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Final Workshop at C:/dags

Recently Commonstudio had the pleasure of facilitating a final workshop at our partner school, C:/dags in South LA, which concluded a two year intensive on-site partnership.  Teachers were introduced to a new D3 resource we call the “Reverse Engineering Game.”  The purpose of this game is to build competency with the design process by starting […]

C:/dags Teacher Design Challenge

Last week at C:dags, we had the pleasure of facilitating an exciting design workshop for a group of approximately 20 teachers.  Some were already familiar with the D3 process, and some were learning about it for the first time.  As we know the best way to learn is by doing, we engaged them in a […]

D3’s 5th Lair @PSP

D3 @PSP has made great progress and received great praise for the teens’ work in 2014! Currently we are in the Plan It Out phase of the On The Move project to redesign a TV lounge into the teens’ new work space. The teens have submitted three proposals, including a final proposal, to PSP’s management […]

A Happy New Year in D3@PSP

The New Year brought great fun and excitement to D3 at PSP. We had a party for the teens on New Year’s Eve! We started with a little round of high and lows from 2013 and hopes for 2014, and the energy was high making conversation a little tough, so we stuffed our faces with […]

D3 @PSP Peace Out & Timberwolves!

D3 @PSP was really exciting this week! On Tuesday the teens completed TWO peace posters in one day. A full house split into boys and girls teams to plan and paint, but both show peace as a process – a cycle people must be involved in to make the world a clean, healthy environment. The […]

Back From Break at C:/dags

This week at C:/dags, 9th grade students in Mr. Velazques’s math class continue to learn the basics of HTML coding.  They now know how to manipulate text and images, and are getting accustomed to the language of the web!  We hope to leverage these valuable skills in future D3 projects.  Imagine the possibilities!  

Planning It Out Paused for a Snow Day for D3 @ PSP

Here in Minnesnowta we had a half week of D3 programming. Lots of heavy, wet, perfect snowman building snow (the worst for driving cars!) got dumped on us Tuesday and it’s supposed to keep coming until Thursday morning… On Tuesday the teens worked from a sketch of their Peace Poster and decided to upgrade their […]

New Teens Dreaming of a Peaceful World – D3 @PSP

Some new teenagers from PSP joined D3 this week! We introduced the Peace Poster project themed “Our World, Our Future,” and the progress the teens have made: going through the D3 process to complete the Lion’s Club contest poster, then revisiting the D3 process to step outside the contest constraints and refine the poster. Here […]

Peace From PSP Teen’s Point of View – D3 Style!

With a full group for two days teens at PSP’s D3 program created a Peace Poster for the Lion’s Club International Peace Poster Contest. This year’s theme is “Our World, Our Future,” asking for teenagers to visualize a culture of peace from their perspective. Because of the deadline for the contest we set the teens up […]

Cars, Chemistry, and Coding

Today at C:/dags we stopped into conduct post-project reflections with teachers who just wrapped up D3 projects with their class. Mr. Garcia’s balloon powered car project ended on a high note with a competition that would students’ final designs to the test.  After winners were crowned, a discussion was held to understand the successful aspects […]

C:/Dags Drag & Drop

This week saw the further development of a series of D3 based projects at C:/Dags. The first was a more creative spin on the traditional “balloon powered car” project. Mr. Garcia has been guiding teams of 10th grade students in his physics class through the D3 process as they work with a limited pallet of […]

D3 @PSP: Movin’ On Up into Peace Out!

D3 @ PSP is in high demand – each day the sign up sheet was full! In two days the teens accomplished a lot. On Tuesday they finalized their Movin’ On Up workspace re-design proposal with photos, editing, and a thank you and submitted their work via email to PSP management. They created a professional […]

Three Projects at C:/dags

This week, we supported an exciting triad of teacher-led projects at C:/dags. First we stopped by Mr. Garcias Physics class, where he’s facilitating a balloon-powered-car project with the help of the D3 process.  His students have developed stong problem statements for their designs, and have a limited pallette of materials to use.  They are currently […]

D3 @ PSP: Finalizing A Design Proposal

This week the teens at PSP made a lot of progress using the D3 process to create a design proposal for the 5th floor lounge space to become the teen programming workroom at PSP. Each day kids were lined up on the waiting list to join and parents expressed how their child so looks forward […]

Halloween at C:/dags

In addition to many style points being awarded for clever costumes, this week at C:/dags was marked by the continued development of design projects in Ms. Lamar’s and Mr. Orozco’s geometry classes, as well as collaborative planning sessions with other teachers.  As we observed, documented and assisted design teams with their hallway installations, we were […]

D3 @ PSP: Movin’ On Up & Going to College

Teens eagerly attended D3 @ PSP – both days full with a waiting list. Teens continued their Movin’ On Up redesign project and went on a field trip to be presenters and give critiques to a college graphic design class!      On Wednesday, teens arranged floor plans to adapt the lounge space to a […]

Designing and Doing at C:/dags

Check out Mrs. Lamar’s 9th grade Geometry class doing some more Math-integrated hallway transformation!  We stopped in to offer some feedback on the class’s final designs. As we visited with each team, we were impressed by their grasp on the project as well as their role in the development of the design.  This understanding was […]

D3 @ PSP: Movin’ On Up – Lounge to Workspace Redesign

Continuing the excitement following PBS’ filming of the final phase of The Map of Our Neighborhood D3 @ PSP had full attendance both days this week! We have begun to design a solution for moving our workspace from the Rec. Room back to the family lounge space on PSP’s fifth floor. In digging deeper teens […]

D3 X Geometry

C:/dags students continue to make progress on several math-based D3 projects.  Mr. Orozco’s 10th Grade Geometry class have been working in teams on visual designs that incorporate geometry concepts and school identity.  D3 facilitators stopped in to offer feedback and demonstrate visual principles in preparation for the final versions of their designs which will be […]

D3 @ PSP: Welcome to the Neighborhood!

In the final week of creating a map for guests at PSP the teens let their special interests and talents shine. One young boy took center stage in front of PBS’ cameras to explain the D3 process, the whole map project they had been working on, and the final steps in collaboration with JOYCE ad […]

D3 and Debate

Today at C:/dags, English teacher Mr. Miller stopped in for a planning session.  The goal was to take an existing structure of his debate preparation unit, and make it more legible and engaging to students using the D3 process.  The various activities and benchmarks for the debate process (from identifying a debate topic, to analyzing […]

D3@PSP Welcome Map

Hello everyone! This is Jennifer Cummings writing, a new facilitator for D3 @ PSP. This week was my first week with the teens. I had a great introduction to the D3 process from not only the designers but the kids, too! Continuing the Map project for incoming PSP guests, one young student at my request […]

Forging Into Fall

C:/dags was packed with project planning today as teachers continue to use D3 as a tool to engage students.  More and more of them are confidently incorporating design into their classrooms everyday. D3 facilitators stopped in on Mrs. Owens 9th Grade Algebra class, where teams were presenting their final designs to the class for feedback. […]

D3@PSP hits the streets!

The teens have prototyped for a week straight trying to find the best idea for our lobby space re-vamp. We went through some great and not-so-great ideas like planting an Xbox gaming station in the elevators, decorating the lobby as a spooky haunted house for Halloween and a full scale ceiling mural. We finally landed […]

Flexing D3 Muscle at C:/dags

The flexibility of the D3 process allows it to be used in many ways by educators across various contexts. This rang true today at C:/Dags as teachers continued to use D3 as a powerful planning and facilitation tool in their classrooms.  Mrs. Owens bravely began her next project in her 9th Grade Algebra class.  The […]

C:/dags Projects Underway

This week at C:/dags was jam packed with activity as teachers continue to develop, as well as impliment their design-based projects with students.  D3 facilitators stopped in in Mrs. Lamar’s 6th period class to provide real-time feedback to student design teams on the development of their projects.  The goal of the project is to use […]

Endless summer at D3@PSP!

This Minnesota weather just doesn’t quit! We’re a week into September with sky-high temperatures (90 degrees and rising!) as well as rising D3 attendance! Now that school’s in session, we’ve resorted to our usually-empty waiting list system. D3 is full of eager and energetic teens that already hold the program near and dear.    We’ve […]

Diving back into D3

This week marked D3’s first week back on campus at C:/dags.  With a growing student population, the school has hired several new teachers to join the C:/dags team.  We appreciated their enthusiasm to dive right into the project planning process using our new planning tools.  Another exciting development this week was the installation of the […]

Opening night at D3@PSP!

The last few weeks have been the home stretch for our filmmaker teens! They have worked tediously on recording sound, making edits in iMovie and creating buzz for their PSP movie screening! With their advertising materials (pictures and posters made with Miami Ad/JOYCE), the teens created and organized a PSP film screening that ran throughout […]

D3@PSP learns to ride the wave

We at PSP had a busy week saying the last of our goodbyes to five of our core D3 teens and playing catch-up with the new ones! There are a lot of factors at play when it comes to D3@PSP’s attendance, but we try our best to keep our projects going strong and encourage new teens […]

D3@PSP in reel time!

At PSP this week, our 4-6 recurring teens have have been busy directing their films and are beginning to realize the large amount of work that goes into filmmaking! “Everything takes so long” has become a new motto for this project, and indeed it’s true! The teens have been holding themselves to a high standard through […]

D3@PSP’s new project!

We’ve begun a new project at PSP called Through My Eyes, a video project that gives our teens the freedom to create a 2-3 minute film of their choice! We are two weeks in and already we’ve seen how beneficial the D3 process is to this type of project. Because the teens were so excited […]

D3@PSP cart project video!

D3 teens’ first stab at a project progress video! Enjoy!

D3@PSP is famous!

This week in Minneapolis has finally brought upon some real summer weather and with it came big publicity for D3! We were filmed for a short segment of ABC’s local news here in MN! Our teens rose to the challenge of being filmed and speaking in front of the camera– we were so proud! This […]

D3 Summer Workshop at C:/dags!

Last week, D3 facilitators hosted an action-packed, two day Professional development workshop with C:/dags teachers.  The goal of the workshop was to support teachers to develop D3 projects for the fall semester. Teachers had an opportunity to walk through a live design challenge to refresh their skills, share their stories from the previous semester, and […]

Nightingale TRASHformation Team Sets the Nighthawk Free!

The Nightingale TRASHformation team came together last month to unveil the Nighthawk they created from campus waste with local group Ruckus Roots.  At the time of our last update, the team had begun building the body for the bird, and was starting to test out different materials for its head and beak.  After some trial […]

Campus Improvement by Mr. Cugley’s Class: Redesigning Spaces

Several teams of 6th graders from Mr. Cugley’s Language Arts classes dedicated lots of time this year to improving the Nightingale Campus.  After completing a campus walkthrough and identifying spaces that needed improvement, the teams decided to redesign a space under some stairs on the blacktop and as well as an outdoor cafeteria space.  They […]

Students Work with the Community to Promote Cycling on Ride to School Day 2013

Nightingale Cyclists teamed up with the local cycling community once again this May.  This time their goal was to encourage more students to celebrate Ride to School Day by holding an after school festival on the national holiday.  Students who rode to school that day were rewarded with a free snack and an extra chance […]

D3@PSP: CAUTION, cart construction!

The D3 cart project has rolled into construction! The teens were so eager to go at the cart with paint brushes and rollers, but before we did that, we tested out different colors, paints and surfaces. The 5 teens defined each piece of the cart on Tuesday:  One of the ‘wings’ will be dry-erase paint, […]

D3@PSP defines + takes a break!

This week at PSP, we made huge progress with our cart design through the Define stage. After taking both prototypes into consideration and narrowing our ideas down last week, we had our 4 teens source materials and compare them for the cart. Beau and Emily brought in as many material options as possible for the […]

Today at C:/dags: Green Roofs and Healthy Games

This week at C:/dags, D3 facilitators got to review and reflect on a range final student design projects.   The first round of projects was facilitated by Vanya Hollis, who teaches Health class for all three schools at Augustus Hawkins.  The goal of this project was to design games that helped to reinforce the central class […]

D3@PSP gets a few visitors!

This week at PSP, we had a few familiar faces come to visit our D3 program: Kim + Danny! We were so excited to have them here and to see our progress in person. With our 3-5 teens, we began this week by breaking up into two teams and prototyping our “ideal” cart using an […]

Workshop time at PSP!

Last week, D3 facilitators stopped in for a visit to People Serving People, the site of a new D3 program that serves homeless teens in Minneapolis.  We had a chance to see their first large scale installation project, and observe new projects in progress.  PSP staff also had an opportunity to participate in a D3 […]

Inner-City Hues

Students at C:/dags have been using the D3 process to help them generate content for a new community-based project in collaboration with Inner City Arts.  The goal of the project will be to transform an abandoned and dilapidated local church into a canvas for teen-created murals.  Students from C:/dags will be in charge of transforming […]

D3@PSP: Digging Deeper through MPLS architecture!

This week in D3, although we had a lull in numbers (4-6 teens per session), we had opposite outcomes in progress! Building off of last week’s session at JOYCE where the teens learned how to define ‘design’ within a 2D perspective, we wanted to understand a 3D perspective to apply to our cart design! With […]

D3@PSP: A new beginning!

This week starts the beginning of our new project: branding the D3 cart! Because D3 doesn’t have a designated room at PSP, we rely on a basic utility cart for a lot of different uses; mobile storage, sign-in/out desk, desktop workspace, and our snack/beverage station just to name a few. We want to D3-ify the […]

C:/dags projects making progress

This week at C:/dags was marked by an eclectic mix of projects and events.  D3 facilitators met with teachers individually to provide feedback on projects ranging from re-thinking campus systems for sustainability (Mr. Gomez, Geography), to designing musical instruments (Mrs. Sujo, Physics).  We also were part of an interesting discussion about new forms of assessment […]

PSPieces takes flight!

We’ve made it to the end… it’s been a long 9 weeks, but we did it! This week was spent installing, thanking and celebrating. Beau and Emily carved out time during the day to meet with a member of the activities staff and two members of the maintenance staff to install the 180 cranes. It […]

Students Complete Music Video to Motivate Their Peers for CST Testing

This video was designed by Mrs. Jones’ 3rd period choir class to inspire the Nightingale student body to rock the CST’s!  After seeing some CST videos created by other schools on the web, Mrs. Jones’ class wanted to make a Nightingale version.  They quickly began brainstorming ideas for fun scenes and motivating music and messages. […]

PSP’s Operation Crane Construction: Complete!

Last week was the final mile in the marathon that was our crane construction. We sprinted to the finish line with our final 30 cranes on Tuesday, totaling over 180 cranes all together! On Wednesday, we pierced and strung all 180 cranes so they were ready for installation next week. The teens were happy to […]