A 10-week after school program that teaches New York City high schoolers to use design to change their communities. Run by three MFA Interaction Design students - Derek Chan, Carmen Dukes, and Katie Koch - their students are encouraged to “tackle issues that matter to them with the prospect of creating viable solutions. The 1 page Curriculum Overview shows what they cover and, for high school students, what a brilliant heads up to the opportunities available to them in the design field.

It’s really important to introduce kids to the intricacies of investigating and solving the problems in their local communities; as adults they are more likely to attempt proactive solutions when issues arise.

Game Based Teaching: the facet of education that is being talked about and sometimes done on a lesson basis - but it’s great to see someone whose done it as a whole of school foundation. Katie Salen, Game designer and director of the Quest2Learn school in New York, discusses with BigThink about her schools game based pedagogy.

…but also began to work on some of these 21st century skills that people are talking about—collaboration, working in teams, complex problem-solving, systems thinking, being able to kind of design and find resources.

Educational Attainment in the US: A Historical Perspective
Move the slider to see the colour graphs change over time. Would be great to see what the Australian equivalent is. State schools may have changed policy and/or curriculum over time and I wonder if this would be reflected in the results?