86 students + 24 coaches + 2 hours = many solutions!
The Upper School hosted a Design Challenge this morning where students from classes across disciplines and grades came together to grapple with the following questions:
- How might we adapt our lifestyle to climate change?
- How might we re-imagine food in a time of climate change?
Students were encouraged to incorporate content from their courses into their solutions, with the focus being on proof of concepts and solutions rather than finished products. They worked in groups of 3 or 4 with one “coach” – either a teacher, a R+D team member, Director of US Kader Adjout, Director of the Hiatt Center Liz Latour, or one of 10 seniors from the BVRx elective Open Challenges.
The challenge concluded with a gallery walk where teams presented about their ideas, which included:
- A process to make the desalination of water more accessible
- Biodegradable makeup remover wipes
- A meatless alternative to government-funded meals
- A VR model of a city entirely fueled by solar energy
The goal of this challenge was to encourage students to wrestle with an open-ended problem, find its challenges, and come up with their own solutions. This challenge is just one example of how Beaver inspires and encourages students to design with a purpose and to rethink their place in the world through intentional and layered programing that occurs in and out of the classroom.
– Liz Latour, Director of the Hiatt Center