Page 17 - Priorities #47 2010-June/July

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design -thinking process is “building to think.” Other aspects involve identifying and working within strictconstraints. Forasecondsemesterseniorwithsixotherclasses,theconstraintsoftimeandaccess to experts is considerable.
Senior Dominic Becker ’10 applied his remarkable design and computer science skills to the task
of creating a social media application to monitor and share one’s energy usage with his/her friends
on Facebook. He called the project “Social Power.” Dominic’s research led him to the Persuasive
Technologies Lab at Stanford University, but ultimately to his own bedroom, where he logged countless
hours creating his application. By the way, it works! project design.
While some schools have adopted a senior project as a culminating event for graduates, one is hard- pressed to find a model that so seamlessly fits within the mission of a school, as does Priory’s.
Senior Project draws directly upon the school’s mission and learning goals. It is the mission of the schooltohelpdeveloplife-longlearnerswhowillproductivelyserveaworldinneedoftheirgifts. While Priory’s “graduate outcomes” statement identifies three key competencies for our students: effective communication, appreciation of the world’s interdependence, and creative problem solving.
At the end of school year, seniors are required to present their projects to a school-wide audience. Theyareaskedtopresenttheirprojectin10minutes,withfiveminutesforquestions. Further,seniors are expected to describe their learning goals in what is called a “20 second story.” Here is Dominic’s:
“Social Power is about providing a way for people to reduce their energy usage. The approach, though, isn’t the traditional “You have to do this or the polar bears will die!” Social Power capitalizes on the ever-growing space of social media. The idea is that people will want to reduce their consumption because it’s not only the right thing to do, but also the ‘cool’ thing to do.“
Itiscommontohearthatthefuturebelongstotheinnovators. Nowmorethanever,youngpeople will have to jump the line with their own ideas and solutions to problems, or insights into under-explored opportunities. Priorykidsarekeenlyawareofthemyriadproblemsthattheworldfaces. Theyarealso familiar with the notion that they will likely be doing jobs that do not yet exist.
Graduating students who will willingly serve a world in need of their gifts is the school’s “great work.” Showing students how to be better problem seekers and solvers is the great work of the senior project.
We do social/emotional closure for our students better than anyone.
A student’s academic closure should be as impressive.
Brian Schlaak Academic Dean
Faculty with Stanford’s Design School help students understand the fundamentals of