Systems Thinking Institute

The Waters Foundation has been working with teachers and administration at MPS to introduce systems thinking. This spring, they are hosting a three day Systems Thinking Institute and have asked us to take part.

We’ll be leading two sessions:

The Lean Canvas as a Tool for Educators

The world of entrepreneurship has embraced variations of the Business Model Canvas as a tool and process to quickly surface the assumptions behind the model for a business. This allows entrepreneurs to focus their efforts on low-cost ways to validate those assumptions and create a solution that is both effective and sustainable. Participants will learn a variant known as the Lean Canvas and explore its uses as a tool for designing courses and units, and as an innovative solution to challenges in schools.

Educators’ Test Drive of the Lean Canvas

The world of entrepreneurship has embraced variations of the Business Model Canvas as a tool and process to quickly surface the assumptions behind the model for a business. This allows entrepreneurs to focus their efforts on low-cost ways to validate those assumptions and create a solution that is both effective and sustainable.

Participants will use a variant known as the Lean Canvas to design a collaborative project that will give students experience using the capabilities of a Makerspace (rapid prototyping and fabrication). We’ll help you get your assumptions about both the goals for such a project and the solution you envision into the Lean Canvas. You’ll work in teams through the initial validation of both the problem and solution. This will include opportunities to get feedback from high school teachers and students who are familiar with the capabilities of Makerspaces and what it is like to run a project using such a facility. Finally, we’ll work together to use that feedback to improve your team’s initial solution.

Details and Registration

Visit the Waters Foundation web site for details and registration.