Action Collabs for Kids
ISKME’s Action Collabs are dynamic workshops that use the design-thinking framework to innovate new ideas with actionable next steps.
About You
About You
First Name
Samantha
Last Name
Wayne
Twitter URL
Facebook URL
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME)
Organization Website
Organization Country
United States, CA, Half Moon Bay, San Mateo County
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States
Is your organization a
Non‐profit / NGO / Citizen sector organization
Your role in Education
Other.
The type of school(s) your solution is affiliated with
Other
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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Innovation
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)
How long has your solution been in operation?
Operating for 1‐5 years
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
Today’s world is filled with complex challenges that beg for new, innovative solutions. To arrive at innovative solutions, we must also broaden the field of problem-solvers. Children have the ability to see the world with fresh eyes and possibilities, but lack structured processes to design viable new ideas that could result in real change. There is a critical need to empower students and teachers to open up the possibilities of reaching solutions together-- solutions aimed at effecting positive change, both in the immediate classroom and in the world outside.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
Action Collabs are dynamic workshops that use a design-thinking framework to innovate new ideas with actionable next steps. Action Collabs for Kids tap into children’s natural curiosity, empathy, and non-filtered idea generation and provide a structured process that combines design-thinking, improv exercises, and expert facilitation, to build students’ capacities as changemakers. Each Action Collab for Kids starts with a Design Challenge that roots the work and leads students through a four-step process that includes Identify Opportunity (gathering research insights from target audiences), Design (brainstorming solutions), Prototype (modeling ways solutions could work), and Scale and Spread (determining next steps for idea actualization). Integral to Action Collab are improv exercises that stimulate creativity and empathy, teach active listening and collaborative construction of solutions from idea generation to action plan.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
ISKME is dedicated to supporting the generation and sharing of new ideas that better our world. Our Action Collab model is an educational framework that results in both tangible solutions to challenges as well as teaches new methods for collaboration, idea generation, and openness that transfer outside of the Action Collab experience. The Action Collab framework has been successful in United States schools, corporations, and foundation as well as internationally in many European Commission consortia. Since 2009, we have designed and facilitated over 50 Action Collabs and reached over 1,000 people, including teachers, policymakers, grant officers, students, and administrators. Also over the past three years, ISKME has offered design labs in community settings such as Maker Faire, and engaged students in prototyping solutions to large-scale Design Challenges, such as building the “school of the future” and “combining their passions” into new devices. The results have been impressive, including a caterpillar toy that teaches math and an ice skate with a pencil in the tip for homework. We’ve proven that Action Collabs stimulate interest, collaboration, and empathy as participants consider issues that affect others and design innovative solutions to meet their needs. It is with this Action Collab model that we aim to deepen our work with children and collaborative design in our development of Action Collabs for Kids.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
Because ISKME is a leader in the field of education innovation, there are no comparable organizations with our background in education bringing this type of service to schools and students. More than simply a design-thinking workshop, the Action Collab is thoughtfully created to integrate improv exercises that model trust and collaboration with uniquely customized Design Challenges that serve specific student and classroom interests in real-world problem-solving. Our interest is to propagate the model and train the trainer to grow proficiency in collaborative problem-solving worldwide.
Now that you have thought out your entry, help us pitch it.
Define your company, program, service, or product in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
Action Collabs for Kids empower students to drive real change by strengthening collaboration & designing real-world innovative solutions
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
Action Collabs for Kids puts students behind the wheel and cheers as they drive, creating outside the box innovations that take off.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
To date, we’ve facilitated our Design Labs with several thousand students over the last three years, principally at Maker Faire events in CA, NY, and MI, and in schools, in partnership with local districts in CA, using sustainable design and citizen science concepts. We've seen early promise from students as they prototype solutions to Design Challenges and recorded their work via video and wiki documentation. Our Action Collab model for adults continues to expand from ISKME's Big Ideas Fest, now in its fourth year, to reach groups across the US and the European Union. Although high school students participate in our Big Ideas Fest Action Collabs, we have yet to offer an official Action Collab for Kids.
What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?
ISKME plans to bring Action Collabs for Kids to school district partners, primarily in the Bay Area, CA, during the next 1-3 years. We expect to work with approximately 250 students, 20 teachers and administrators, and 10 community-based organizations and business and design partners, per year, during years 1-3. In years two and three, in addition, we plan to train up to 10 teachers interested to become proficient in Action Collab facilitation. We gather evidence of impact and share out our results with broader community.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
To grow impact, we will promote and offer 2 Action Collabs in two school districts, gather evidence, and report the outcomes.
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone
Task 1
Hone our Action Collab model for students and classroom-based Design Challenges, especially at the middle school level
Task 2
Offer two Action Collab for Kids with school district partners in CA for middle school students
Task 3
Participant surveys gathered and data presented for promoting next phase of offerings
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Reach another 200 students in-person, and promote outcomes, including videos, designs, and curriculum online worldwide.
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone
Task 1
Offer 5-7 Action Collabs for Kids with school district partners
Task 2
Train 2-3 educators to be Action Collabs for Kid facilitators
Task 3
Publish documentation, leveraging ISKME's OERCommons.org platform for open teaching and learning content, and youtube.
Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world [125 words]
Our “Aha!” moment is plural rather than singular. We have been customizing and facilitating Action Collabs for over three years and each gathering provides numerous “Aha!”(s). We watch participants walk away with an entire new way of communicating just with the simple modeling of “Yes, and” that we weave throughout Action Collabs. We hear feedback after events, where students tell us that how confused and frustrated they were with parts of the process but they now understand the reasoning behind each part and believe that each stage contributed to the final, innovative outcome. We watch participants’ eyes light up when a teammate reminds them that “You can’t be wrong!” The Action Collab framework has proven to bond teams together in collaboration and encourage strong, unique solutions to otherwise exhausted challenges. Imagine what can be accomplished in the hands of children!
Sustainability
Tell us about your partnerships
Our Action Collab for Kids partnerships will include a variety of stakeholders such as schools, districts, after school programs, teachers, and science and art organizations. We have established partnerships, for example, with San Francisco Unified School District, San Mateo County Office of Education, the Academy of Sciences, Maker Faire, the De Young Museum, the Tech Museum, and many individual schools and teachers across the US, and internationally. Our OER Commons initiative in open education has over 400 content providers and over 20,000 registered members.
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section? [75 words]
Our field-building department consists of three full-time staff, and several contractors. We work with over 15 Action Collab facilitators and train additional facilitators each year. We train teachers as part of our teacher professional development program, and convene events on education transformation, principally the Big Ideas Fest. Through these field-building efforts, we are able to continually identify motivated volunteers among highly qualified educators and reformers.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
ISKME is a leader in open education and offers its OERCommons.org infrastructure to teachers and learners worldwide.
 | 59 weeks ago Samantha Wayne updated this Competition Entry. |
| 59 weeks ago Samantha Wayne updated this Competition Entry. |
| 59 weeks ago Samantha Wayne updated this Competition Entry. |
| 59 weeks ago Samantha Wayne updated this Competition Entry. |
| 59 weeks ago Samantha Wayne updated this Competition Entry. |
| 60 weeks ago Samantha Wayne updated this Competition Entry. |
| 60 weeks ago Samantha Wayne submitted this idea. |
