STEM + Innovation Center Heralds Changes, Large and Small

Ria Agarwal, Rory Liu

The upcoming addition of the Valdes STEM + Innovation Center will set in motion a range of changes for both students and faculty, ranging from revamped course o erings to enhanced collaboration among students.

Among the most dramatic changes will be the fundamental reshaping and expansion of what was previously known as the Computer Science Department and robotics program. e new Design and Innovation Department will cover signi topics, department faculty said.

In addition to this, while the Math and Science departments do not expect sweeping modi cations, they will still be signi cant, department leaders said. Most notable will be the new centralized location a Department’s move to the temporary Science Village at the southern end of campus and the enhanced design of classrooms.

According to Director of Design and Innovation Matthew Abbondanzio, the move into a new cutting-edge facility will be a pivotal move for the Greenhill STEM departments and will change the essence of the school as a whole.

Among the biggest changes, the Design and Innovation Department is shi ing its emphasis from “coding” and toward real life applications and impacts while still teaching students programming.

“If we want to have a global, non-local and non-self-focused impact, we need to be thinking about other people,” said Abbondanzio.

e department will be given more physical space, allowing the curriculum to expand to include classes on human technical feasibility and business viability along with the current technology engineering classes.

According to Abbondanzio, human feasibility refers to identifying and solving problems that people may face. ethnographic research, data research and qualitative and qualitative analysis on a larger scale. It attempts to understand why people make decisions, what habits people have and how they get them.

Business viability involves performing work for industry clients and exploring corporate partnerships. Students build robotic and technological solutions for problems but also consider whether their product is self-sustaining and has potential.

For example, the Design inking to Open Entrepreneurship course will delve into developing solutions for potential problems and building functional products. Students will then create business plans and presentations to raise money from venture capitalists.

According to Abbondanzio, the STEM + Innovation Center will increase opportunities for exibility and innovation. e building will include a full machine shop, large electro-mechanical assembly and spaces for automation, robotics and design strategy.

“ e way this is structured is going to provide dedicated space for each of these courses,” said Abbondanzio. “ ere’s going to be more room for folks to spread out and have zones for speci c activities while still having interconnectivity.”

Along with adding new classes, the department will also be removing the Advanced Placement Computer Science

Principles course. e College Board o ers two AP Computer Science classes, Computer Science Principles and Computer Science A. AP Computer Science A is focused on leveraging programming in Java to solve problems while AP Computer Science Principles explores broader aspects of computing.

Abbondanzio said the two classes are not realistic.

“AP Computer Science Principles was designed to be very simple, so it’s a very low-level course,” he said. “ e reason why er AP Computer Science A is that although it is valuable from a complex standpoint, it’s not realistic. e way they teach isn’t how actual programmers

Rather, the department is incorporating an Advanced Computer Science course. It requires some previous computer science knowledge but focuses on working for real companies and developing real solutions.

Abbondanzio says this broader focus will change misconceptions regarding computer science as a narrow eld of in the innovation department will also be expanding. e department is in the process of hiring a User Experience Design member who will be covering a web app development class, a user experience research class and several Middle School classes. A lab manager will also help oversee di erent rooms in the new STEM + Innovation Center and add resources and mentorship.

In addition to the innovation department’s expansion, both Middle and Upper School science and math classes will also undergo transformations.

In the new space, the atmosphere of scienti c discovery will change due to departmental centralization, said Upper School Science Department Chair Treavor Kendall.

“We want science to be welcoming, inclusive, approachable and exciting,”

With the plans including a co ee shop, Kendall said he hopes that the STEM + Innovation Center will encourage people to socialize and have conversations there. e environment that you’re in ects how you learn, so I feel like it’s going to be a positive and fresh environment,” said junior Khadija t of a centralized location and larger space is the schoolwide ability to pursue larger projects.

“Our next agenda is to start thinking about how to get folks involved in more kinds of authentic scienti c experimentation and projects big and small,” ese bene ts are compounded by the in ux of new equipment and tools. ere will also be research spaces in the new building allowing students to start investigative projects from as young as Middle School.

Kendall says this is another way to minimize barriers for those who are interested in challenging themselves and to utilize the expertise of science faculty who have published research in the past.

“Just listening and seeing what’s going to happen in a classroom allows di erent areas to start to collaborate, integrate and come together,” said Kendall.

While the Math Department curriculum will not undergo major changes, students will still reap the bene ts of upgraded materials and larger space. e design of the classrooms o ers increased mobility for furniture and students.

“I think the more active you are in a class, the more likely you are to be engaged,” Upper School Math Department Chair Darryn Sandler said. “I think there’s going to be a lot more opportunities to do that with the design of the new building.”

e new building will also build connections between departments, which was previously di cult due to the layout of Greenhill’s campus.

According to Middle School science teacher Susan Eve, the layout of the Science Village is not ideal, because the rooms are all closed o e new building will have big windows so people walking by can see what is going on in classrooms. e isolation of di erent teachers has made cross-departmental collaboration di cult. e STEM + Innovation Center will allow teachers to work together in a more consolidated area.

“You don’t know all the amazing stu that’s happening in there,” she said.

Kendall says another advantage is that the younger students are able to see what complex research looks like.

Kendall says faculty collaboration is also bene cial for alignment between curriculums. One example is bringing together information from geometry classes with concepts in freshman physics classes.

“When you’re juxtaposed in the same space, the di erent areas are able to collaborate, integrate and come together,” he said. is also allows teachers to communicate e e ectively.

“ e most productive conversations happen around the copier,” said Eve. “Why? Because we’re all there together and able to see what others are doing.”

Sandler says the ultimate plan is to create new cross-departmental courses.

“In reality, science, engineering, innovation and math are all so closely related that there’s no reason to not have opportunities for students to combine those curriculums as opposed to isolating them,” said Sandler.

One idea has been to combine the current Personal Finance course with the new Design inking to Open Entrepreneurship class, since they both have to do with real world applications of math, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Students are also excited at the thought of not having to make the long walk to the

Science Village.

I think the more active you are in a class, the more likely you are to be engaged. I think there’s going to be a lot more opportunities to do that with the design of the new building.” e distance can discourage students from meeting with teachers and attending o ce hours.

“For example, the walk for the sixthgraders is especially far,” Eve said. “And they are already scared to meet with a teacher, so this just makes it even harder.”

Many faculty from other departments have never set foot in the Science Village, Eve said.

“To me, that’s one of the biggest things about the new building. People who are not science, math and innovation people will come into that building and have contact with the cool things happening in those classrooms,” Eve said. e meeting spaces and co ee shop will encourage people to wander in.

“In an ideal world, we’re all just hanging out and talking about science,” Kendall said.

e new building will also act as a way to build community between students, because it will have both Middle and Upper School students in the same Previously, in the Agnich Science Building, seventh- and eighth-graders shared the space with Upper Schoolers, and that came with both advantages and One issue that arose was that the Middle School students could be quite loud and disruptive. However, being in a space with older, more mature students fostered better behavior, Eve said. “ ey’re only with themselves, so they don’t really realize,” Eve said. “But when they get into a group, they’re like ‘whoa, those older kids are so cool, we’re not like that.’”

Overall, the students are able to learn from each other, bene ting both groups.

If the vision is ful lled, the Valdes STEM + Innovation Center will become a new hub for campus connections and interaction, and Kendall and others see that as another valuable bene t. “ e more people we have in this community, the more ‘cross pollination,’” Kendall said. “Not only between faculty, but between students of di erent experiences and di erent levels.”