Education By Design
The Education by Design podcast explores the architecture of learning environments—how schools are designed, not just operated—how culture is disrupted to make way for innovation and reaching potential.
Your host, Phil Evans is a career educator and creative. His guests bring inspirational and practical ideas into classrooms, all over the world. Join him as he engages with innovators who untangle the complexity of educational systems to align with shared values, common practices, and a common language to create powerful, human-centered learning experiences.
For any formal schooling system to have an impact, the central focus must be on learning. Let's learn together.
Dive deeper on the EduByDesign Blog: https://edubydesign.com/blog
Education By Design
S1:E9 Jared DuPree on "Designing the future: Challenge-based learning" Part 1
What does it take to shift a school system from standardization to innovation? In this thought-provoking episode of Education by Design, host Phil Evans is joined by Dr. Jared DuPree for a conversation that challenges the boundaries of what public education can be.
Together, they explore the promise of challenge-based learning—an approach that connects students with real-world problems and invites them to design solutions through collaboration, creativity, and purpose. Dr. DuPree shares insights from his journey as a classroom teacher, district leader, and now national director for one of the most forward-thinking education initiatives in the country. At the heart of this conversation is a question that matters to every school leader, policymaker, and parent: Are we preparing students to navigate the world—or to change it?
This episode is part one of a special two-part series on education models that foster deep, authentic learning in a rapidly evolving world.
About the Founders: Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre
This bold educational vision was sparked by legendary music producer Jimmy Iovine and hip-hop icon and entrepreneur Andre Young, better known as Dr. Dre. Their combined success in music, business, and cultural innovation led them to a realization: future-ready creators need to think beyond silos. They need to speak the shared language of design, technology, and entrepreneurship. And they need to learn it young.
The Iovine and Young Center: Bringing Innovation to Public Schools
Founded as an extension of the Iovine and Young Academy at the University of Southern California, the Iovine and Young Center (IYC) brings this revolutionary approach to high school students—particularly those from underserved communities. The IYC model blends challenge-based learning, design thinking, and integrated technology education to transform how students engage with the world. With active programs in Los Angeles and Atlanta, and expansions underway, the IYC is redefining what public education can look like when innovation meets equity.
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We've been refining the system for decades, but what if it's time to redesign it? Not from scratch, but from what we know works. You're listening to Education by Design. I'm your host, Phil Evans. What if school wasn't about what students must know, but about what they need to figure out? What if education didn't start with standards and end with grades, but began with a problem worth solving or more, a challenge? In this two-part series, we're exploring a fundamental shift, one that moves us away from compliance and into complexity, from content coverage to challenge-based learning. In this model, Learning is not abstract or siloed. It's connected, it's collaborative, and it's creative. It invites students to grapple with the real problems of our time and to see themselves as capable of making an impact. These models are not theoretical. They're happening now. At the Iveen and Young Center in Los Angeles and Atlanta, both her school students work alongside entrepreneurs, engineers, artists, businesses to solve real-world challenges. The structure is not a departure from academic rigor. It's an evolution of it. Rather than just meeting standards, they're designing solutions. And yet here's the tension. Many schools are still structured to meet mandates that are miles away from the world students will inherit. Teachers who want to innovate are often caught between contradictory demands, teach the test, and prepare students for life. The two are not always the same. This is where transformation meets resistance. Dr. Jared Dupre understands this deeply. He studied mathematics at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and began his career as a classroom teacher. He held senior roles in curriculum and instruction across Los Angeles Unified School District and now leads national expansion of the Iveen and Young Center. And through all of this, his passions remain steadfast, creating the conditions where students and teachers can do meaningful, relevant, future-facing work. The IYC model, wasn't designed to check boxes. It grew out of a need observed firsthand by Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre when building their business. They realized that the creative, technical, and strategic minds they gathered weren't speaking the same language. So they imagined a school that would teach young people not just content, but how to work across disciplines to prototype ideas and to shape the future rather than merely preparing for it. In today's conversation, Jared helps us understand how such models work, why it matters, and what it takes to bring it to life, especially in systems built to do the opposite. Because this isn't about one school or one program, it's about a question every leader in education must eventually face. Are we preparing students to succeed in the systems as they are, or are we preparing students to change them?
SPEAKER_03:I love this work. It's been a great opportunity to really think about Education in an innovative way, really trying to make it more responsive to students, more responsive to families, and not only that, more responsive to the community as well. We often ask community partners to come in and be a part of this, and then we don't really have a meaningful place for them to really latch on and do good work. It's been a lot of learning experience for me, a huge career, but one I'm truly appreciative of.
SPEAKER_04:And it's a journey that started back in the classrooms, right, Jared?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so I left the classroom back in 2005, 2006, somewhere in there, I was a mathematics coach at the district level for many, many years. After that, I was a principal at three different high schools in Los Angeles Unified School District, South Atlanta, Magnus Schools, a whole range of different types of schools where I was a principal. After that, superintendent asked me if I wanted to oversee instruction for K through 12. After that, the large superintendent asked me if I wanted to be a part of his cabinet working in the superintendent's office. And of course, that's an offer you don't say no to. So I was in the superintendent's office for about three years overseeing many things, one of them being the Black Student Achievement Plan, the other one working with the Magnets Program to create magnet schools. That was where I came across the Iovine and Young Center. At the time, Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre presented their proposal to the superintendent, Austin Buechner, at the time. And he was like, yes, Jared, this is you. Take it. Let's lift it. Let's work it. And that was four years ago. Three years ago, we opened the doors, Philip, to the Ivan and Young Center in L.A. Two years ago, I left the district and Jimmy and Dre asked me if I wanted to come apart, be a part of their team to continue to scale their work across the nation. So that's another opportunity you're not going to say no to.
SPEAKER_04:Certainly not. You know, I remember you talking at the South by Southwest conference on a panel and just talking about how often we bring community members into the school setting to get involved, but But then, you know, other than the feel good aspect of their involvement, there isn't always a direct kind of line back to how the learning and teaching really pays back to the innovation that we want to see in industry. And I love that your supervisors, like this is you all over it, like, you know, setting other people up to get into their lane and to flourish in a way that breaks barriers. some of the traditions as well is key, isn't it? That's what it's going to take to move teachers in this direction, right? To empower them.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. We need, I don't know. It's this concept of critical mass, Philip. Like when can we strike critical mass? We have more people coming on board, acknowledging, yes, that education has not really fulfilled its true promise for the masses. It has not. And we are all aware of that. But yet we keep looking at the data, Philip. You know, oh, we keep looking at the data, being dismayed and shaking our heads. And that's where it ends. At what point do we have critical mass? We're going to say collectively, we're going to move in a concerted manner in a different direction that serves a much more larger population of students. That's yet to be seen.
SPEAKER_04:Right. And I think it's a practice. I think it's a mind shift because we've tried reinventing the wheel with new curriculum. And often the new curriculum is purchased. There's not enough time for teachers to engage in it and to learn it and to innovate with it. There's no professional learning. There's no community. Often the assessments are not tied to the curriculum. So then we don't get any data back. And then teachers are sort of disenfranchised going, well, what's the point in investing? They're going to change it in three years anyway.
SPEAKER_03:Right. What you just described, Philip, is the educational cycle It's
SPEAKER_04:Groundhog Day.
SPEAKER_03:Right, right. Kids are
SPEAKER_04:still not achieving. Let's change the curriculum again.
SPEAKER_03:Right, because that's the fix.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:The curriculum, it should be the students. The curriculum is the students. The curriculum should be the world that we're looking at, contemporary times, right? Combining those two, your curriculum needs to be responsive. It needs to pivot. It needs to be flexible. It needs to be nimble. And it hasn't been. Our curriculum here in America, specifically LA, has probably much been the way it has been for the last 50, 60 years, right? Which blows my mind. You know that, Philip. Things are completely different outside these windows as they were 2025 versus 1940. But yet our curriculum is very similar. It makes no sense.
SPEAKER_04:And even these transactions, right? We're so focused on, you know, K-12 is so focused on where kids are going to go to college.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_04:And like, so you're looking at a piece of paper that gives you a sort of a credit or a currency for a moment in your experience, not to devalue higher education. But what about the flourishing that happens after graduation What about the fact that I know that what I'm learning I can leverage and to apply? Yes. So, I mean, we touched on the curriculum piece. Just before we move on to some of the good stuff, what are some of the other aspects of the problem that you think that you're addressing with the IYC?
SPEAKER_03:Well, I think one of the main things is tapping into student motivation. I'm a firm believer, you know, there's a law, compulsory education. That's a federal law. But there is no way that you can compel kids to learn. Like if you think about that statement at its fundamental level, there's no such thing as compulsory education. like kids must be motivated to learn they must be engaged it must speak to them so one of the major hallmarks of our work philip is really tapping into student motivation really tapping into students passion students interests things that they want to do and framing the curriculum framing the the interactions and the partnerships around that motivation is key to really um to activate learning in a meaningful way um so that's one thing the other thing that i really appreciate is the outreach to so many community partners for-profit non So why don't we extend your reach, your community reach to the actual walls of the classroom? I mean, of course, leveraging Jimmy and Dre's star power to bring in as much capital and resources. And not only that, they're shining a light on education, period. what education has done well and also things that they can do differently to make sure it's more in tune with the emerging needs of the 21st century. We like to talk about that, Phil, but no one is really making sure there's a match between what students are learning K through 12 in this new world that they're going to be a part of once they get that diploma and walk across that stage. Welcome to reality, right?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So I think it's incredible that two of the world's most innovative music producers would get involved in education. Can you tell us a little bit about how that all came to be?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so, and this is, I mean, I appreciate many things about Jimmy and Dre. Like they didn't have to, like they are comfortable, they could be fine with the rest of their lives, but they see that there is a need. The major motivation was when they were trying to create beats, right? And they went to different sectors, different industry partners and said, hey, we need all these people to come together to help us brainstorm to be creative, to innovate, to think about this new tool. And everyone came and everyone was excited and ready to work, Phillip, but everyone was not speaking the same language. So the Ivan and Young Academy at the University of Southern California was born out of the need to really think about a more integrated way for the different silo professions to learn about each other and to speak to each other. When IYA was created back in 2010, I want to say, um, Yeah, so that was the premise for that creation, and then over the last 13 years, the school has been really successful, proof of concept, many graduates coming out, not just being entrepreneurs, but also being able to find their niche, their place, and what they want to do. Now, Jimmy and Dre said, hey, there's success here at the university level. It's not some secret formula. Perhaps we can begin to share this information and this knowledge at the high school level, and so that's where this came about, really thinking about how can we get high schoolers thinking about this more integrated, this more range way of thinking and not be so siloed and so pigeonhole where I'm just going to be an engineer, I'm just going to be an architect, or I'm just going to be a doctor. But to have a more of an involved way, a more integrated way of thinking across many sectors is beneficial. So they started this work at the high school level, of course, not to the same degree of sophistication at the university level, but at the high school level. And in turn, Philip, we want to dip down to middle school and elementary as well. It's just a way of thinking, a way of thinking about life from a professional standpoint and not waiting until you become a professional to think about professional skills that are coveted.
SPEAKER_04:And Jared, that's key because, you know, so many academically prepared students still have to wait until they get into the workforce to discover those skills they truly need, you know, and it's a transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary world that we're living in. And I just don't think that educational systems have evolved that way.
SPEAKER_03:Right, right. We're in a funky space right now. You know that. Like all these new jobs are popping off, all these new ways of thinking, right? All these paradigm shifts, but yet we really aren't preparing students to be a part of that agile, pivotal way of thinking that's super fluid, that changes every month. You have to be nimble. You have to think in a creative way. You have to be innovative. to stay on deck with the way things are moving right now here in America and across the world.
SPEAKER_04:And now we're all very interested in how AI is going to shape education and potentially replace the type of teaching and learning that the traditional schooling has continued to sort of stay grounded in. You guys have designed some innovation standards, haven't you, or some criterion?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, the innovation framework. So a lot of districts have teaching and learning framework that outlines standards for around pedagogy, curriculum design, culture, professional expectations. We designed an innovation framework that outlined standards around similar buckets, one being innovation in instruction, innovation in the actual curriculum design, innovation in the culture and the mindset, right? We don't want you to just teach well. We don't want you to just design sound curriculum. We want you to have a mindset, a way of acting, a way of being. And then also a framework around how to really bring in community partners to be a part of the school system in a meaningful way. In fact, we think about the design thinking cycle and the innovation cycle. So our framework itself, Philip, is still a prototype itself. So it's still being refined and still being improved. But that's basically the core of our framework,
SPEAKER_04:those four elements. What are you telling me? That you're actually applying the innovation design cycle to learn what to do in education?
SPEAKER_03:Right. Through multiple iterations. Who would think that that would be?
SPEAKER_04:And you're empathizing?
SPEAKER_03:Right, right. Who would think?
SPEAKER_04:Groundbreaking stuff in education. But it is. Unfortunately, it is.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. And this is where the dream of scaling this and having influence in the world of education could really come true for, I guess, for folks like Jimmy and Dre. Yeah. There's just such a hunger to change the practice and to really dig deeper into learning-focused pedagogies and to ensure we're creating collaborative space for teachers to really experiment with their practice. John Spencer talks about teaching in beta or playing the new teacher card He had a teaching card on his desk that was given to him by his mentor teacher in practicum that says expires never. Isn't that great?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I like that idea. The classroom as an experiment, right? Which should be because your students, right, that's your sample set right there and you're learning from them. And based on how they're responding, you're designing new learning experiences to help them learn. Actually, yeah, I like that concept.
UNKNOWN:Music
SPEAKER_04:So what I understand about what you're doing is it's not project-based learning, it's not problem-based learning, it's challenge-based learning. So let's dive a little deeper into the innovative curriculum that you've developed and what it looks like for students in Atlanta, in an LA USD curriculum.
SPEAKER_03:So we started in LA. Atlanta just finished its first year this year. Next year, fall 25, Miami will open its doors. Englewood, right close to Los Angeles, will open. And we also have a couple schools that will be a part of our cohort three. But the primary premise, there are several pillars of our curriculum across all four different cities and four different sites, is the challenge-based learning framework, where we bring in a partner and we say, hey, you are grappling with this real problem that your team are grappling on and dealing with, allow our students an opportunity to take a look at your actual problem, not one that's synthetic, not one that you just created for an experiment, an actual problem that your team is grappling with. So we designed that. Once we have that, though, Philip, the true work is really trying to integrate And I'm going to use this word. We're going to try to integrate these archaic standards. And I'm going to say that these archaic standards that exist in most public school districts, we integrate that into the CBL experience. Not only that, we have our challenge-based learning prompt and activity extend across multiple classrooms, multiple disciplines. So it does not just end in English, Philip, science. It doesn't end in history. It doesn't end in math. Students see it throughout their day for the balance of the unit. So
SPEAKER_04:they think that's where they're starting to train their minds to think about it from different perspectives, from different disciplines.
SPEAKER_03:idea through iteration or actually no not iteration ideation first like you ideate just free-flowing brainstorming from there you build your prototype and then from there you give iterative feedback to continue to refine your prototype um that design thinking cycled understanding technology we teach students the skills and tools of how to use technology but not only that Philip it's more than just how to use technology it's also how to generate new technology
SPEAKER_00:yeah I
SPEAKER_03:want our students to be the passive users of technology that others have created. That's cool. We also want you to put yourself on the other end of that and see yourself as the innovator, see yourself as the generator of the technology and not just the user.
SPEAKER_04:That's the entrepreneurship aspect of
SPEAKER_03:it. Right. That and the entrepreneur aspect of the business. How do we know that your business plan is viable? How do we know it's sustainable? How do we know that it's going to speak to the audience that you're serving? Did you do any type of empathy outreach to determine if you're walking down the right road for this particular user set? That, once again, The backdrop being the traditional state and national standards that we must teach. Right. All the things we're talking about, Phil, here are fun. They're exciting. They're creative. But there is a big but. We can't move away from state standards and public education, so we must find a way to teach them through this vehicle of a more authentic way to understand schooling and the place for which schooling is supposed to prepare students for the real world.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, see, but this is where I feel like collaborative innovation gets stuck because we need to really reimagine the system. I think that if we're integrating the standards, because the standards are there for a reason, how are we also able to kind of demonstrate that the skills are being developed as we maybe rather than trying to serve multiple different sets of standards or requirements, could we focus on the approach that is actually raising the expectations and the outcomes for students? Because what students experience and what they produce as a result of a challenge-based curriculum is really outstanding. What are some of the things that students are producing as a result of the opportunities the IYC is presenting to them in their learning? Have any of the students been able to scale what they've produced for Yeah, so I'm smiling at
SPEAKER_03:your questions because I love them. So, right, right. So, so not yet. We have one potentially, though, in Atlanta. A student was exploring some type of solution to some type of agriculture, ground. Water device. And, you know, here in Atlanta agriculture here across Georgia, Atlanta's agriculture is huge. This particular student developed some type of coal device that was able to bring in more water. I don't want to misspeak for whatever the project was, but it was some type of coal device. Anyway, we have several companies that are interested in that idea. So this brings us to a new point. Like, what do we do now? Because Philip didn't really think
SPEAKER_04:about,
SPEAKER_03:hey, what happens
SPEAKER_04:if
SPEAKER_03:a student has a groundbreaking idea? Right now, if a student is saying, hey, I have this great idea that could be patented, then we're not giving that to company X. Right. And so to answer your question, no, but we are knocking on the door of that. We're knocking on the door of companies and other organizations and also people, venture capitalists who want to invest, seeing some of these ideas and wanting to lift them and take them to light, which also shows us the more work we need to do to highlight the student projects, to highlight their solutions, not just to capture it in some capstone project where the company gets to see it, but also just amplifying it nationally. We need to do a better job of that. So to answer your question once again, current answer is no, but if you ask me that in a month, that answer I'm going to say
SPEAKER_01:could be yes.
SPEAKER_03:Right. It's going to be a yes. But we need to be careful about how we practice that and the road we walk on.
SPEAKER_04:I love the way that you come at that. I also think a little bit about the social and emotional aspect of that, of a young person who has worked within what is kind of like it's compulsory schooling. and come up with an idea that could actually set you on track to be, you know, a multi-million air you know very early how do we sort of protect students around what it means to people work their entire lives you know think about Dre and you know Jimmy have worked they started off like Jimmy was sweeping the floors I think in a radio in a recording studio at one point you know to become you know such a leader in the world in pop culture I think about him as somebody who's defined pop culture by the way like if you think about Eminem Lady Gaga like
SPEAKER_03:I mean I mean solo But it's
SPEAKER_04:just incredibly inspiring that two really renowned, you know, music producers, innovators in the industry are now investing in young people. And I think my question was really, you know, to, you know, from the, you know, it takes a long time to, you know, figure out how to have success in a field and to be able to provide a type of education where students are able to grapple with that. You know, we're leaving, you know, we're leaving school. out of the gate with just more insight into what we could potentially do. And I think that's incredible. So, you know, my question was really about how do we support those students and, you know, what I love about the humility in which that you guys at IYC are coming at this is it's very much a work in progress and we've got these things, you know, in mind as we're moving forward. Maybe there isn't sort of an answer to that question.
SPEAKER_03:Your questions are great though. And these are things that we are grappling with and things that we're thinking about how to improve and do things better. We're We're a startup, so we're learning as we go. We're building as we go. So I love your questions.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. No, I just appreciate the– the shift, you know, that we're making in education, that we can sort of create new proof points around what students experience when they go to school. And I think of all the students that I've watched cross the stage and some of the ones that really struggled just to pass the basic standards of learning test. And, you know, in many ways, I feel like I've failed them, you know, because they've gone out very, very underprepared for the world that we're in.
SPEAKER_01:I hear you.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Maybe we should talk a little bit about teachers. Can you talk to me a little bit about the professional learning curve and what you guys are doing to support teachers through this?
SPEAKER_03:So the professional learning curve is a big one, Philip. In fact, I just facilitated PD for our Englewood teachers on Friday. It was their first exposure to challenge-based learning, their first exposure to design thinking. And it's going to take a lot. What I had to do was I had to come off of the PD that I had planned for them, Philip, because this is a shock to their system, Philip. This is not the way that they've been teaching for years and decades. This is not the way that they went to their teacher education program and said, hey, build out these units with all these standards, with these different syntax. This is not it.
SPEAKER_04:And it's not how they were taught in school.
SPEAKER_03:Right, right. And it's not how they were taught in school. It's not what their administrators are telling them is valuable. It's
SPEAKER_04:not what the standard
SPEAKER_03:goes back to the standard. So it's been a challenge really. helping them understand that, hey, you can help students make progress towards these standards in a different way than what you're currently doing. Like direct instruction is the default mode of teaching for most teachers. They feel that you must model and think about this, Phil. They think that you must model things before students can do. I want to pause after that to think about the damage you're setting kids up for.
SPEAKER_04:And what if the model isn't a good model? It's like I'm standing in front of my students saying, try and just do something a little bit better
SPEAKER_03:than this. Right, right, right. You're showing them a model that's flawed. But you're setting them up to be tethered to somebody for the rest of their lives. Whenever something new comes their way, they're going to be, where's the model? Where's the model? So it's been hard with teachers helping them shift their pedagogy from a more direct instruction model to a more inquiry-based student model where students are developing conjectures and testing them. They're developing hypotheses and they're testing them and you providing the space for them to fail and to improve on their failures and continue that cycle. The major thing, though, Phillip, is getting teachers through that first year until you have proof of concept, which we have in Atlanta and we have in LA. In Englewood, we don't. Once they see proof of concept, not just in hard quantitative data, but also qualitative data, when students are coming to school, they're happy to be in your classroom. There's joy, right? Right? And once they see that, Phillip, then the next year of PD is much easier. The first year, though, is extremely challenging trying to undo the hard wiring that has taken place for teachers throughout their entire career. That's a challenge.
SPEAKER_04:You know, I encounter this with my work too. And I think what it takes is empathy. Like we need to be reminded that teachers have experienced a lot of change and a lot of professional development comes along under the guise of innovation. And we're going to do something new. And yet, you know, we then leave the teachers to their own devices.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, this is the other piece. And you touched upon it briefly, Philip. Right now, I think one of the major pitfalls in education around professional development for teachers is they come to the PD and things are handed to them. Right. Here are some tools. Right. Here are some strategies. Here's some curriculum. Go use it. We'll talk to you about it, but go use it. Like there is no true value there. Right. I think one of the great things we're doing is we bring teachers in on the ground to build the curriculum with us. You are building it. Oftentimes, teachers will say, well, let me have Atlanta's curriculum. Let me have L.A.''s curriculum. My answer is no. Right. I'll show you that and we'll look at it on this PowerPoint and I'll walk through the elements. But I'm not handing you this. And this is why. Like they have to be a part of the construction of it in order to value it, in order to know the hard work it took to put that up so that they use it in a meaningful way. When Jared walks away or when Philip walks away or when the principal walks away because they value it. Right. That's been a shortcoming in education for decades. Us giving teachers things and then wondering why they didn't implement it with fidelity. OK, why do you think they did? And there are many reasons. One, they don't value it. They're not going to tell you that, but they don't.
SPEAKER_04:They didn't create it. And that's the issue, right? There's no ownership, fairly. This is the problem I see with purchase curriculum and these sort of holding teachers' feet to the fire on a scope and sequence about what they're teaching on any given day. It's not natural. It's not student-centered. It's not teaching. It's not learning-centered. What you and I are talking about is the value in co-creation. It's like taking a framework, taking the principles, taking the criteria and building something of it and having time to do that and coming back in collaborative teams to be able to refine that and to work together on that. That's the the And I also think it's an education system that is able to help students to see themselves and their learning and actually bring themselves to their learning in terms of who they are, their identity, what they're passionate about. You know, the IYC curriculum is definitely engaging all of those sorts of things. It's central, right, to the design.
SPEAKER_03:I'm going to say it's key. Everything is key in terms of students' beliefs, their interests, their passions, their cultures. Oftentimes, there's a misunderstanding about the word culture. It has this bad connotation. It does not mean it is connected to some ethnicity. At times, it is, but culture is not always synonymous with ethnicity. Understanding that they don't have to shed their culture. They don't have to shed their beliefs. They don't have to shed the things that they are enthusiastic about because they came to school today. Like, think about that. Like they can bring that stuff to the classroom with them and use it as levers to help them learn. So the key thing is they understand purpose. You know, you and I, people who've been a part of educational system for decades, we often joke about and you'll see T-shirts made and posters. Why are we learning this? Like, right. We all know about that. And rarely can we answer that question. Right. That's a powerful thing right there. Not just the what, but the why. And not only that, how they're going to use it also, not just to get through this assignment, Phillip, but beyond this classroom. How can I continue to use the skills and the knowledge I'm learning throughout the CBL unit? Purpose is high. Value is high. Appreciation is high. For anyone that visits any of our IYC sites, you would almost think that the students are acting, but they aren't. You would think that they are because of value and purpose and belief. And they also feel as if they are being treated respectfully. Right? They're asked about their ideas. They're asked about feedback on assignments. They're asked about how can we reflect to see if we do this unit again next time, how could it be improved? And not only are we teaching them like the hard numeracy and literacy proficiency skills, we're also teaching them Once again, the soft skills, the dispositions, core values, seeing themselves as innovators, seeing themselves as disruptors, seeing themselves as empathetic collaborators and communicators, seeing themselves as technologists, like they can see themselves that way, right? So that student's identities are being developed. They understand purpose of school and not just why they're in school, but how it can be utilized once they get that diploma, you know, and they walk across that stage.
SPEAKER_04:And I think this leads us to the most important thing is that students actually see what their possibilities are after high school. That, you know, what it means to be an engineer is multifaceted. What it means to be involved in the music industry is multifaceted. There's not just one, you know, there's so many jobs that go into filmmaking and, you know, in advertising. Like there's so many different things that kids can do. And I think sometimes they just, you know, their career focus is very narrow. And I think what you're doing and what education Senior year,
SPEAKER_03:we're building out this course. We may have an introductory version of it their junior year where we talk about emerging technology. We talk about emerging design. We talk about things that are not going to be and how do we prepare for something that we don't know yet. Um, it's really looking at some fundamental core pillars that to me, we think will allow them to be able to navigate spaces that are yet to be known. One is what you and I continue to talk about throughout the balance of this podcast, understanding the power of the design thinking cycle, right? You don't have to know what jobs are coming down the pipe. You don't have to know what the, you know, the century will look like the next folding century. But if you do give yourself the time and patience to ideate, to iterate, to develop, and be open to failure and be open to continuing refinement, then you will be fine. Applied design thinking, you guys, you and I have applied it multiple times here. We talked about how it's applied throughout the system. We help students understand the power of design thinking and how it can be used in an environment that is unknown to you. We also, in our framework, we talk about being comfortable with ambiguity. Be comfortable with ambiguity. Be comfortable with things not being well-defined. Look at that as an opportunity for you to innovate. Things that are not defined and things that are not known, those are great opportunities for you to insert yourself and fill gaps that have yet to be filled. So those two things, helping students understand the power of design thinking, which will help them navigate a world that's unknown, and also being comfortable with ambiguity and ongoing ambiguities. Also helping students understand, you know, that a lot of times they're drawn by fiscal resources and money and things like that. So we highlight a bunch of entrepreneurs. We highlight a bunch of people who are successful. And it's because they were comfortable with ambiguity. Well, there are many reasons why. But one is they were comfortable with ambiguity and they were OK with things not being known. And they're OK with figuring things out. We often tell students, you play games, you play video games, you do all kinds of things, or you're figuring things out. You don't know what's coming around that corner. That's life. Take it to another scale outside of your video game, outside of whatever game you're playing, and think about what's waiting behind that corner. And even though I don't know what's there, how can I prepare myself best for the unknown?
SPEAKER_04:You've been listening to the Education by Design podcast. And until next time, stay curious.
