Week 1–2
Making the Futures of K-12 Education Tangible
The first week Carnegie Mellon University School of Design master’s students John Baldridge, Yueru Deng, Yuchuan Shan, and Xuehui Zhang were introduced to the Graduate Design Studio II course project. The course topic is k-12 education futures and we will be working with Fiona Hovenden, Ph.D., Founder of Prospect Studios. We were tasked to explore the design brief titled “Making the Futures of K-12 Education Tangible” in partnership with Prospect Studios.
Prospect Studios works with schools to help them create a 10–15-year vision of the future. Fiona asked us to, “Think about the kindergartener you know and what would you like to be different for that student in the future?”
Key insights from the project brief
- Education itself is a key lever for breaking the cycle of poverty.
- Prospect Studio works with a variety of institutions to reimagine and collectively create the future of education.
- One way to help people make the future feel “real, and therefore attainable,” is to give them artifacts that they might use in that possible future.
- What kinds of things might exemplify this change in process in the year 2028.
We were introduced to two public schools; Santa Clara Unified School District and Portland Public Schools.
After reading both reports independently, our team came together to reflect on our own educational experiences and discussed key insights that we found compelling.
“A compassionate critical thinker, able to collaborate and solve problems, and be prepared to lead a more socially just world.” — Portland Public Schools, preferred student outcome
“Resilient, future-ready, lifelong learners who think critically, solve problems collaboratively, and are prepared to thrive in a global society.” — Santa Clara Unified School District, preferred student outcome
Our team came together to work on a preliminary territory map that would help us think through the k-12 education space.
