Student-driven project-based learning in core curriculum class lessons sparks creativity, innovation, and collaboration in The Pine Crest Lab Classroom.
Attendees at Pine Crest School’s Innovation Institute had the opportunity to observe Innovation Specialist Kris Swanson working with a class of students in one of our makerspaces, the Mintz Family iLab. Kris collaborates with Lower and Middle School classroom teachers on lessons that guide students from play to purpose. Using hands-on learning to harness student-driven creativity, innovation, and collaboration. Project examples include First Grade Chicken Hatching, Third Grade Wax Museum, and Eighth Grade Rocket Launching.
A career educator, Kris has been a teacher for more than 20 years, serving as an elementary school classroom teacher, science lab teacher, and planetarium director. In addition, he has served as an educator fellow for several NASA planetary missions and educational programs. In fall 2017, Kris presented for the Center for Research in Education at the FabLearn 2017 Conference at Stanford University. He shared with educators from all over the world techniques that allow students to rapidly prototype physical objects as part of their design thinking process. At the Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC) in January, Kris was asked by Florida’s Department of Education to facilitate three discussion group sessions on the planning and implementation of STEM programs and initiatives. While at FETC, he presented “Arduino 101: Microcontrollers You and Your Students Can Program” and “Student-Built Smart Projects.”
Over the last decade, Kris has built robots, submarines, motorized toys, electronics projects, and other amazing things with his students at Pine Crest and at Young Makers Lab, a small business co-founded in 2014. Kris received a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from the University of South Florida and a Masters of Arts in Instructional Technology from Pepperdine University. He is excited to share his love to innovate and teach with our Innovation Institute participants!
Follow Kris Swanson @krswanson
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