Inside The Innovation Lab at the Betchel Family Education Center

Case Study

Inside The Innovation Lab at the Betchel Family Education Center, Monterey Bay Aquarium

Where Everyone is an Engineer For Environmental Justice Written by Dr. Imène Ghernati

W “We’re helping students ‘make’ their own identities as people who can make change in the world.”

-Katy Scott (Education program Director)

Katy Scott and Athena Barrios on the rooftop.

When I entered the Innovation Lab in the Bechtel Family Center for Ocean Education and Leadership, I knew I was in a creative space for STEAM educators and students. On one wall, a large sign read: “Anything made by humans can be re-made

by YOU.” Near the entry carts, I marveled at the well-organized space, with bins filled with random objects: wooden beads, color-coded and labeled boxes, pipe cleaners, glue guns, and nuts and bolts. The bins are labeled with a rating system designed by interns, showing designers how environmentally sustainable each material is. long the walls, you can find sewing machines as well as 3D printers and a laser cutter. There is a full woodshop in a larger closet, along with salvaged lumber and bins filled with hardware. The walls also displayed cardboard techniques, safety rules, and safety badges mandatory when using the tools in the laboratory. The safety badge system has four levels. In the first level, a person can use the tool under supervision, and in level four, the person can supervise and train others. The entire organization promoted agency and empowerment. It felt like I was in Ali Baba’s cave with so much gold. Here, I wasn’t finding gold but rather something so much better, something that would allow educators to imagine new possibilities. On one of the walls, in full display, lies the Liberatory Design’s Framework—a flower with six petals. And this flower is what drew me to this place.

A

Liberatory Design’s framework modes (1)

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Liberatory Design is the result of a collaboration between Tania Anaissie, David Clifford, Susie Wise, and the National Equity Project (Victor Cary and Tom Malarkey); it’s an approach that modifies Stanford University d.school’s Design Thinking to promote equity in design work. It puts communities and equity for whom projects are being designed at the heart of the creative process. Comprised of a set of mindsets (ways of being) and modes (ways of doing), it is both a flexible process that can be used by teams such as educators and students, and a set of equity leadership habits that can be practiced daily.

I have been using Liberatory Design since I attended a workshop with the National Equity Project; an education reform organization specializing in leadership development and changing culture and conditions to further equity objectives. It has been transformative in my practice of design thinking because it knits together human-centered design thinking with an equity lens and a complexity stance.

For complex challenges like developing an inclusive STEAM classroom where everyone belongs, emergent possibilities must be found through dynamic interactions between diverse students and their networks, which include their educators, school, larger community, and environment. Students and educators are encouraged to co-design the project, which can be any STEAM curricular unit or designed prototype.

Zaretta Hammond (2014) defines learning

partnerships as academic and emotional partnerships that teachers form with students, pillared upon three components: rapport, alliance, and cognitive insight. In this way, students and educators alike are engaging in deeper learning. Through the different modes and mindsets of the framework that crosspollinate, co-designers are able to:

See and understand the history and effects of racial oppression/ injustice

Engage with one another to better understand these challenges

Act together by codesigning and trying potential changes/ actions/ alternatives

The goal of the Liberatory Design framework is to show that everybody is a co-designer– including students in a school– in order to foster community, inclusion, and belonging.

Teachers learn to pause and notice barriers to earning the trust of the population of youths that they serve. By slowing down, designers learn to privilege relationships and build that relational trust mindset.

When I visited David Clifford’s classroom, one of the creators of Liberatory Design, I was surprised to see how easily students would select mindsets (such as empathy, relational trust, or practice self-awareness) within their group and reflect on them while sharing the prototype they created. The students I observed were in eighth grade, and they designed a system that would help them feel less stressed. One solution was the CALM App. When educators and students are close to the problem, the solution feels more authentic and effective. When the students shared solutions to reduce the stress they had been experiencing in eighth grade, you could feel that they were engaged because it was a lived experience. They had ideas to help their parents stop hoovering on them. Schools have failed to understand that very often, in order to engage students in deeper learning, you have to choose a topic that matters to the students so that they can relate and make connections.

While educators want students to collaborate, we rarely offer opportunities to practice HOW to work together. Liberatory Design teaches just how to work collaboratively.

One way is to root students into the design thinking mindsets. Prior to starting their projects, students are responsible for choosing a mindset as well as how to share accountability with regular check-ins and a team contract. Liberatory Design is used as a bridge to notice biases and injustices rooted in the identity and history within a system.

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To continue to learn how STEAM educators were using Liberatory Design, David pointed me to the extraordinary work down in the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I was primarily interested in learning how Athena Antoinette Barrios, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s STEAM Community Manager, and Katy Scott, the Innovation Lab’s director, integrated Liberatory Design into their educational offerings for teachers and students, as well as the design of the Innovation Lab. It took me a few days to connect with both of them. During our first online meeting, I knew I had found other likeminded educators.

We connected on shared values around equity and diversity in STEAM, laughed, and decided that it would be appropriate for me to meet them at the Innovation Lab in person.

A few weeks later, I drove down the coast on a sunny day to meet Katy and Athena for an interview at the Innovation Lab. For my first visit, I decided to stay for the night at the Asilomar State Park and Conference Center to enjoy the Aquarium and the Bayside.

Top left: Rugged, granodiorite shoreline Asilomar coast. Top right: California Gull, dark gray above with head, tail and underparts white on the rocky shore. Below left: Harbor seal, pale gray and dark spots. Below right: Low tide reveals abundant mussels

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The drive from the Bay Area to The Monterey Bay Aquarium is about two hours. This bayside city has always been my favorite spot. The Monterey Aquarium is a leader in marine preservation and science, and the Asilomar State Beach is a beautiful stretch of golden rocky and sandy beaches that offers many incredible hikes and tidepools and serves as a refuge for wildlife and native plants. The Asilomar State Marine Reserve teems with life, such as abalones, sunburst anemones, mussels, starfish, birds, Harbor seals, and native plants. During the first visit, I interviewed Katy and Athena as well as visited the facility. Later, I came two more times when Katy and Athena led a group of teachers during one of their professional development sessions.

careless with our waste.

During my interviews, I was interested in learning what drew Katy and Athena to the Bechtel Education Center at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and how they integrated Liberatory Design into their programs.

When educators come to Monterey, they can rejoice in the Aquarium and the seaside with everything it offers while learning about environmental conservation and restoration.

Each time I met the team at the Innovation Lab, I felt re-energized and hopeful because of our discussions, my hikes along the preserve shores, or my visits to exhibitions at the Aquarium. I attended the Deep Sea Documentary during my last visit, which starred the ruby jellyfish. I learned that at the depths where the ruby jellyfish lives, the animal is nearly invisible to predators. In the darkness of the deep sea, red animals appear black and blend into the dark background.

The deep sea may seem distant, but deep-sea animals are part of a thriving ecosystem. Our trash and chemicals may harm them if we are

“I wanted to be the boat captain of the field trip. I had that one story of what it looks like, sounds like, should be like, in the field of marine biology.”

Athena grew up in the Monterey Bay Area in Watsonville, the daughter of Mexican parents. After a third-grade field trip to a local wetland, Elkhorn Slough, Athena dreamed of becoming a boat captain. It drove her to attend and graduate from UC Santa Cruz in four years. She wanted to become a marine biologist and be able to study sea animals and ask questions.

Unfortunately, medical reasons prevented her from becoming SCUBA certified, seemingly stopping her dream of becoming a marine researcher, but she found a way to evolve her interests by becoming an outdoor educator on dry land. She taught marine biology, hydrology, and ecology to elementary and middle schoolers. Her deep local connections and willingness to explore marine biology’s dry side kept bringing her back to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Now working in the Innovation Lab, Athena transferred the skills she gained from working in outdoor settings with students of different ages to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where she has been teaching students from various school districts.

Athena became a strong advocate for equity and diversity to create a brave space where everyone feels that they belong at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and in STEAM. She is currently the STEAM Community Manager at the Innovation Lab.

-Athena Barrios (STEAM Community Manager) Native plants green roof at the Innovation Lab. Inside The Innovation Lab at the Betchel Family Education Center, Monterey Bay Aquarium

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Katy Scott, the director of the Innovation Lab, grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana where education was very inequitable. As a journalist reporting on schools in Arizona, she found a passion in being in the classroom.

She then decided to go back to school to obtain a teaching credential in multiple subjects to teach elementary and middle school students. Via a great instructor of hers in a math and science methodology class at her graduate school, Katy finally understood that not only were there many different ways of learning multiplication tables, but she could use logic without the need to memorize them.

She realized how having a good STEAM teacher could make a difference in students’ lives at a young age; this is something she never had. She knew that learning was not

“We want to give students the tools they need to define and solve ocean problems in the future.”

-Katy Scott

confined to the classroom, and she could find different ways to continue inspiring STEAM students. Burnout in education is real, and unless we factor in the fact that teachers need care and rest throughout teaching weeks, we will continue to observe very high turnover due to the unsustainability of the profession.

After moving to the Bay Area, Katy found a job as a Digital Learning Manager where she would work as a tech integration specialist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

“We learned about Liberatory Design at a conference where David Clifford was presenting.

So our program grew with Libertory Design principles, and we designed it with equity at the center. Learning to see the systems and all forms of oppression that are acting upon us was important when developing new programs for teachers and students. Having the freedom and time to think and create has allowed us to develop a space for innovation with equity at the center.”

-Katy Scott

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Through her work helping students connect to the environment using technology, she finally reconnected with her original passion for bringing meaningful and rigorous STEAM education to students. Katy also designed the Innovation Lab and quickly saw an opportunity to create a state-of-the-art Makerspace centered around equity through Liberatory Design. Katy attended multiple professional development sessions on Makerspace and was able to gain inspiration from educators and designers in the field.

Environmental issues are social justice issues, where the climate crisis impacts the most vulnerable. Coastal areas in the Bay Area, have experienced severe flooding since early January 2023. Multiple storms fueled by

atmospheric rivers have pounded California, resulting in devastating flooding that has DECO* training for Teachers Collaborate with colleagues

“It was an opportunity to use

Discover new education program strategies

engineering for the environment and to look at technology

Build in the Bechtel Education Center’s Innovation Lab

as a creation tool versus a consumption tool. Slowly my

Practice Liberatory Design Thinking

different passions started

Go behind the scenes at the Aquarium

colliding: technology, science, maker space, and math. There

Integrate STEAM in their teaching (K-12 teachers)

was an opportunity to help students see themselves as

Engage in equity-centered practices

conservationists of the future.”

Support Next-Generation Science Standards

Katy Scott

wiped out agricultural communities. The heavily impacted farmworker community has had to adjust. Many lost their homes, and many farm workers were out of work, losing out on weeks—or months—of wages. *DECO: Designing for Equity, Community, and the Ocean Educator Institute.

Because the Monterey Bay Aquarium serves coastal communities and is a leader in marine conservation, the Innovation Lab has made it a priority to center its work towards equitable marine education and conservation. Katy is now the Education Programs Director and works closely with Athena in planning, delivering, and training teachers and students in the various programs at the Innovation Lab.

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Katy and Athena wanted equity to be the process, the outcome, and the center of everything they did in the Innovation Lab. They integrated maker education with environmental justice education through an equity-centered lens using the Liberatory Design. Educators who design classroom spaces, innovative programs, or curriculums can infuse equity more intentionally through Liberatory Design. Allowing time for reflection and integration was an important principle (rushing often happens in typical professional development sessions due to time constraints).

When Katy and Athena started envisioning the Innovation Lab, they created new programs such as the Designing for Equity, Community, and the Ocean Educator Institute (DECO) for teachers in partnership with Monterey State. The goal was to prepare teachers from K-12 to design a project they can do in their classrooms, where students use Liberatory Design to design and build a device that will reduce human impact on the environment. With a clear purpose of equity at the center, Katy and Athena developed DECO to ensure that teachers have the tools to teach their students that they belong in a STEAM space where they can learn engineering skills to mpower the community and contribute to the conservation of our planet. Teachers attending the Innovation Lab’s professional development sessions also benefit from a behind-the-scenes visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The Innovation Lab serves multiple audiences –

– teens during summer and afterschool programs, PreK through Grade 12 educators during professional development sessions, and their own Aquarium staff. The Splash Zone Educator Institute, another program principally geared towards K-2, was created to allow students to explore coastal habitats while learning to integrate hands-on science, literacy, and technology applications during a year-long institute. The Innovation Lab offers summer opportunities and yearlong programs for secondary level students and K-12 teachers. It is a busy place for free STEAM education centered on equity, environmental justice, and preservation.

During one of their teen programs, students prototyped marine life props that are still in use. I saw prototypes of abalone, a starfish, and many other animals. I marveled at the models done using the sewing machines and the available recycled materials at the Innovation Lab. The creation of models of marine animals serves an educational purpose because real-life specimens were prone to damage and were hard to study in detail. The prototypes were then sent to the factory as a model to replicate so that they could be used by a larger population who visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Currently, students can use 3D scanners to create an online database of marine-life models that can be replicated using a 3D printer and used in the Innovation Lab as learning tools for a variety of audiences.

We want to give students the tools they need to define and solve ocean problems in the future.

Katy Scott

Starfish prototype

Abalon prototype

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In another program, teens identified an issue in a community–maybe in their home, at their school, or in the larger community–and then asked the people involved, such as the custodian, the communities, the educators, or any other the partners to help define a problem. In the Design for the Ocean program, tech-savy students tackled solutions to environmental problems such as water conservation or energy conservation. Through Liberatory Design, they discovered their potential to fix broken systems at the root of the problems. One of the models students built was a water catcher fountain that collected drops of water. Another group created a fog catcher with the purpose of returning the frogs that were very abundant due to the heavy rain. While conducting empathy interviews with members of their communities, such as the school custodian, students learn to validate everyone’s opinions and to design authentic solutions.

It helped them identify issues that needed to be addressed by unpacking the root causes or the complex causes of a challenge from a community perspective. Through empathic interviews, students learn to gather information in a more human-centered approach. Through the process, students learn skills that could be used to define and solve ocean problems in the future. These ideas of caring for the teachers and creating spaciousness in the Innovation Lab connect to one of Liberatory Design’s mindsets, centering humanity and personal needs.

Recognizing everyone’s needs and then applying them in designing something for everyone to enjoy, and having enough knowledge and understanding about what other people around are experiencing and feeling can be transformative for communities that usually don’t consider themselves designers or engineers, like elementary teachers. I noticed how much Athena and Katy cared for the teachers in one of the

By looking at STEAM holistically, we can realize that only a caring and equitable society will be able to respond to the complex challenges we are facing.

- Katy Scott

“And can we design something where we rejoice in the way that we learn?” -Athena

Barrios

professional development sessions I attended. I felt nourished by their attention and kindness. Teachers received a tote with plenty of useful goodies such as a reusable water bottle, a mug, school supplies, and two essential books (Maker-Centered Learning

by E. Clapp, J. Ross, J. Ryan, and S. Tishman, and The Intersectional Environmentalist by Leah Thomas), the Liberatory Design booklets in English and Spanish. Teachers received a toolbox on the second day of one of the professional development sessions. Teachers were fed nutritious food and had multiple coffee breaks with treats. They were regularly asked about their needs. We all ended the day with a closing circle to end in community and appreciation.

Looking at engineering from different perspectives has helped Athena and Katy feel confident in approaching things that may have been intimidating, such as being an engineer or a maker, to any non-STEAM major, such as elementary teachers. Everyone can be an engineer, a builder, or a creator if offered many ways of looking at the profession. Having the possibility to welcome people in a space where they have never felt welcomed is a mission that Athena and Katy are taking very seriously. The impostor syndrome in the STEAM field is real. As Katy shared, many elementary teachers never received proper STEAM training to empower their students. STEAM subjects are usually not taught in elementary schools that serve lowincome populations, as these subjects require expertise, resources, and time.

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I often hear: “I’m not an engineer” “I’m not a math person” “I’m not a scientist”

Liberatory Design teaches important mindsets focusing on community, empathy, and human values versus achievements, grades, and testing.

When Math is not integrated into STEAM but taught separately, it makes it very challenging for young learners to understand relevance and make connections. In science, geometric principles such as symmetry, reflection, shape, and structure reach down to the atomic levels. From measurements to calculations, math is used in science in most areas. In math class, one of the biggest needs is relevance.

Students want to know how they are going to benefit from being able to do calculations.

Data gathering and analysis are one of the most significant uses of mathematics in STEAM.

These are mindsets that need to be reappropriated by STEAM educators so that learners don’t have to sacrifice some parts of their identity in order for them to feel that they belong in a makerspace. In a place where we can talk about systemic oppression and collaborate in creating possibilities for a better future that is inclusive to everyone, marginalized identities can feel that they belong. Katy and Athena’s work is essential in providing free resources and accessible professional development sessions that allow educators to see themselves as changemakers for their communities and classrooms.

I attended presentations of teachers who completed their yearlong training with DECO. After reflecting on how they have changed since learning about Liberatory Design, teachers shared that they felt isolated prior to attending DECO. In contrast, they felt more connected to the ocean and more knowledgeable about equity after attending the program. One teacher said she learned strategies with DECO and felt more prepared to start a project with her students and the community. One teacher created a Green Team with the help of parents and her school community. She learned that the whole community needed to be on board for the project to be successful. Parents created logos for the clean-up crews of second graders, who created a tool to pick up trash.

When a teacher gives students a real science problem to solve–one that requires math tools–the teacher is giving the students a reason to use math. When working on an engineering design, students use Math, Technology, and Science in context. When volunteering at my son’s elementary school, I would always introduce science activities that included measurements, shapes, and geometry. I would have kindergartners use rulers to measure plants in the garden and recognize mathematical patterns in flowers.

There are many opportunities to name how math is used in STEAM and many different ways to learn math. It is crucial for innovative spaces to help people feel they belong–that their identities belong here.

In a place where we can talk about systemic oppression and collaborate in creating possibilities for a better future that is inclusive to everyone, marginalized identities can feel that they belong.

“That is power in itself to have a place that supports educators and students in talking about systemic oppression and racial injustice in STEAM,” Athena shared.

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In a different session, teachers learned to conduct interviews to understand better what could be improved in the Innovation Lab. Each group had to come up with some suggestions for improvement. The teachers interviewed Katy, Athena, and other members of the Innovation Lab. While conducting interviews, teachers developed understanding and empathy. This process occurred before the ideation and prototyping of ideas for improvements in the Innovation Lab. Seeing the system from multiple perspectives impacted what the teacher/interviewers saw.

Before going into the doing modes, such as prototyping, the Liberatory Design framework forced designers to slow down and look at the system as a whole.

On my second trip to connect with a new DECO cohort, I saw how Katy and Athena introduced the new mindsets progressively.

For example, they started by focusing on human values, embracing complexity, and building trust as the mindsets designers start with. Relationship is the foundational element of a partnership; partnerships can only move at “the speed of trust” (Covey, 2008).

When trust is built, designers can move to practicing self-awareness and recognizing oppression. In one exercise, teachers reflected on how their identity–race, class, gender, or another identifier–positions them in society relative to privilege and oppression.

They used the Wheel of Privilege and Power to reflect on in their journal. This reflection was followed by another prompt to journal about any identity-related patterns or inequities they see in their school system. Journaling and self-reflection were fully integrated throughout the day, empowering teachers to transform their personal experience into a learning experience. One of the reflection questions asked us to reflect on designs (structures, policies, processes, practices) that, over time, have produced these inequities, intentionally or unintentionally. I, too, did the exercise, and I noticed all the times I had to speak up when it didn’t feel safe to do so. While it is essential to share our vulnerability, people from marginalized communities may express different opinions that may cause retaliation from the majority.

Creating trust and feeling safe in an environment is important in co-design so that not only do we avoid reproducing past traumas, but we allow new possibilities by providing space and safety for unheard voices. People from the majority may feel it is easier to voice, while others may feel more vulnerable to share or speak up. Being aware of who speaks is important for educators because, in a classroom, some students do feel unsafe speaking at all, mostly if their

ideas are not from the majority. The Innovation Lab is for making and so much more. It is a place where teachers and students learn and think creatively about human-made problems and challenges and what they can do about these issues in an equitable and empowering way. The Innovation Lab offers free resources and education to help teachers and students grow in their STEAM learning. It is liberating to learn how to look at systemic issues within communities and find ways to build a better future. While it is easy to say that the Innovation Lab is a solution to current problems communities face, in reality, it is a space where teachers and students belong and feel empowered to try things and create possibilities. In a complex world where systemic racism and Europatriarchy have penetrated all aspects of our lives, the Innovation Lab is a caring space that offers empowerment and agency to educators and all learners–so that they can choose an equitable way to address man-made issues, including the new challenges that coastal communities especially are facing.

I hope to see more educators being able to come to DECO or any other programs during the summer break. I can guarantee that they will feel empowered to start meaningful STEAM projects.

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APPENDIX: LIBERATORY DESIGN MINDSETS These Liberatory Design Mindsets can be used to surface particular beliefs, values and stances to ground and focus a design practice. These mindsets are some that have been used during my visits to the Innovation Lab. Work to transform power Transforming power systems catalyze a sense of shared purpose, greater selfdirection, and a general commitment to better work quality. When people share power instead of having it wielded over or against them, they can be more human and authentic. They are also more capable of challenging inequities in their interactions.

Build relational trust Relational trust is the glue in Liberatory Design work. When working across difference on difficult challenges, teams must invest in each other to develop trust, share openly, and collaborate authentically. If we are courageous in identifying and processing emotions with our team, we create opportunities for healing and preven distortion of our work.

Practice self awareness Who we are determines how we design.

Looking in the “mirror” reveals what we see, how we relate, and how our perspectives impact our practice. It requires us to minimize the effects of our biases and maximize our potential for

non-oppressive partnerships. Practicing selfawareness increases our capacity to work with humility, curiosity, and courage.

Seek liberatory collaboration Design work can be fraught with power and identity dynamics that can result in unintended consequences. To fully realize the potential of Liberatory Design, it is critical to reframe the relationship between designers and the communities in which they are working to one of partnership and equity, not patronizing experiences.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1- Anaissie, T., Cary, V., Clifford, D., Malarkey, T. & Wise, S. (2021).

Liberatory Design. http://www.liberatorydesign.com.

2- Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Corwin.

3-Covey, S. M. R. (2008). The Speed of Trust. Simon & Schuster

These are four of 12 Liberatory Design Mindsets. Access the full set at

www.liberatorydesign.com

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