BUILDING THE CURIOSITY LAB @Breakwater

A SPACE: A physical space that features innovation, technology and entrepreneurship learning activities, tools and experiences for youth. More than a maker space, more than a computer lab, the Curiosity Lab will encourage learners of all ages to wonder, explore, deconstruct and invent.

A MINDSET: More than the space, the Curiosity Lab is philosophy that fosters and promotes a curiosity mindset. Our learners are encouraged to be inquisitors, researchers, builders, tinkerers, scientists, artists, engineers, re-imaginers and myth busters, not just in the Lab, but outside of school and across their lifetimes.

The flagship Curiosity Lab will be at Breakwater, in the heart of the school, supporting an evolved and amplified tinkering program for our entire toddler - 8th grade student body. It will provide rich streams of experiences, questioning and novelty, fostering “conversations with phenomena” via art, tinkering, making, and other opportunities to interact with the Lab’s library of tools, materials, technologies and interactive components.

Here learners are encouraged to ask how does it work, why does it work that way and how could it work. The ultimate goals are to not only spark curiosity, but scaffold it so that learners are guided into deeper exploration and mastery, and to help learners not only develop key readiness skills such as STEM, grit, resilience and self-confidence, but also a broader curiosity mindset that prepares them to be active contributors, creators and entrepreneurs.

The current schedule is to build out the basic structure of the Curiosity Lab at Breakwater and launch before the start of the 2017/2018 school year! Curriculum development, planning and design are well underway.

Visit curiosity.life for more info and pics from last summer's Pop Up Lab in downtown Portland.

THE “BREAKWATER WAY” OF LIBRARIES

What is a "Learning Commons"? or rather, what are learning commons?

Prompted by the impact changes to Breakwater's physical space will have on our existing library, we had this amazing idea for reimagining the way we facilitate a reading culture at Breakwater. Breakwater’s pedagogical approach is all about integration, authentication and collaboration. To match our model, students require library spaces that are more than repositories, but are welcoming areas that encourage exploration, creation, and collaboration between students, teachers, and a broader community. A vision began to come together about what this might look like... 

And guess what? It's already a thing! More than a thing. A movement. It's called building "library commons" and it's showing up in conversations about school library redesigns all over.

What could library commons look like at Breakwater?

By developing spaces that allow children to make discoveries, put technology to imaginative use, learn, perform, and relax, as well as to read, we establish an even more exceptional culture of literacy and scholarship across our entire school.

The primary purpose of Breakwater’s library redesign is to think creatively and intentionally about what a forward-looking library should be, how it should function, and what scholarly and social learning goals it might serve. We will definitely continue to have a more conventional, dedicated library room, and supplement with areas and activities that heighten and facilitate reading at the school.

Our vision for Breakwater’s new Library apparatus can offer:

• Integration of the library throughout our campus with multiple hubs of activity for learning, teaching, and creation inside and outside of the classroom.
• A beautiful dedicated library space downstairs with progressive design details that facilitate visual and auditory connections for our youngest friends and meaningful browsing experiences for our older students.
• Flexible learning spaces that allow students to gather in collaborative groups, or study independently.
• Inspiring reading areas throughout our buildings that are fun, comfortable and invite children to engage creatively with the act of reading.
• Access to information through digital technology with curricular support for digital scholarship and ethics-building.
• Active leveraging of the Portland Public Library system providing both students and teachers access to over 300,000 books, audiobooks, musical recordings, movies, and digital resources as well as library services and cultural and community resources.