Topics

Though the DesignShop's overall theme this year is STEM Education, we've taken strategic cuts to frame our challenges into the 3 Design Focuses below. In the application, participants will rank these in order of which they wish to innovate in.

TOPIC 1

Curriculum Re-Design for STE(A)M - Integrating Arts into STEM Education

Curriculum for all levels, in formal and informal learning environments, and spanning all learning methodologies. Participants in this Design Focus will attempt the humble challenge of deciphering re-vamps to the curriculum, all the while considering some of the biggest challenges present:

  • How do we integrate the arts back into education? What new overlaps can we make between these fields?

  • What does the STEAM curriculum of the future look like?

  • What tools, projects, and resources can be made to facilitate this marriage?

  • How might students work with accreditation officials to customize their curriculums?

  • How might proper evaluation criteria emerge for interdisciplinary learning?
TOPIC 2

Motivational Structures In & Out of the Classroom

Participants in this Design Focus will spend their weekend redesigning the manifestations of raw inspiration throughout our education system. The kinds of questions that'll be motivating them include:

  • What does the 2020 classroom look like?

  • Flipped classrooms, MOOCs, Maker spaces, what's next?

  • How can a hands-on curriculum be emulated in low-resource schools?

  • STE(A)M fields as degrees lacking graduate work: should we address this in the curriculum?

  • How can we make learning more appealing to a generation of increasingly busier students?

  • What will happen to the changing landscape of technical vocations and comprehensive educations?

  • Formal and informal learning: How can the two augment each other?
TOPIC 3

Resources and Support Structures for Retention & Diversity

The fallout of extremist learning populations, the melding of inner and outer curricular support programs, and bridges from societal structures. Participants in this Design Focus will attempt to tackle complex problems, including:
  • How can we increase low-income students in the higher education pipeline?

  • How do we attract more students to STEM fields?

  • How do we make parents a positive pillar of support?

  • Can perception and social dynamics for women be improved?

  • How might the Maker Movement be leveraged for resources to students?

  • Are there Alternative Learning plans that can be adapted for wider audiences?

Site Illustration, Design and Development by Annie Tang