Design Thinking at Danforth provides path to success in new economy

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  • Every space in the new Danforth Campus is designed to bring people together to share ideas and solve problems creatively, such as the main foyer that faces south.
    Every space in the new Danforth Campus is designed to bring people together to share ideas and solve problems creatively, such as the main foyer that faces south.
  • Automotive Service Technology is one of the programs that will be hosted at the Danforth Campus, where entrepreneurship and creative problem solving are encouraged from students and the community.
    Automotive Service Technology is one of the programs that will be hosted at the Danforth Campus, where entrepreneurship and creative problem solving are encouraged from students and the community.
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The fourth industrial revolution is well underway, and is changing the landscape for employers and employees. In order to jump this hurdle in modern education, Francis Tuttle Technology Center leaders decided to adopt a new concept, Design Thinking, for its new Danforth Campus, which is opening in August of 2021.

“We saw the concern from CEOs from different companies that technology is changing things so fast and they’re fearful because they’re not sure what tomorrow will bring,” Associate Superintendent Dr. Jaared Scott said. “How do they remain competitive? We needed a way to teach students how to be innovative.”

Design Thinking is built into the Danforth Campus in every way. Through this methodology, creativity and innovation from multiple disciplines are brought together to find human-centered solutions to every day problems. This matches current trend of different industries coming together in the name of innovation and creative problem solving.

“Here we are in the 4th industrial revolution where fusion is kind of the key word. Barriers between distinct disciplines are falling,” Scott said. “You need to be able to bring people with different disciplines together, bring their expertise to the table in a creative fashion to solve some of these problems.”

Danforth will house all of Francis Tuttle’s high school academy programs – Engineering, Biosciences and Medicine, Computer Science and Entrepreneurship – as well as Cosmetology, Pre-Nursing and flexible health programs for adult students, Automotive Service and Interactive Media, a new program that lets students experience multiple digital media formats. Design Thinking and entrepreneurship will serve to unite the students from different programs and disciplines, bring the Francis Tuttle community together to find creative solutions, and encourage the development of future business concepts.

“I feel like the Design Thinking is that added component to our programs that will bring entrepreneurship to the table for the campus,” Scott said. “It will unleash human potential, but it will also help students learn how to create the future. Because the best way to predict the future is to create it.”

This method of instructing students and uniting the community also enables Danforth to respond to future industry needs. It is possible in several years’ time that new programs will be needed, and those can be fit into the same Design Thinking model as the current programs that will launch there later this year.

“I think you’ll find that campus will be evolving probably more so than most educational institutions, because that’s kind of how we created it,” Dr. Michelle Keylon, Francis Tuttle Superintendent, said. “It was created to not stay the same, but to keep up, and in some ways to look into the future and say what is coming next and be that group that leads the community into what’s coming next.”

Visit https://www.francistuttle.edu/Danforth to learn more about the new campus.

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