The fifth floor of the South Building is home to one of Gaynor’s most unique spaces — the SMART Lab. The area brings together science, math, art, and technology to foster a variety of multidisciplinary and multi sensory projects, from video production to 3D printing. Some of the most creative projects at Gaynor have their origins in the SMART Lab.
When Gaynor moved to the pod model last year, the SMART Lab itself was turned into a classroom, and while the physical space was not available to all students, the techniques and strategies of the SMART Lab were still used throughout the school. However, this year, the SMART Lab is back to its old self, and is welcoming students and their ingenuity.
One of the key philosophies of the SMART Lab that has percolated throughout the school is the Design Cycle. At Gaynor, the Design Cycle is incorporated throughout the curriculum for students, and also used by faculty to find creative solutions to problems in their classrooms. The four stages of the Design Cycle are, “investigate, design, create, and evaluate.” One of the strengths of the Design Cycle is that it is an iterative process — one is not expected to move through the process in a particular direction, and it is expected that the process will need to be repeated several times before a solution is reached.
When students are in the evaluation process, they decide if they have reached the result they originally desired. If not, they take their results, return to one of the previous steps, and perhaps start over again. The Design Cycle promotes a design-oriented mindset and flexible thinking and can be applied to art, science, math, reading, and other subjects.
During their study of American History this year, Blue Cluster students in Head Teacher Erica Bentsen’s class were charged with making fun and informative board games that would teach players about what led to the Revolutionary War in a fun and interactive way.
According to Technology Specialist Brian Russ, this project was a perfect example of the Design Cycle in action. “After designing and creating their games, they really had no idea how they would work, until they had a ‘test group’ play the games and provide feedback,” said Mr. Russ. Ms. Bentsen and Mr. Russ made sure to incorporate time for students to play all the other teams’ games and share constructive feedback on what worked and didn’t work.
Mr. Russ said, “What we saw, Ms. Bentsen and I, was that the group who made the game would have these organic ‘ah-ha’ moments seeing their game played in real life, which was a great learning experience for them. Many times, they couldn’t even see the areas of weakness in their game design or instructions until it was actually being played.”
He continued, “Ms. Bentsen had this really great idea that as a way to incorporate the Design Cycle, we would share ‘glows’ and ‘grows’ after playing each other’s games. So, students would say things like ‘the game was really fun, but the one thing I think I would change to make it even better is…’ Then the game designers would share what they would like to do to improve their game in their next version.”
Another Blue Cluster history class mapped Indigenous Tribes across what would become the United States. Students had to draw a very large scale map of the country by hand, and in small groups they researched particular tribes, highlighting elements of their cultures and pinpointing them on the map, which then became a bulletin board display.
The SMART Lab isn’t just for the Intermediate and Upper Division. Orange Cluster students in Science Teacher Lindsey Rappaport’s class became meteorologists as part of a green screen augmented reality project. Ms. Rappaport’s students were learning all about weather and climate, so they headed to the SMART Lab to create their own meteorologist reports on their “dream weather.” Students wrote their own scripts, illustrated their own backgrounds, and then filmed their reports on the green screen. When the projects were completed, they were able to watch their weather reports come to life using an augmented reality app.
Several after school clubs and classes are also making use of the SMART Lab. Students in the after school 3D Design club are working together to build a model city — learning the skill of building their 3D designs from scratch with the software and then 3D printing their scaled down models — combining urban planning, architecture, and team building. Students in the digital/stop animation club are making clay characters, filming scenes, learning about special effects, and even designing their own movie posters.
Mr. Russ is excited about the renewed energy in the SMART Lab, and is looking forward to even more inventive projects this year.