INTEGRATION OF DESIGN

Experiential learning has long been a key institutional focus at Chadwick. Traditionally rich learning-by-doing opportunities have lived outside the school day, the Department of Technology Making & Design is focused on growing the vision of experiential learning directly connected to the day-to-day curriculum.

For the past few decades the personal computer has created new opportunities to learn-by-doing inside the constraints of the physical classroom. For example students have long been able to film a movie, program an animation, and publish their own book using a PC. Drawing from recent developments in:

1. low cost digital fabrication (e.g. 3D-Printing/laser cutting)
2. design thinking
3. physical computing (e.g. Adrunio/wearable computing)
4. and powerful yet kid friendly Computer aided Design (CAD) software

We now have a perfect storm of new creative possibilities for learning-by-doing. Overall we believe these powerful new tools available to teachers/students can be transformative in how we approach the day-to-day curriculum and grow our vision of experiential learning.