Explore and create: Exploratory Creation lab 
Preregistration Required
Participants will gain an understanding of equity key-terms and to identify how inequity affects the culture and operations of their school communities. Utilizing a design-thinking process, participants will collaborate to share a creative solution to the problem they have identified.
Participants will utilize a modified design-thinking process called Solve in Time, in order to develop and share their first "big idea" for solving an equity problem on the policy-level in their school environment. Solve in Time is a 5 step process that is facilitated by 4 question and answer cards, 1 creative solution prompt card, and a group help card called, SOS.
Participants will be expected to work in small groups and input their responses digitally on an interactive slide deck. Lastly, they will submit their creatively solution within the given time using a digital platform.
Since this is a gamified/challenge-based workshop, success will be measured by working through the steps and submitting a solution and receiving direct feedback from other participants.
Participants will gain an understanding of equity key-terms and to identify how inequity affects the culture and operations of their school communities. Utilizing an adapted design-thinking process, participants will collaborate to share a creative solution to the problem they have identified.
Participants will utilize a modified design-thinking process called Solve in Time, in order to develop and share their first "big idea" for solving an equity problem on the policy-level in their school environment. Solve in Time is a 5 step process that is facilitated by 4 question and answer cards, 1 creative solution prompt card, and a group help card called, SOS.
Participants will be expected to work in small groups and input their responses digitally on a Pear Deck interactive slide deck. Lastly, they will submit their creatively solution within the given time using Flipgrid.
Since this is a gamified/challenge-based workshop, success will be measured by working through the steps and submitting a solution and receiving direct feedback from other participants.
Pre-activity:
Each participant familiarizes themselves with the six key terms and are given the resources to answer the following questions: When was race created? Why was race created? How was race created? Afterwards, small groups are formed for collaborative activity:
1. Each team is given one card of each color and places them faced down and in order:
Racial Inequity Problem > Research > Understand > Solve > Share
*SOS is an optional help card that can be only be used once by each team at any point in the process. This card serves as a reminder to players to collaborate and use all resources at their disposal before asking for help. If assistance is still needed from the facilitator, the group can use their SOS card.
2. A timer is set for teams to come up with a creative solution to the problem.
As teams move at their own pace, the facilitator can float to each group listening for collaboration and critical thinking and interject with questions if the team seems like they are giving low-level responses, are stuck, or all voices are not being heard.
3. Next, teams create actionable solutions that can be tested in their school settings. These solutions are creatively shared as written products, drawings, video, or audio recordings, in order to make them memorable.
Time concludes with a whole group debrief of activity and solutions offered by each team.
Zaretta Hammond links neuroscience research and culturally responsive teaching and learning for students of color.
Hammond, Zaretta, and Yvette Jackson. Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. Corwin, a SAGE Company, 2015.
Empathy and Learning:
"It is literally neurobiologically impossible to think deeply about things that you don’t care about."- Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-YangLahey, J. (2016, May 4). To Help Students Learn, Engage the Emotions. Retrieved September 17, 2019, from Well website: https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/to-help-students-learn-engage-the-emotions/
Creativity and Learning:
A recent survey by Change the Equation asked students how they feel about different classes. Computer science came in near the top, just behind graphic arts and performing arts, but ahead of English, math, history, science, and foreign languages!
Allen School News » Search Results » change the equation. (2016). Retrieved September 17, 2019, from Washington.edu website: https://news.cs.washington.edu/?s=change+the+equation
Creativity and Memory
Fernandes, M. A. (2018). The Surprisingly Powerful Influence of Drawing on Memory - Myra A. Fernandes, Jeffrey D. Wammes, Melissa E. Meade, 2018. Retrieved September 17, 2019, from Current Directions in Psychological Science website: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0963721418755385
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