#MustRead Shares (weekly)

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The Cardboard Challenge @K4MVPSchool #MVPSchool

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mvcitybox

Today, Lower School students at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School participated in the Cardboard Challenge, inspired by Caine’s Arcade.

People from 41 countries took part – more than 78,900 participants. Only two organizations in the state of Georgia (U.S.A.) flexed their scissors, spread their tape, and exercised their design muscles for the Cardboard Challenge. Thanks to collaboration among the faculty at Mount Vernon, and thanks to the creative confidence of our students, the Mustangs were in that number!

Mary Cantwell (@scitechyedu) set up a time-elapse camera to record the coordinated, staged efforts of five grade levels working in 45-minute shifts. So, we should be able to see the action from start to finish before too long.

Here’s the message Mary sent to invite the architects and engineers:

The DEETS:

Challenge: Students will be challenged to imagine and create the metropolises of the world! (decided we needed more than just ATL)

Time: 45 min blocks of building/play time; Sign Up Here [link removed] if you want to participate

Do B4 Arriving: Partner/Trio groups – have them research famous/interesting buildings/structures from around the world, plan out what they want to build, sketch it (with boxes in mind), and arrive on the CityBox party with a Plan of Action

AND/OR The HR selects a city together – plans out what they will build to represent different aspects of the city.

AND/OR The HR decides to create and build a fictional city/town and plans out all they want and need in this city (could be connected to a novel study, a story being studied, a SS moment in history)

Show Up. Respect what has already been created. Stake out your space. Get your boxes, imagine, create, play.

Mary Cantwell

People, Needs, Empathy

Center for Design Thinking

What an amazing sight to see the buildings take shape and form! At carpool this afternoon, I asked my typical question to a bunch of the students: What was the most incredible thing you did and learned today?

Usually I get a myriad of responses. Today, though, they ALL talked about their buildings – the Coliseum, Hancock Building, Notre Dame, Hippodrome, and the Taj Mahal, just to name a few. Zach even explained to me how he built the Burj Khalifa – the tallest skyscraper in the world!

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#MustRead Shares (weekly)

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Designing with, not just for, the public (good)

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The basics are not subjects. They’re purposes.

Sir Ken Robinson, #colab13, 9/22/2013

And design — user-centered design — enables impact on our purposes. What’s more, in school, design (“design thinking”) can serve as a trunkline that integrates various arteries, connects the capillaries of disciplines and amplifies our capacities to get somewhere with action.

Especially when we view the public, not as hindrances or headaches, but as part of our design team. [Hat tip to @bigwags, Mike Wagner, for pointing me to George Aye’s TEDxDesMoines Talk.]

GET INVOLVED as a #SolutionSeeker @colabsummit #colab13

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Screen Shot 2013-09-22 at 8.14.12 AM

A day-and-a-half summit, where today’s executives and tomorrow’s leaders from our business, education and civic communities connect, communicate and collaborate on issues vital to a thriving Atlanta region.

And YOU CAN GET INVOLVED! [The following is from a @colabsummit email blast.]

For this inaugural summit, we’re launching a social innovation experiment through our LABS, to capture the ideas, dreams and hopes of what we want the future of greater Atlanta to be. And we’re asking for your help.

We need your vision, your dreams, and your ideas (lots of them) on how to solve six challenges directly related to our three main themes at (co)lab: Attracting & Retaining Talent, Cultivating Innovation and Transforming Education.

To get us started, dozens of local thought leaders, content experts and storytellers have spent weeks framing these six challenges, writing compelling briefs and creating powerful videos that will make you laugh and cry.

Here’s how you can help.

At this moment, you have immediate access to IdeaString, a digital collaborative ideation platform where together we can solve six core challenges facing the Atlanta region. We encourage you to learn about these challenges, login to IdeaString, and contribute your best ideas.

The top ideas posted onto IdeaString will be presented at (co)lab during the closing keynote, following Thomas Friedman. And all ideas will be collected into a final report that will be sent to all (co)lab partners, attendees and change agents across the greater Atlanta region.

Our goal is to catalyze great thinking and bold solutions that none of us working independently could achieve. So get in there, add your brilliant ideas and help us transform our greatest challenges into exciting opportunities. Together, we can dream and build a truly greater Atlanta region.

To access IdeaString: [as a non-attendee, AND as a powerful solution seeker!]

We invite you to share IdeaString with friends, peers, co-workers and other passionate citizens. If they are not registered for (co)lab, have them fill out this quick form to be added to IdeaString: IdeaString registration

CHALLENGES

  1. How might we design our communities to attract and retain the creative class?
  2. How might we better celebrate and amplify our arts and cultural assets?
  3. How might we foster partnerships among business, universities and governments to spark innovation and entrepreneurship?
  4. How might we make our cities and our region smarter, more efficient, more connected and more collaborative through technology?
  5. How might we raise Metro Atlanta’s current High School graduation rate to 90%
  6. How might communities rally around our students to help develop the next generation of leaders?