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Faculty to Attend World-Renowned Design Institute

Student curriculum evolving across all divisions and disciplines through the incorporation of design thinking.
The Nueva School Design Institute in San Mateo, California houses a world-renowned Innovation Lab (I-Lab)  that was created in partnership with IDEO and Stanford University’s d.school. The institute has pioneered the teaching of design thinking to students across the globe, and eight of our faculty members will have the opportunity to attend workshops at the Nueva School this summer, thanks in part to a generous Ranney family gift.

In 2015, four of our academic leaders (Assistant Head of School Patricia Marshall, Upper School Head Katie Gibson, Lower School Head Dr. Andrea Danial and Science Department Chair Tom Allen, pictured) participated in a week-long training at the institute and we are thrilled to send an additional eight faculty members in the summer of 2016. Faculty to attend include: Middle School Head Matt Hall, Upper School English Teacher Leslie Patient, Middle School Art Teacher Madeleine McCarthy, Lower School (4th Grade) Teacher Jeri Robinson, Computer Science Teacher/Robotics Advisor Chiara Shah, Upper School Visual Arts Teacher Pam Shipley, Lower School Science Teacher Judy Salisbury and Middle School Science Teacher Lauri Rozzo. The Upper School faculty attendance is supported by a generous Ranney family gift.
 
The Nueva School workshops focus on design thinking, or out-of-the-box problem solving, and give teachers the tools and expertise they need to empower students to think creatively, part of Ranney’s new strategic mission. Faculty members will bring this training into their classrooms, across all divisions and disciplines, and provide students with skills and methods that complement and animate our curriculum.

In addition, through our growing Innovation Lab spaces, students will have the opportunity to put design thinking into action by collaborating, inventing, iterating and constructing projects. Already, they are using circuits to study electricity, 3-D printers to program and generate sculptures, and simple plywood and tools to build canoes and broadcasting platforms from scratch. Our students are also using traditional arts and crafts materials, such as cardboard and pipe cleaners, to reshape the way they think and imagine. Lower School classes, for instance, used these materials to design and construct classroom “furniture.”
 
This creative and analytic approach to experiential learning is enabling our students not only to generate ideas but also to design solutions for real-world problems. They are gaining skills in collaborative, as well as independent, prototyping, testing and building. By training our faculty in design thinking, our curriculum is—and will continue to—evolve into a perfect balance between classical education and cutting-edge practice.
 
 
View a video about Ranney School’s Innovation Lab plans

Learn more about our Groundbreaking Programs in Design Thinking and Innovation at www.ranneyschool.org/innovation
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Ranney School

235 Hope Road
Tinton Falls, NJ 07724
Tel. 732.542.4777
Our mission is to know and value every child, nurturing intellectual curiosity and confidence, and inspiring students to lead honorably, think creatively, and contribute meaningfully to society. 

We envision Ranney School as a nurturing learning community, in which families, faculty, alumni, and all of Ranney’s constituents collaborate to know and value every child, foster individual talents, sustain powerful connections between children and adults, and graduate resilient, globally-minded citizens.