Robert Gilson

Design is Life

Whether designing a tool or a toy, a place or a space, or even a conversation about conversations, the elements that make us human bring our creations to life. We honor our visions and our innovations when we recognize and respect our connections and our humanity. Tools, spaces, and conversations work best with the DNA of shared experience woven into the blueprints of our designs.

How do we enhance school environments to bring that awareness and agency forward in our youngest leaders?
How do we include students in the ever-expanding inquiry of "What if...?" in the places and spaces of their educations?
How do we amplify all the voices of a community in alignment with its collective vision?
How do we ...?

As Peter Block says, The answer to 'How?' is Yes.
~Rob

Innovation is a process. It flows. It ebbs. It reads a room. It pivots. It pirouettes. It embraces what is as it pursues what should be. Existing resources, re-imagined, often bring forward the most innovative solutions.

Rethinking "what is" takes courage, a willingness to challenge the norms. Leaning into the immediate stakeholders to co-create solutions facilitates the journey, inspired by compassion, fueled by justice, sustained by community.

Be The Clamp

Innovation and Improvisation are close cousins. Disciplined Improvisation is that cool cousin you want to hang out with as much as possible. When inspiration arrives, everything is a possible resource. Hand-sawing a 4'x4' sheet of plywood without suitable clamps? Find something heavy enough to hold it still, cut it, and celebrate with a dance, simultaneously! (Old Skool STEAM)

Innovative classrooms recognize that children listen differently to their peers than to their teachers. They enjoy communal learning, and appreciate the opportunity to share their expanding knowledge and expertise. In early adolescence, studies show, children prefer the company of their peers, and even tune out the adults in the room. Why fight biology? Support children in teaching each other. It's OK if it doesn't look like what we're used to. Maybe it's not supposed to.

Innovative assessments seek more than just answers, and often introduce new questions. How is the process going? Who's applying themselves? Who's not? Why? What would they rather be talking about? Where is the bridge from what they want to talk about to what you want to talk about? How do we build that bridge?
Hint: an actual 2x4 is a great start (ask me about the dominoes.)

It's part of the process. The flow. The ebb. The assessment. The pivot. The pirouette.
To paraphrase John Lennon, learning is what happens when you're busy making other lesson plans. Just imagine...

What else does innovation look like?

Invited to participate in the Waterfront Alliance Cardboard Kayak Race, we jumped at the chance. With no experience in building cardboard kayaks. None. At all.

When we stepped onto the construction zone, we quickly realized we were the only middle school team in the competition. Stuyvesant High School's engineering club was there. No other schools. None. At all.

Other teams included design firms and engineering firms from across the city. Oh, and the Coast Guard fielded a team. No problem, kids. None. At all.

We decided to play to our strengths, crafting a vessel that was smaller, but sturdy. The only materials allowed were cardboard, shipping tape, and scissors. And our imaginations.

We kept our noses up, literally, as we launched, avoiding the waves crashing into shore, scrambling aboard, and taking off into the East River. Yes, the East River.

Our vessel proved seaworthy for two consecutive heats. Our rowers remained undaunted by the competition. And ... we took 3rd place!

Fun Fact Flap Flip

Behind every good game there's a story. And behind every good digital game there's a bunch of wires.

In 8th grade we set out to make a game that had both.

Around the Design Cycle we go!!

To begin with, our Fun Fact Flap Flips needed fun facts, and who better to inspire us than our Primary pals in grades 2-4, deep into learning about all kinds of things, from immigration to animals, from biomes to biology. We interviewed our young friends to find out what they were excited about, and then brought that inspiration into the Spark Lab, to design and build an interactive game that challenged players to find out the facts, and then flip the flap to find out more!

Using copper tape, LEDs, batteries, and by melting tin with a soldering iron at 700° F, we created circuits that lit up green for correct answers, and red if players needed to try again. We had to make sure the game interface was clear and easy to understand, so we solicited and integrated feedback on the playability of our games. And we had to make sure the game worked, and that it could sustain eager fingers pushing buttons repeatedly as they lit up their responses.

In the end, we learned more than we imagined: about melting metal, about polarities of electricity, about sloths and rainforests, about famous tennis players and international dodgeball day. But the most fun fact of all was the thrill of playing the finished games with our Primary pals at the end of the unit.

We all flipped for that!

video credit: Kent Shinnick 👊🏼

Spaces that Stimulate

Our environments are stronger than we are.

At Blue School I curated three distinct STEAM Lab / Makerspaces, two of which I helped design and open from the ground up.

A good space invites creativity. It gently pulls learning from curious minds, and vigorously propels it forward when the sparks catch. It encourages questions like "What does that thing do??" And it allows prototyping in all its marvelous messiness and modest mayhem as joy and learning dance arm in arm towards ... well ... wherever they may lead!

Moments that motivate

When life gives you lemons...

Fall of 2020. A year of lemons.

The school year was kicking off. We were asked to record 20-second introductions for our students, welcoming them back to school, sharing our excitement about what we would be exploring together. My STEAM class would be exploring microcontrollers among other things, so I thought I'd have one join me in saying something cool ... And then it got stage fright.

Experiences that exfoliate

Another pandemic pivot.

We needed a project for students to do at home during quarantine. One that evoked patience, persistence, and pride. One that provided a low floor and a high ceiling. One that smelled good. One that could launch a cottage industry to help pay for toilet paper. One that required quality time, could help tick away the moments that make up a dull day, and merited a quality soundtrack. One that could help us carve a new groove into a new era. Carve-A Diem!

Environments that elevate

Nature reveals genius, a genius that sees the parts of the whole and the whole in its parts. It teaches us how to adapt, and pivot, and heal. Biomimicry shows us what's possible when we partner with the greatest forces of nature, and nature itself, to tackle the challenges before us.

Biomimicry blows minds, opens hearts, and nourishes souls, and adds the perspective and collective experience that launches curious minds into the worlds of engineering, biology, design, and innovation itself.

Tutorials that Tutelate

Because knowing
is half the battle...

...and some
tinkering around

If you don't have a clamp, be the clamp

In other words,

let's talk about innovation in education.
Let's talk about mindsets that set minds free.
Let's talk about disciplined improvisation.
Let's talk about kids teaching kids.
Let's talk about Blue School, or your school, or unschooling, or the wide world beyond schools.
If retooling schooling gets you drooling, let's talk about innovation in education.

Cultivating creativity, adaptability, and resilience

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