flinging spaghetti at the wall hoping it would stick. The semester ended with students having the option to take courses pass/fail, with the promise from senior leadership that any bad course evaluations would be overlooked. I hope it was the strangest semester I will ever experience.

A few months later, in June 2020, Northeastern University introduced a plan to get students back in the classroom safely. A testing regime and associated policies would make students entering the classrooms safe.

Once inside, classrooms would have density requirements, shrinking the capacity for most classrooms by over half, and instruction would use NUFlex, a hybrid learning system.

Rooms were equipped with cameras, microphones, and speakers, so the students learning remotely could interact with the students and instructor in the room. New staff was hired, and faculty recreated whole courses for the new delivery method.

Over the fall of 2020 and spring of 2021, students and faculty adjusted to NUFlex. Survey data was collected, anecdotes were discussed, future plans started to take shape, and here we are now facing a return to “normal.”

PHOTOS BY JAMAL THORNE

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Here is what we learned: • Hybrid learning is nearly impossible for faculty to deliver alone. Handling a video call, students in the classroom, online chat, and recording lectures while attempting to teach can simply be too much all at once.

• Students want flexibility in offerings. Be it modes that include some asynchronous and synchronous sections, or being able to choose when it is best for them to come to campus.

• For some activities and topics, the current configuration of NUFlex fell short for students. Many courses, particularly in the Art + Design department, are not built on a model of lectures and exams, and the students would have a better pedagogical experience with changes to the NUFlex technology.

It is that last point that has been and will be my focus for the next year. With my faculty colleague, Jamal Thorne, we have developed course pilots to bring better technology to hybrid learning. Specifically, we are using Extended Reality (XR). XR includes the umbrella terms for a family of immersive media technologies including virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. Virtual reality (VR) is when a person is immersed in either a digitally created world or a 360° view of a realworld location. Most commonly, VR is experienced using a headset. Augmented Reality (AR) is when a person is immersed in a realtime video of their surroundings that is overlaid with digital elements. Mixed Reality (MR) is when a person is immersed in a view of the real would with projected digital elements.

Jamal and I have identified courses where XR technologies could make the biggest impact, and within them we created pilots tied to course content and outcomes. Some of our pilot ideas are as follows:

NUFlex Expert View ARTF 1122 Color and Composition requires hands-on demonstrations of techniques that maximize student learning and student understanding of the creative process.

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As the professor performs these demonstrations, they would be outfitted with a camera or an AR headset that would record from a first-person perspective. Additionally, examples of application and best practices can be displayed, and using Microsoft Guides software a tutorial will be created. The recorded experience would be made available for students to view through an AR activated smartphone or tablet application.

An example technique in this course is cross-hatching for the creation of light and shadow. The instructor will show the pencil position and angles required through their own eyes wearing the headset. They can then also overlay information to the students and create an interactive presentation for them to navigate on their own time or to watch again when needed. Currently students can watch from their seat in the studio or over the shoulder of the instructor, some while trying to scribble down notes.

NUFlex 360 view Maker Studio Training can involve using a 360° camera to record the training on equipment in the Maker Studio along with an expert view. Students can then use a VR or AR headset to view the material in an immersive and customized way. This initial prototype could be expanded to include first-person recordings or a Microsoft Guides tutorial that would serve as precursors for students who need safety training in the Maker Studio.

The College of Arts, Media and Design has a Maker Space that students can access if they are actively taking a course that requires the space and they have completed training on the equipment, specifically the wood shop. Under non-pandemic conditions, it is difficult to schedule all the trainings and make sure that students complete it in time to use the space for their course work. The training includes the use of tools like a drill press, band saw, sander, brad gun, clamps, jigsaw, and chop saw. By creating an immersive training that students can watch or interact with in their own time or when they need a refresher, it will

Screenshots from the Hololens show a student's perspective while using the device.

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increase safety and reduce space congestion during the early weeks of the semester.

Immersive Critique Students in ARTF 1120 Observational Drawing can use an AR headset during a critique of their work. By using the Remote Assist software, the instructor and classmates can comment and discuss in real time while seeing the piece. Another possible configuration is that the instructor wears the headset and the creator of the work uses the software to discuss the critique. Once the critique video has been captured, a social video app can be used to add asynchronous feedback and discussion.

In Observational Drawing students learn to develop a drawing practice. A key component to this is learning how to critique the work of others and how to receive feedback about their own work. In the current NUFlex environment this means taking a lot of pictures of the work and sending them to be critiqued by others on a screen. Instruction with a class-wide camera on the faculty member at the front of the room is not conducive for learning, so a better solution is that the student can view from the view of the instructor.

consider the impact they can have. There are still issues with XR, cost and access are two of the largest, but also accessibility. We need to make sure that while we try to improve the experience in the classroom we are doing so for all students.

Hopefully COVID is waning in the US and institutions of higher education will ease the restrictions required to keep everyone on campus safe. However, the knowledge and tools of the past year should be harnessed with these new technologies to create a more flexible, customized, pedagogically superior learning environment. •

Real-time Visual Learning Multiple courses in Art + Design teach students about perception and how to see objects, be it for drawing, sculpture, photography, or design. Mixed Reality technology will allow a student to see changes in the world around them in real-time. We will pilot this idea in Observational Drawing by having students wear an MR headset that can change the subject to grayscale, blur it, dynamically change the lighting on it, or see it as a silhouette. The instructor can use these different ways of seeing for comparison, to help the students make choices, and more.

Conclusion This work will begin in Art + Design, but there are courses in so many disciplines that would benefit from these technologies and should 53

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SOCIAL IMPACT

Why Do We Need Community ?

How to design more powerful learning experiences

By Josh Kery, Learning and Engagement Contractor at Design Museum Everywhere and Mimi Shalf, Designer at Scratch Foundation High schools, research labs, and tech companies all define community differently. Who gets included in this definition often determines who gives input in the design of educational experiences. To what degree designers in education listen to their community of users and peers can change learners’ engagement and empowerment.

experiences, and can lead to more informed, powerful, and inclusive learning environments. In this article, we will explore what it means to create a community through design and education by exploring a few instances where community and education have played off of each other to create a rich and full learning experience.

Focusing on the end product in education may disconnect your practice from pedagogy.

Consider gamification, which has promised a fun way for educators and designers to engage and motivate learners. The trend popularized design elements like points, badges, and leaderboards before there was research evidence indicating whether or not they improved learning outcomes.

As common as gamified elements are in classrooms and in education technology (EdTech) today, education research is still unclear about which elements are impactful to student learning. This ambiguity, among others, should lead educators and designers to look more closely at how they choose and use learning theories and design patterns like those used to gamify classrooms.

Educators and designers might first consider who they are involving in their design process and how they are involving them. The community of users and designers is a powerful medium for crafting engaging educational

Background Design-Based Research (DBR) could be a valuable touchpoint for those looking to rethink their designs’ connections to pedagogy and how to engage in the community of educational research that runs parallel to classroom education. It’s a methodology for conducting research in education, used by labs like the Embodied Design Research Laboratory at UC Berkeley. In DBR, designers iteratively create a design and test its impact on learners. These tests serve to evaluate and complexify the designers’ assumptions about how the design affects learners.

Dor Abrahamson, Director of the Embodied Design Research Laboratory, writes that the DBR process produces: • a design artifact, with documentation of its starting context; • new or changed learning theories that researchers use to explain their observations;

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• and guidelines for other designers to create similar artifacts (also called a design framework or design heuristics) which “cohere," according to Dor, with the above learning theories and design artifact.

These three results act as vehicles to pass information to the greater research community, so that others can separately consider the different aspects of a study, build off of its findings, and discover something new.

Bridging Research and Design Practice While this describes how designer-researchers tap into their community of users and peers, it might seem distant from how designers in schools and companies can do the same.

We have come up with a pair of questions to prompt people to engage their own communities of peers and users in their design practice.

• How is knowledge shared in your community?

• How do you involve your community in the design process?

We will look at these questions through the lens of the community design center Cambridge D-Lab and the EdTech industry as practical examples of community engagement in design for education, with a focus on the lab’s signature participatory design structure.

Engaging Community in Other Design Practices Cambridge Design Lab is a participatory design lab where students, families, educators, and school leaders can learn about design and work on self-identified challenges. Design coach and educator Angie UyHam founded the D-Lab in 2016 and continues to run it today with Khari Milner, Co-Director at the Cambridge Agenda for Children.

The D-Lab seeks to add design as another tool for its participants to utilize. Before identifying a challenge they’d like to design for, participants work together in groups to define a “design framework” for their project. Each group uses three images to represent the goals and qualities that will guide them during the process. We will be using the D-Lab as a model to help us think through our guiding questions.

Badges like these are a common reward for learners on EdTech platforms.

Khan Academy, for example, awards them to students as they complete course content. The online learning platform emerged at the same time that gamification was becoming more popular in education research.

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ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARY WOJNAR

A Comparison of Design-Based Research to the Stanford d.school’s Design Thinking process, which is popular among those designing for education.

How is knowledge shared in your community?

At the D-Lab, projects are documented in the form of storytelling and videos. Groups craft the story of their process to share with the community and save for later reference.

Some projects have even gone on to be published or picked up by local university labs.

Furthermore, some members who have finished their project will rejoin new cohorts and bring their knowledge of past projects with them. These exchanges have helped the D-Lab create an ecosystem of knowledge similar to that of a university research community. In both contexts, groups share results and build off of each other’s findings.

How do you involve your community in the design process?

The most remarkable thing about the Cambridge D-Lab is their use of participatory design, where students and teachers design the ideas that they will use themselves. In this way, the designers and target users belong to the same community. Projects become deeply embedded in the environment where the designers are working, and the designers may be more wary of theories and design heuristics that might push archaic assumptions onto their work.

To elaborate more on the D-Lab’s participatory design process, we met with Elijah Lee Robinson, Sharon Lozada, and Jeff Goldenson, who are a part of an ongoing D-Lab group, Down with Design.

Case Study: Down with Design gathers timely feedback and empowers its designers to make change “What’s special about this project is it’s led by students,” Elijah told us. Elijah is a designer in Down with Design and was a sophomore at Cambridge Public Schools at the time this

Empathy Researchers make observations while working in the field and designing.

Through their prior work, they continuously set aside assumptions and revise their understanding of the learning environment.

Define Researchers analyze their observations using prior research. They synthesize this analysis and form an empirical research question.

They also document the existing learning environment as the starting context for their e xperiment.

Ideate Researchers generate the (re-) design idea, inspired in part by design guidelines and learning theories.

Prototype Researchers set up the learning environment for their design experiment.

This includes building the design artifact as well as defining how data will be collected and what roles participants will play in the experiment.

Test Researchers collect observations of the design in the learning environment.

Researchers analyze these observations, evaluating their results against their expectations from prior research and any earlier iterations.

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At the D-Lab, images were used to represent the guiding principles of a group’s design work. Pictured: An example of Angie’s design framework: eyes (awareness + learning), head (interpret + brainstorm), and hands (prototype + improve).

article was written. He joins other students, parents, and teachers to work on Down with Design every week. The group is addressing student mental health by organizing a series of outdoor events where students can socialize, play games, and make art and music.

Down with Design is a working example of how the D-Lab engages its target community as designers to solve issues in the school system. With Elijah and his peers working as designers, the group taps directly into their own network to research issues at CPS and collect feedback. The parents and teachers in Down with Design play a supporting role in this process. “I’m always trying to figure out how to make sure we’re not getting in their way,” noted Sharon Lozada, a teacher at CPS and member of the D-Lab. Centering youth is one of the many needs recognized as a barrier to equity among Cambridge teens. In 2019, the district released a report from its Building Equity Bridges project, which highlights how the school system needs to better center youth and educators of color in its schools and distribute decision-making power more equitably among the voices of families. “The main point from the report was feedback—some people were being heard and some weren’t,” noted Sharon.

In response to this, Down with Design is centering the voice of its students. Setting up 58

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARY WOJNAR

a way for students to talk to administrators and board members and be heard is crucial to bringing their vision for change into reality.

As CPS students, the designers in Down with Design have the clearest insights into the key issues for their classmates. With the project, Sharon reported, “Students are creating events that fill the void of what isn’t available to them from the school.” As the coronavirus continues to place a social and emotional burden on students, it was clear to Elijah and his group that they wanted to help their peers take care of their mental health. As a group, Down with Design drafted this question to pursue: “How might we create opportunities with students so they can connect with peers and caring adults, so they feel nurtured and supported?”

The Down with Design group is also best equipped to prototype answers to this question with their peers. Elijah is realistic about how difficult it is to motivate his classmates to attend an outdoor event. Down with Design offered prize money to teens at its first event because, as Elijah said, “We wanted them to gain from it,” and, “We’re playing into how teenagers are.” Similarly, the designers know the best indicators of success in their solution.

Down with Design mediated feedback from attendees at their first event with a collaborative writing board, getting many comments the group said will inspire future events.

Cambridge Public Schools students waited for the start of Down with Design’s first gathering at Starlight Square in March.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ELIJAH LEE-ROBINSON

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The best indicator of success to Down with Design, however, is seeing their community grow. Elijah told us he felt this most when his group organized an extra meeting to recruit more participants. To his surprise, his peers took the time to come in. “It was nice to see that people cared, to see them show up and make an effort together,” he said. Designer and CPS parent Jeff Goldenson sees this as an accomplishment in how students perceive community service. “Our young people have the desire to make change,” he remarked. “We just need to frame it in a way that resonates with them and inspires them to do more and more.” While it’s no surprise that the designers in Down with Design care about the outcomes of their work, the intrinsic motivation to improve the community that the group has inspired is a good note for educators. The ways we can listen to our learners—from participatory design to simple user feedback—might further invest them in their own education.

In the race to make a product that will scale easily to reach the most people possible, the problem of how all of these people can connect with each other is easily overlooked.

Despite Down with Design’s success, the D-Lab is continuously looking for more ways to invite this collaboration and community formation. An idea for a group typically spreads by word of mouth, according to Sharon, and there is a need for more robust institutions that can connect people in the community and jumpstart design groups like this. As Jeff noted, “If there were more ways to give, there would be a lot more people giving.”

Many designers beyond the D-Lab, including those in equity-based design and DBR, are seeing similar benefits to participatory design.

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They recognize the value of involving end users as designers in their community, forming teams with more accurate understandings of the needs of the design’s target audience.

Case Study: EdTech’s focus on scalability has led them away from community Let us take a step back and look at another sector of the growing education community: EdTech. EdTech involves the use of technology such as hardware or software to facilitate learning, and usually refers to companies that build this technology.

To learn a little bit more about EdTech, we talked to Parth Shah and Elizabeth Lin, who both have extensive experience working in the industry. Parth is currently an Experiential Learning Manager at the online technical education program Lambda School, but he previously worked on curriculum at Codecademy and GitHub. Elizabeth is the Founding Designer at the homeschool platform Primer, but she previously worked as a designer at Khan Academy and as a Design Learning Manager at Lambda School. Through their experience and expertise with educational technology, Parth and Elizabeth offered thoughtful and objective opinions on the industry.

For Parth, EdTech’s biggest impact lies in its ability to bring content to the masses.

He pointed to Lambda School as an example: as an entirely remote bootcamp, Lambda School’s students come from all over the world and hold a very diverse array of backgrounds. In addition, EdTech has made educational content more widely available to people.

Learning resources are easily shareable thanks to digital technology, and it is much easier to make curriculum, content, and classes free online. In other words, educational technology has the potential to have a global impact. As a result, for better or for worse, many EdTech companies are obsessed with creating a product that can grow bigger, better, and reach as many people as possible.

Parth and Elizabeth both agree that EdTech’s prioritization of the scalability of a

product may not necessarily be the most beneficial route for the industry or the educational experiences they create. “Good education doesn’t always scale and doesn’t necessarily have to,” noted Elizabeth. EdTech companies struggle with creating space for communities that can scale with their product and user base.

“It’s hard to develop a sense of community with EdTech products,” she mentioned. Parth described community, structure, and mentorship as the three main pillars of good and successful educational experiences. At Lambda School, he focuses on getting the students to get to know each other first, so that they can help each other learn without depending on the instructor. Having a community is a vital part of the experience, because it empowers learners to work together and independently take their education beyond the platform.

“Feeling engaged with each other is really important,” Parth remarked.

The problem with EdTech, Parth pointed out, is that companies invest in the community aspect—arguably the most important aspect—too little and too late. In the race to make a product that will scale easily to reach the most people possible, the problem of how all of these people can connect with each other is easily overlooked. By ignoring communities, companies are withholding a precious resource from their users: the huge and diverse group of people they have managed to reach with their product.

Parth and Elizabeth believe that great educational experiences won’t always scale well, and at the end of the day, may not even need to scale at all. While Cambridge D-Lab works in a different area of education with slightly different goals and resources, it doesn’t hurt to take a few notes from a group where the community is baked into the entire design process. Some EdTech platforms, like Primer, have already started making the move to more inclusive and community-focused design processes. For Elizabeth, participatory design and community are especially important for products like Primer, which are focused on teachers. “Teachers are experts in the classroom

and bringing them into the design process is how you can come up with the best ideas,” she noted, adding, “Personally, I love co-designing sessions with students as well, because they always have wild ideas for how to make education more fun!”

Final Thoughts Maybe it is time to redefine what it means to successfully scale a project or product.

Perhaps impact isn’t necessarily just somebody using a product or platform, but inspiring them to go work on what they are interested in. We’ve seen from Cambridge D-Lab that scalability isn’t necessary to create significant impact; rather, engaging with the community and empowering them to make change can have a deeper and more meaningful influence in people's lives.

The Cambridge D-Lab, design-based research, and educational technology all hold a similar goal: to make education more interesting, accessible, and exciting for everybody.

Communication with the education community has proven to be crucial to achieving this goal. Design-based research neatly packages findings to share with the wider research community, while EdTech uses technology to reach more and more people every day. The D-Lab brings people together into a collaborative learning environment through the power of participatory design. As new innovations in educational design develop, communities will guide the future of education to be a more inclusive and enriching experience for all. •

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EDUCATION

Designing a School from Scratch.

How educators and designers worked together to build Canyon View High School from the ground up

By Phillip Nowlin, Principal at Canyon View High School and Taryn Kinney, Principal at DLR Group Take a moment to envision your high school experience, or the visuals of the quintessential American high school environment that you have seen on television or read about in countless books. What do you see?

Perhaps you see crowds of students packed into bleachers on a Friday evening, clad in their school’s colors and shouting their fight song or cheering on the football players, marching band, and cheerleaders. Or maybe you remember the lights dimming in the auditorium as the curtain rose to reveal the opening scene of the spring musical. On a less thrilling note, you may recall nodding off at your desk while trying to absorb the complex equations scrawled across the whiteboard ahead of your math test. All of these visuals contribute to our unique ideas of high school culture, but how do these environments and traditions come into being in the first place?

Phillip Nowlin, the Principal of Canyon View High School in Waddell, Arizona, and Taryn Kinney, a Principal at global design firm DLR Group, share in this article some of the components that go into not only building a high school from the ground up, but also creating an environment that fosters educational, personal, social, and ultimately pro-

fessional growth for the students that pass through its halls, catalyzing a positive transition into adult life.

Part 1: Meet the Authors Phillip Nowlin, Principal of Canyon View High School, on Finding Innovation in Education I went to high school in a traditional format, and I have taught in a traditional high school.

The impetus behind designing Canyon View was the idea of transitioning from this more rigid educational mindset, and instead working together with designers, students, teachers, administrators, community members, and industry partners to build an innovative academic community. We began our journey by asking key questions: What does the 21st-century high school look like? What did you have in your high school that you liked?

What didn't you have in your high school or educational experience that you wish you would have had?

We decided, in the design of Canyon View, to not allow past conventions to restrict us. There's no ceiling, there are no barriers, just a dream of an improved high school experience, and a determination to figure out how to make that work. I had the unusual opporPHOTO © TOM REICH, COURTESY OF DLR GROUP

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ABOUT CANYON VIEW HIGH SCHOOL Canyon View High School opened in 2018 in Waddell, Arizona.

The 340,000 sq.ft school sits on 55 acres, and has a student population of 1,800. Canyon View’s mission is to prepare students to be college and career ready through STEM-focused authentic academic opportunities, signature career pathways, and a diverse range of co-curricular programs.

Learning experiences focus on a “project” or “problem” based, collaborative learning model with individualized instruction provided in small learning communities.

The CVHS Career Pathway model provides rigorous courses in Agriculture, Coding and Computer Programming, Television and Film production, Graphic Design, Health Sciences, and Marketing. Canyon View offers tailored services to students with special needs and a variety of student programs including but not limited to 18 Freshman, Junior Varsity and Varsity sports, and co-curricular activities such as Student Government, National Honor Society, Black Student Union, and Unified Sports.

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tunity as a school principal to be able to be involved in the design of my school from the beginning. Through a partnership between DLR Group and Agua Fria Union High School District, we were able to tour and study other educational institutions, look at their choices in the design of their schools, and determine if these ideas should be incorporated into Canyon View. Our goal was not only to create a 21st-century school, but also to make the design flexible, so that in 50 to 60 years, it does not become out of date.

The result was a school with spaces that can be reshaped to however teachers want to deliver instruction, or for students, however they want to receive instruction. All of our furniture is on casters for easy movability, we have whiteboard-top tables where you can take markers and write whatever you want there, and we have movable walls that can adjust classroom sizes as needed.

Our six different career pathways each have access to industry-level technology, including a film and TV studio with a green screen, a barn, and a greenhouse. Our walls feature vibrant colors, and we have windows everywhere to let the natural light in. Capitalizing on our location outside of Phoenix, our campus features ample open spaces for outdoor socialization and learning. It's an amazing place to be a part of. I'm blessed to have this opportunity to be the principal of such an innovative school.

Taryn Kinney, Design Principal at DLR Group, on Design and Organizational Psychology I began my career in architecture, and did that for almost 20 years before I went back to school to study organizational psychology (the study of human behavior in the workplace) at Columbia. This decision to study organizational psychology and work it into a career in design came from a lot of frustration. I got into design because of its potential impact on human behavior, and the ability of spatial design to improve the lives of people who interact with the space. However, in my pro-

fessional experience, it didn't always work out that way for a number of reasons.

I specifically love working in education.

There is potential to have fun with the design, to use color, to actually think about the users that are moving into the building, and to try to do what's best for them. However, there are so many limits on educators, such as legislation, safety concerns, and budgetary requirements, that making positive change is hard.

There are so many rules that, to be quite honest, aren't always made in the best interest of the students and teachers.

In the past, I loved working with educators to learn how they really wanted to teach, what they believe is best for kids, and then design spaces to support that. However, the disappointment came after the space was initially occupied, when inhabitants of the space weren't able to reach those goals that they had imagined. Teachers and administrators weren't able to change their daily patterns and routines to really reach that future vision for learning that they had worked through in the design process. There was this misalignment between the design of the space and the learning schools wanted to see, which has other implications and negative outcomes. Getting the degree in organizational psychology was really an effort for me to marry these two things—the goals in the design process and the actual feasible outcomes—and try to get them to work together.

Part 2: At the Forefront of Education Design Taryn on the Evolving Design Process in Education I would say that education design in the past was not necessarily that interesting. Tasks focused mainly on simple logistical issues like designing more classrooms, because more bodies needed to fit in the school. Simple mathematical calculations can be used to design a space that can just hold more people, and oftentimes we would only be allowed to speak to the director of facilities or the maintenance department that keeps up the building, not the people who the facility is really meant to serve. More and more, however, I have been able to work with the teachers, administrators, and even in some cases the students to really integrate the design of the space with their wants and needs.

Additionally, the design of education has changed dramatically in recent years as the technological revolution continues. There's been a huge paradigm shift in how people access information. It used to be that the teacher was the keeper of the information and decided when and how knowledge was delivered. Now, students can access information in all sorts of ways. The questions we as designers and educators need to ask include: What do we really need to teach students? How do

WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY? According to the American Psychological Association, “Industrial/ organizational psychology is the scientific study of human behavior in the workplace. It focuses on assessing individual, group and organizational dynamics and using that research to identify solutions to problems that improve the well-being and performance of an organization and its employees. I/O psychologists look at questions such as: How are decisions made? How effective is communication? How do team members interact and collaborate? Knowing the answers to these questions and many others helps business owners assess where to change systems and dynamics to make their company function better.”

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we need to teach? What are we preparing them for in terms of the skill sets they actually need to have when they leave school and go into the real world? There's a whole new reevaluation of how people can learn best, and how the design of educational spaces can facilitate that.

Most traditional classrooms are based on a passive learning experience—teachers talk at the students, who receive the information and take notes. That type of learning is very well supported in a box-shaped classroom, where there is a front of the classroom where the teacher stands, and the students are in the other area; it's not democratic. What I’ve been challenging in my design projects and what we see with Canyon View is a school design that is transcending this traditional model to foster a more collaborative experience both between students and with the teachers and their students.

It's a pretty intense process to design a school collaboratively. It's a lot of figuring out what the school’s values and priorities are and developing the systems and structures in a way so that when they hire their teachers, those teachers know what they're expected to 66

PHOTO © TOM REICH, COURTESY OF DLR GROUP

do every day. They know what teaching and learning is going to look like at the school.

They know how they're going to be supported.

They know how they're going to be measured.

And, importantly, they also know how the system is going to be reviewed and updated, making them a part of that process as well.

Working With, not For, the Client In designing Canyon View, we really had the somewhat unusual benefit of being able to collaborate directly with Phillip and his team in the design phase of his school. Not all principals get that, especially when there's a new building to be built, because oftentimes, the principal of the new school has not even been hired yet. Key components of our design process together involved trust-building, and making sure the buy-in was there not only for Phillip, but also for the team that he was able to hire as we got closer to the school’s open date. As designers who deal in pushing boundaries, we often see that people resist change, not because of change itself, but because of the unknown. So to avoid the educators feeling like they are jumping into a foreign environment, we help them identify what they want

their product to be. Any organization has a product, and for schools, it's the learners.

It's the skill sets they graduate with or leave the campus with. So we started with the learner profile, which the education team developed, and then we helped them design a space that would allow them to achieve that product.

As designers who deal in pushing boundaries, we often see that people resist change, not because of change itself, but because of the unknown.

From there, we also helped them to develop an educator profile. We asked: If those are the skills you want to build, what does the educator have to do? What skills do they need to have to do that? Conclusions from this analysis helped Canyon View to hire its education team, and to define the expectations for how people are going to behave and what teaching and learning at the school would look like. It's an intense process. For Phillip and his team, many of them had other jobs while they were doing this, and only a couple of them were full time, but they still put a lot of time and energy into this process, which certainly paid off in Canyon View’s end result.

Phillip on Jumping into the World of Design During the creation of Canyon View, I got a crash course in construction, architecture, and design. It helped me grow as an educator.

I found that it's important to understand the language of these industries, in order to effectively articulate the needs of your school. I also found that in my work with DLR Group, my resolve to challenge conventions of traditional education to bring Canyon View to the cutting edge of innovation were not just acknowledged, but affirmed.

The challenges arose when bringing some of these unconventional ideas to my education team; they were surprised by a lot of things that I had talked about implementing with Taryn and her team. For instance, at Canyon View we don't have any bells to signify the end of classes, just one that starts the day and one at the end of the day. Every classroom doesn't have four walls, and we decided to call them learning labs, not classrooms. I spent the better part of my first year as principal convincing our leadership, educators, and parents that the choices we were making would be beneficial to the students, and I know that my collaboration with DLR Group from the get-go helped me to solidify my vision and more clearly articulate that to the rest of the Canyon View community. As a result, I was able to forge a sense of commitment to our mission with my team, so that every educator that works at Canyon View is 100% committed to our vision.

Preparing Students for the Professional World Aside from designing the spaces of the school and structure of the day to more closely mimic collegiate or vocational environments, we also designed the technological components that the school offers to students to help prepare them for professional life. We use Google Workspace, so all of our students have Chromebooks, Gmail, and use Google Calendar to organize their events and assignments. We teach them how to use each component, and what we've noticed through providing these tools is that students take greater ownership of their academic, organizational, and interpersonal practices. They treat the building better and they treat each other better, because they feel like we've given them some trust. Obviously we have to have some parameters, but a significant difference that you see in other schools and not at Canyon View is the amount of distractions to learning throughout the day, in the form of bells, announcements, et cetera. If you come to our building and then you go to a traditional school, you'll 67

notice the distractions. We become so numb to it because it's traditional learning and it’s how we've always done things, but we’re challenging that here.

Part 3: Equity and Education Design Phillip on Equity at Canyon View When we looked at the most important components for a school community, one of our major focuses was diversity on campus. The physical space in the school is of course important, but the mindset of the community is also a key factor that needs to be cultivated. Equitable learning opportunities can look a variety of ways. A lot of times people want to focus solely on race, and it's not always just that. It's ability; it’s accessibility, and so much more. First, we tried to physically create an environment that was welcoming to all, in which all students felt that they could collaborate, try, and experience different things. When all of the classrooms don’t have four walls or feature windowed walls, it literally makes things very transparent.

When you're very transparent, or you have to be very transparent, some of the things that happen behind closed doors can't happen, or if they do, there's a consequence to it. To give an example, for teachers, when they're teaching in a room that is completely enclosed, and maybe no administrator or anybody visits on a semi frequent basis, how that teacher is talking to students, what they're delivering, or the opportunities that students have to participate is not consistently monitored.

Our setup really causes the teachers and the students to be on display. They have to start walking the walk instead of just talking the talk, and that aligns with our DEI initiative here at Canyon View High School.

The E Words: Equity v. Equality Additionally, at Canyon View we are striving to overcome this entrenched mindset in education that in order to create a fair environment, everyone must have access to the exact same tools. That's equality. Oftentimes people

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talk about equality as if that's the only aim in education, but the aim is equity as well. Equity involves students being given access to specified tools that enhance their learning experiences and allow them to perform with their peers, and these tools may look different for each student. We wanted to make sure that we were specific about promoting equity on our campus and determining how we could utilize the spaces to achieve this.

Especially in the time of online learning, we have seen across the board that students don't have the same access to resources or support systems. Some students have been completely alone during their school days, while others have both of their parents pushing them to complete assignments. Some of our students have had to start working during the pandemic because of financial issues in the home. So to combat these inequities both during COVID and in general, we have a grading system that doesn't penalize students for not completing assignments at the exact time that the teacher wants it, and allows students to be retaught and to reassess with their teacher to make sure that the lesson is actually learned. All of us know that with many certifications that we get as adults, if we don't get it the first time we get to test again— aspiring lawyers can retake their bar exam, you get to test for your teacher certification again, and you can do your driver's test again, if you don't pass the first time.

Yet we turn to students and say that the ability to retest doesn’t exist in the real world. We give all that latitude to the adults in our lives, but then we tell our students that they don't get the same.

That's not real life. As a principal, if I were to treat my teachers in the way in which students are traditionally evaluated, they'd be upset. This is because as working professionals, we would say that it is unfair to come into your work space and evaluate you on one day, and if you don't do everything right in that one snapshot, your career will suffer significantly. We try to avoid that idea in our grading at Canyon View. If a student does poorly on a test, we look back at all the work that they've

PHOTOS © DLR GROUP

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done before, and if their work doesn’t match their test performance, we work with that student to determine where the disconnect was.

This helps our teachers to have conversations with the students, in order to help them find ways to support students in succeeding in future evaluations.

Taryn on Designing a Tailored Experience for Canyon View Students A direct topic that we focused on during the design of Canyon View was the individual experience of a student, how that can vary, and how the design of the school can cater to those differences. From the very beginning, there was a lot of study on the individual student’s experience and what that might look like in the years to come. We also strove to speculate and facilitate how relationships would be built both within groups of students, and across different groups of students and educators. There was some really intentional design around how to bring people together and create those spaces for people to commune and build those relationships.

We also worked to develop the cultural expectations and practices of the school, along with the academic expectations and practices.

There were a lot of new ideas introduced at Canyon View that teachers hadn't done before, and they really needed some guidance on how to implement those changes from their previous academic environments. One of the unique features about Canyon View that differs from convention is that teachers do not have their own set classrooms. This is because if teachers have their own classroom, and they can close the door, it's really easy for them not to collaborate and just sit in that room and do their own thing. Making the class spaces communal is an effort to bridge that gap and allow more communication between teachers and students, and teachers with their fellow educators. Additionally, there are different tools available in different spaces, including furniture and technology, so depending on how they're delivering their lessons, teachers can move their class based on that. This design 70

feature really helps Canyon View to stay student-centered.

And that was something that we had to really specifically talk about with Phillip and his leadership team. We discussed what they wanted their school to look like, and then wrote it down and communicated to the teachers the details they would need to know to make that vision a reality. In general, the teachers have been very receptive to our detailed approach, including academic principles that feature project-based learning, which allowed educators to start with one or two projects a semester in the first year, in order to not take on everything all at once, but to work into the ultimate goal of the Canyon View community with the teachers and students over time.

You can read more about Taryn's work on equity in education design here: ricedesignalliance.org/ covid-19-inequity-education

Part 4: Engaging the Community Phillip on Bringing the Community into the Canyon View Space One of our primary community spaces at Canyon View is our White Box and theater space. We call it a “white box” as opposed to the traditional black box theater space because it has tons of windows, bright lights, it's painted white on the ceiling to create a more open feeling, and it has a big hangar door on one wall that opens up to create a semi-outdoor space. The space is really reflective of our campus mantra of having very few closedoff spaces. It also has its own restrooms and concession area, so our community partners can use the space for various activities, while allowing us to section them off from the rest of the school during the day, but still enabling our students to engage with these community activities when appropriate. We have a church

utilizing the space currently, and we've also used it for our STEM Con, which is our full district STEM event.

I sometimes forget until I go to another campus or I talk to other educators, that they don't have this type of multi-use space that you can do anything and everything with. This space really allows us to bring students together like never before.

We had a gallery walk where we took all three of our geometry classes into the space to collaborate and show off their work at the same time.

We're talking about 90 to 100 students doing a project together, utilizing the White Box as their classroom. You can't necessarily do that in a normal school, because you simply don't have the space. For our school dances, we open up the hangar door to allow an indoor-outdoor flow, and we are able to do that for our guest speaker events, athletic banquets, charity fundraisers, and much more. It’s the perfect space to bring the community to the school, and to also bring in the community to see the amazing achievements of our students, and how they may be able to get involved and support the students’ education as a result.

Taryn on the Importance of Community Engagement in Spatial Design In my work in educational design, I have found that community organizations, nonprofits, and businesses can have a huge impact by stepping up and providing support and resources.

The community spaces at Canyon View High School, such as the Accelerator, facilitate these kinds of partnerships. While some businesses and organizations have begun to use spaces on campus like the White Box and theater to host events and engagement opportunities, I think there could be much greater participation from businesses having access to a space like that. Canyon View has hosted local companies for their own strategic planning processes. Opportunities like this allow organizations to get to know Phillip a little better and realize the value of the potential for engaging with the students and creating lasting connections with the Canyon View community. They may also see some students’ work and realize that they can be of support for a project, which would benefit both the businesses and the students. In education, having those spaces that can start to build those relationships and facil-

PHOTO © TOM REICH, COURTESY OF DLR GROUP

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itate that ebb and flow of communication is key. Realistically, educators can't handle all of the needs coming into their doors every day through students. I really feel like this disparity can be filled by forging stronger relationships with surrounding organizations, and the design of Canyon View’s communal spaces allows for them to bridge that gap.

Part 5: The Future of Canyon View Phillip on Canyon View Finding Their New Normal During COVID With our response to COVID, as with essentially every school in the country, I think we're building the plane as we fly it. With our different career pathways, we have been encouraging our teachers to get creative with activities they can give students, using tools that can be found around the home while in a remote-learning model. For example, one of our agricultural classes completed a soil test and a soil lab at home. The students used soil that they acquired themselves and compared their findings over Zoom. Also, with multiple activities we had drive ups, where students could come to the school to pick up little kits with materials that are not as readily accessible. We have been trying to do the best that we can to get simple materials to our students so they can complete these activities at home.

That being said, our school was ahead in adopting a remote learning model in that we had been using Google Classroom from year one, which allowed us to keep our main component for housing our instructional resources consistent. We also encouraged our students to learn how to manage their own day when in-person, so this translated directly to learning from home. For example, we have always urged our students to email their teachers and counselors directly instead of using a parental intermediary, and promoting this sense of autonomy from the start has proven beneficial for students to continue having their voices heard even when learning from home, as our educators are also encouraged to communicate directly 72

with their students, thus maintaining completely open lines of communication.

Taryn on an Evolving, Hybrid, Post-COVID Educational Model Thinking about the Canyon View learning environment post-COVID, the versatility of the spaces, including movable walls and furniture, is paramount, because this allows those spaces to accommodate whatever is needed in terms of teaching and learning. Of course, there are some components of education that are much harder to do virtually, including labs, experiments, and hands-on activities, that will benefit from being able to return to the physical space. However, there are other educational components that are relatively easy to complete virtually, so there may be a time when students are coming to school only at certain parts of the day or when certain classes call for it.

In the future, I think that the individual learning style of the student may also come into play in determining the learning location of the student. It may be that some students come to campus all the time because that's how they learn best, and other students maybe only come partially, because that works the best for what they need. The flexibility of Canyon View’s physical environment itself allows Phillip, his teachers, and his students to start to adjust those spaces based on the needs for that day or even more long term.

Also, there was some really intentional work that happened with Canyon View’s leadership group, which was then communicated to teachers and students, around building the growth mindset. One of the facets of this mindset is risk taking, and there was specific language that was put into the expectations and practices around taking risks. We promoted the idea of celebrating the wins through learning from failure, and Phillip has maintained an open-door policy with his faculty, staff, and students that will only benefit the school in the imminent transition to postCOVID learning. This has really set up a culture of sharing, transparency, and dealing with

problems head on. But it’s also important to note that while Phillip’s leadership team was organized and empowered from the start, they have not been afraid in the years following Canyon View’s opening to go back, review, and determine what is working and what needs to be adjusted. It is that constant re-evaluation that will allow Phillip’s team at Canyon View to continue to promote a culture of constant improvement and evolution in their learning environment for years to come.

Phillip on Cultivating the Canyon View Tradition One of the challenges that we have every year is continuing, when we bring on new teachers or administrators, to go over expectations, and ensure that the expectations are continuing and supported. The absolute last thing that I want is for people to return to Canyon View years from now and to think that it was a beautiful campus in years one and two, but now it's year seven and it's changed. If we, in 20 years, want to continue to be at the forefront of education, we've got to continue to have transparent conversations and not be afraid to do something a little bit out of the box. To keep up that spirit of constant evolution, every year we ask our teachers what's going well at Canyon View, what's not going well, and then we determine how to get from good to great. We also look at schools across the nation each year through U.S. News reports, et cetera, to see what people are doing differently from us, and if we should make changes to implement these differences into our school.

Our building allows us to constantly evolve because of components like our movable walls and curtains, but the mindset of the people working in the building is what brings it to life.

Of course we may not be able to implement all of the changes we want to see in the immediate future, but we can get there, because we’ve collectively made the decision to get there. The challenge that I see in this mindset when I do talk to representatives from other schools is the idea that, “We've always done it this way.

So we can't do it a new way because our com-

munity won't respond.” But if you are able to show your community success, you're able to walk them through the why, and you're able to do it in small increments and then continue to grow upon it, I think your community is going to say, “Why haven't we been doing this the whole time?”

Most parents just want their kids to be happy, and they want their kids to get an educational experience that they're excited about.

If schools can provide that opportunity, then their community is going to support them, but educators have to be willing. Somebody at some point in time has to be willing to step out on a leap of faith and say, “We're going to do this.” You can put together a strategic plan to figure out how to do it, and it doesn't mean that it's all going to happen on day one, but it can happen eventually. However, if you continue to put excuses in the way, then you're never going to get there. I tell people all the time, take a chance. At Canyon View, we implement little alterations constantly that spark significant change. Educators can change the landscape of what they’re doing and get their schools to their ideal future, it's just going to take time. •

To hear more about Canyon View from Phillip and Taryn, check out their interview on our podcast, Design is Everywhere:

Episode 042 How Design Transformed a School http://dme.link/podcast-42 73

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