Students investigate how an Innovation Center can help people create, test, and improve ideas, then use those insights to define problems and design solutions that fit their school community. Across four weeks, they engage in STEM, financial literacy, and career and technical learning as they ask questions, compare design options, and build a model or actionable plan for a welcoming, useful space. Through a launch at an innovation fair, feedback from Yass and CTE partners, ongoing reflection tied to quarterly outcomes, critique during annual project review, and sharing at symposia and innovation fairs, students develop creative, critical, and future-focused habits while producing a proposal for an Innovation Center at their school.

Students will define school or community problems, ask questions, gather information, and break big challenges into smaller design tasks to create an age-appropriate plan or model for an Innovation Center. They will generate, test, compare, and improve multiple design ideas using evidence, criteria, constraints, and feedback from peers, teachers, Yass, and CTE partners during critique cycles and symposia. Students will apply STEM, financial literacy, and career and technical education concepts to make decisions about materials, tools, safety, budget, accessibility, and how the space will serve diverse users. They will reflect on quarterly outcomes, set goals for revision, and prepare to present their work at innovation fairs as a proposed Innovation Center for each school.

Students will create interview notes, observation maps, sketches, budget lists, and prototype models that show how an innovation center could support problem solving, STEM learning, and career and technical exploration. Across the four weeks, teams will develop and revise floor plans, tool and material proposals, user guides, and short pitches based on feedback from classmates, teachers, Yass, and CTE partners. Final products will include a public exhibition display for the innovation fair, a presentation for the symposium, and a grade-appropriate physical or digital model of the innovation center with clear features, costs, and intended uses. The long-term product is a school-ready innovation center proposal that can feed into the annual project review and future quarterly outcomes.

Kick off with a schoolwide innovation fair where students rotate through hands-on stations hosted by Yass and CTE partners, exploring tools, prototypes, budgeting challenges, and real problems in the school or community. Mixed-age teams collect observations, interview guests, and respond to prompts about what makes a space welcoming, useful, and exciting for everyone. Each team then identifies one problem an innovation center could address and sketches a quick model or feature idea to share in a short symposium-style gallery walk. Close with a reflection on strengths, questions, and next steps that will connect to quarterly outcomes, future critique and revision, and the larger goal of proposing an innovation center for each school.

Host a schoolwide Innovation Fair where students present age-appropriate models, floor plans, budgets, and prototype features for an Innovation Center at their school. Invite families, Yass, CTE staff, school leaders, and community members to attend student-led symposia in which teams explain the real problem they addressed, the criteria and constraints they considered, and how their design changed through critique and revision. Include interactive stations where visitors test simple tools, vote on the most useful and welcoming features, and leave feedback that can inform the annual project review and quarterly outcomes. Conclude with a gallery of final proposals across grade bands to highlight STEM, financial literacy, and career-connected thinking, and to identify ideas that can be incorporated into the school’s future Innovation Center.