According to Kris Mohlman, St. Andrew’s Science department chair, “There is a realization that we do some cool things in classes and we wanted the broader community aware of what we were doing. The exhibit allows us a great way to highlight the importance of design thinking.”

The projects on display are also excellent examples of using arts integration to deepen learning of material across the curriculum, a practice that is strongly backed by neuro-educational research. St. Andrew’s Visual Arts department chair Lauren Cook, who coordinated the exhibit with the Science department, states that the exhibit is “a testament to the studio based thinking that students learn in art classes and which is reinforced in science courses as well as those taught by other departments.”

For Mohlman, the inherent value of design thinking projects is that they “teach students resiliency, creative problem solving, and team work.” As he noted, “Despite the challenging nature of the work, students react positively to it. Even our best students are challenged by the projects. What’s amazing to me is that they even find joy when asked to go deeper in their thinking.”

Dr. Ian Kelleher, a member of the Science department and its former chair, has led his colleagues through the process of thinking deeply about the merits of innovation and design across the curriculum. He is clear in stating that the skills students will need to be successful in the future are not exactly the same as those that their teachers and their parents needed.

In a future that is likely to be “volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous,” Kelleher believes that the St. Andrew’s graduate is going to need to be capable of devising “creative solutions to problems that lie at the boundaries of traditional disciplines.”

In light of such, Kelleher is continually asking himself “How do we best prepare our students for future success?” In his opinion, “We want to build grit, teamwork and problem solving skills. We want to build agility. A St. Andrew’s graduate should be prepared to fail spectacularly, face this failure, reflect and learn from it, then come back strongly with a revised idea; grit is important.”

With Innovation and Design Thinking, it is Kelleher’s belief that “Such trendy emphasis on STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) in school curriculums can be freed from its traditional home to encompass art, humanities and service learning. It helps us produce scientists with empathy, scholars with a passion for art, and artists inspired by the chance to address global concerns.”

In conjunction with its innovative design work, the Science department will be hosting the Mid-Atlantic Episcopal Schools Association Design competition on April 25th for grades 4 through 8.

The work on display in this year’s “Science by Design” exhibit include the following:

Pre-Kindergarten – “Cardboard Guitar Project” – Introducing the idea of “Think, Make, and Improve” to their students, Lower School science teacher Laura Hoffman and Lower School music instructor Jason Kline had them make their own cardboard guitars with rubber bands to better understand the concepts of vibration and sound.

5th grade Science – “Bridge project” – Mohlman had students first research a famous bridge, use their knowledge of bridge design and forces to build a cardboard bridge and then a wooden replica of their researched bridge, and then test it to see how well it withstood the pressures of added weight.

6th grade science – “Soil Profile project” – students initially researched the composition of soil and the differences of soil in different locations. Mohlman then tasked them with researching a state soil and then create a representation of the soil type using common materials such as cardboard cotton balls, spices, and tinfoil.

4th, 5th, and 6th grade Flight School - “Hot Air Balloon” project – Kurt Sinclair and Gary Wyatt - The balloon design was the first project dealing with flight followed by paper airplanes, wood glider planes, rocket propelled planes, and rockets. The emphasis was on building and flying each one. With the balloons there was discussion about the properties of warm air and cooler air masses.

7th grade Life Science - “Artificial Limb” project – Kim O’Shaugnessy’s students were asked to create an artificial limb that had to satisfy several mechanical requirements. The design project started with students thinking about their ideas spatially on paper followed by their designing artificial limbs that could actually move.

8th grade Physical Science - “Element research” project – Chuck James’s students learned how to create digital posters as a way to express what they learned about a particular element of the periodic table. Design in the service of communication is an important aspect of design. Font size, layout, graphics, headings and arrangement of content turned this science assignment into a true application of design.

In addition, using a starting template that is standard, students designed solar powered race cars for speed. Students explored and applied ideas about mass, friction, and shape and increased solar panel efficiency in the cars they imagined and built.

9th grade Biology – “Wanted Poster” project –Phyllis Robinson and Kim O’Shaugnessey’s students were asked to research a particular organism – mammals, mollusks, invertebrates, etc. – and then get to know the organism’s habitat and behavior of choice. Students then created a “Wanted” poster about their particular organism.

11th and 12th grade Environmental Science – “Biomes Poster” project – Ian Kelleher’s students researched a particular type of environment in the natural world i.e. tundra vs. savannah – and then researched a biome and created a poster to accurately present info they learned.

12th grade AP Biology - “Skin” project – Phyllis Robinson’s students looked at different ways skin colors in humans is genetically controlled. Students were asked to create posters that developed a summary of an argument for evolution by natural selection for baseline skin color.