Innovation and Design

MANIFEST IDEAS

It starts with curiosity.

Innovation and design thrives at ISD, in many ways and across the curriculum, from Elementary to High School. Our creative classrooms are laboratories for discovery, invention, and resourcefulness.

Inquiry is not only at the core of the IB (International Baccalaureate) method of teaching and learning, it's also integral to the process of innovation and design at our school. Students ask questions to find solutions. Teaching and learning is guided by the ideas — and ideals — of our students. This is design with the purpose of improving an existing idea or coming up with something amazing from the ground up.

In the PYP (Primary Years Programme), students engage in hands-on learning to observe and investigate why things happen the way they do, using a teacher-guided, step-by-step approach. This approach lays the foundation for learning in the MYP (Middle Years Programme) design unit, which prepares students to study Information Technology in a Global Society (ITGS) in the DP (Diploma Programme).

In both the MYP and DP design subjects, students use a combination of practical and creative thinking to build models, prototypes, products, or systems that solve design problems.

Our Design Room is loaded with tools and materials for woodworking, illustration, textile dyeing, sewing, 3D modelling, and more.

Students explore the design cycle, learning to collaborate and communicate as they redesign products, create informational posters, and build robots and resilient model houses and bridges. Working with peers and clients in the community, students identify real-world problems, brainstorm ideas to solve them, create and launch solutions, and then evaluate their effectiveness.