Welcome to the home of Great IDEAs

Hi!  My name is Tim Brennan and I'm a Science Teacher at Woodstock Union High School in Woodstock, Vermont.  I am the teacher for a new course called "IDEA" (which stands for "Innovation, Design, Engineering, and Action") and this is where I hope to record our successes and struggles throughout Year One.

We're about 3-4 weeks into the year, so I'm already behind, but I hope to post soon about the truly remarkable first few weeks.  In just this short time, we've done the following:

- built balsa wood towers that routinely held 1000x their own weight
- introduced and personalized 16 "Habits of Mind" that will lead to success
- considered the Innovation Venn Diagram and linked it to the 16 HOM
- tied our work to an Engineering Design Cycle

Students are currently:

- creating their own blogs about their own work in this course
- researching new ideas about structural integrity
- developing possible engineering projects for long-term work, including several 'social engineering' projects

Not twenty minutes ago, I spoke with three IDEA students who showed me a project they're working on in their Advanced Agricultural Studies course . . .  which is just begging for an engineering solution!  In addition, an IDEA student who is also part of our Student Council has approached me about the possibility of "engineering" the lunch rooms to make them more conducive to "hanging out."

Needless to say, I'm pumped about all this activity and can't wait to bring you thoughts on a regular basis . . .