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Mission Design and Automation allowed us to tour their manufacturing facility to learn more about how they utilize design thinking in their every day work. They also explained how critical social connections are in their business in order to effectively communicate between all of the individuals who work on each project.

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Students created posters based on the handful of solutions that they narrowed down. After creating these posters, students used dots to vote on their favorite idea.

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The students at the CTC were extremely helpful with giving feedback to our students and asking great follow up questions.

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Lunch Lounge Renew: The current tables in the lunch room are not conclusive to creating social connection. The rectangular shape of the tables block students off from each other and are unable to accommodate for different size friend groups. By adding more variation in the tables, students will feel more comfortable in the lunch room and will have an easier time creating new social connections while strengthening old connections

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After some initial investigation, students were asked to come up with as many ideas as possible, the more creative and crazier, the better!

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After the 100 ideas protocol, students took their top eight ideas and drew pictures that represented their ideas.

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Students had an incredible time at the kickoff event learning all about various careers and organizations!

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In order to prepare for their final presentation, the students met in front of the school board to present their final ideas.

The school board was excited to hear about the students ideas. They seemed to be genuinely interested in implementing new seating arrangements in the lunch room as well as new additions to the Laker Lounge.

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While learning more about the Driving Question, I found students struggling with truly understanding it. In order to help them understand the problem, students wrote down solutions to the Anti-Problem. The Anti-Problem would be what the school could do to NOT promote social connections, well-being, or a sense of belonging.

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The students were able to witness Mission's work in action while watching a welder at work (behind a safety screen of course!).

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I wish I had done more Checking In protocols during this process. I tried checking in with students informally, but I believe by using more protocols, I would have been able to gain a better understanding of where students were at with their work.

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In order to gain a better understanding of what their peers wanted for the Laker Lounge and the Lunch Room, students interviewed students during lunch.

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How might we improve social connections within our school to support wellbeing and a sense of belonging?

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Our partner, GHSP, was unable to connect with us.

Thankfully, Mission Design and Automation met with us and gave us a tour of their facility. They discussed how social connections are integral to the success of their designs.

Above you can see students touring their manufacturing facility and watching welding in action.

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"It was challenging, but fun!" - Talen

"It was very fun and it was a great chance for me to learn and row as an individual and as a teammate." -Aydan

"I made so many friends during these past few weeks!" -Carson

"We all like the idea of renovating the Laker Lounge." - Talen

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One of my favorite opening protocols is to do Hopes, Fears, Norms. It allows me to be open with my students about my own expectations for the program while also hearing from the students on their expectations.

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Next year I am hoping to take students on more field trips to help give them a better understanding of the driving question. I have found that conversations with professionals and tours with business allow students to better connect with the driving question.

I was so impressed with how helpful the students from the Careerline Tech Center were. Their questions, comments, and feedback were insightful for my students.

This was a great group of students to work with. They showed up to get to work every single day. These students spent hours researching and preparing for their final presentation.

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Laker Lounge Redesign: The Spring Lake Middle School has a space for students that is currently unused and unwelcoming. The 7th grade students worked together to create a more welcoming and friendly space for students to utilize.