digital Promise
Innovation Portfolios
Search Portfolios

Gurnee School District 56

Supporting creative ideas to improve education constantly

Facebook
Twitter
Visit Website
Share
Overview
Innovation in Action
Team
SNAPSHOT
Transforming learning spaces through design thinking
Redesigning and remodeling schools to center around teacher and student needs in a community design session

When you apply empathy to learning areas and honestly listen to the people who would like to use those areas, miraculous educational change and innovation can occur. To start the transformation of three of our oldest schools, our architects led us through a process called the Transcendent School Visioning workshop. This workshop brought board members, administrators, teachers, students, and community members together to learn about the design thinking process: ideation, definition, prototyping, testing, repetition, and empathy.

A transformed library and computer lab that now incorporated a makerspace, a STEAM Lab, a green screen production studio, a Ted Talk presentation area, a collaboration and gathering space, an outdoor community garden, a focused learning area, and a student-led help desk at Viking Middle School all resulted from one day of working through that process in 2016. In 2017, we went through the same process of revamping our library and computer cab in our K-8 school, RiverTrail School. We will do the same this summer for our preK-2 building in summer 2019. We believe in the power of intentional, flexible spaces to enable innovative teaching and learning opportunities.

SUPPORTING RESOURCES
Design thinking process and video presentation
IDEO presentation we referenced
Design thinking resource we leveraged
RELATED CONTENT
Challenge Map Topics
Assessment
Systems Change
Ⓒ 2019 Digital Promise
Terms of Use