TIS opens Innovation Lab eyeing the skills of the future

Head of School, Lorne Schmidt

The International School of Macao (TIS) today launches a new Innovation Lab wherein students from different age groups can more effectively learn a broad spectrum of in-demand skills suitable for future professionals.

The lab will enable students to study the development of technological and technical skills and how these skills are applied to daily tasks.

In the lab, students can carry out original work with state-of-the-art tools that include a 3D printing room, robotics fabrication section, screen printing room, woodwork station, laser center and a power tool room.

Students will not only be able to develop more skills as extra-curricular activities, but will also improve their knowledge beyond that of the normal curriculum, the Head of School, Lorne Schmidt, told the Times in an exclusie interview.

“We are aiming to incorporate technology into their curricular studies in a multidisciplinary way. We are looking at how technology can enhance, can solve problems […] The best STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) projects are designed to tackle a problem innovatively and collectively. [Students] work in groups and put their heads together to understand how to best work together to solve a problem or build a solution for this problem. This can apply to a [very broad range of issues, including] a logistics transport problem or the reliability of a product problem […] These are some of the challenges that students can take on,” Schmidt explained.

But before being able to solve a problem through cooperative work and technology, students need first to be familiar with the processes. TIS is facilitating the learning of the technology and design process.

Schmidt cited examples where students learn how 3D models can help to visualize how an actual final structure might look. In this way, architecture and design components can be brought into the middle school level even though the students are not taking architecture as a high-school class.

“Still, they are starting to learn those elements, and then when they get older they can start to think how can they innovate in designing something new or perhaps [transform something that already exists] into something more functional, in a real-world setting,” he said.

Students and teachers happy with the novelty

The Innovation Lab and the new learning opportunities have been well received by both students and teaching staff, Schmidt revealed.

“The students are generally more engaged than they woud be if they were sitting and listening to a teacher lecture them about a particular topic. So, rather than read a book or have the teacher show them a powerpoints about mountains, they’re going to build the mountain with all details and layers. They are not only much more engaged but they also have a deeper understanding at the end. It also gives them a chance to use their strengths as maybe there are [some] who are good at building things and manipulating things and they’re not necessarily the most academic of the class, but they’re very good in the construction end of things. Then [these students] can take a lead role it will build their confidence. That’s how most innovative companies work today. It’s not on one person that comes up with all the ideas, it’s brainstorming and working together,” he remarked.

Questioned on teachers’ feedback, he added, “Teachers like it too. It’s refreshing for them to try this new approach and to see how their students engage and develop skills that are not found in a textbook but that are part of the 21st-century learning skills that employers will be looking for, such as can you be part of a team? How do you negotiate and collaborate with other people? How do you delegate responsibilities to different people in the group? How do you build on each other’s strengths? How to give voice or an opportunity to voice ideas to everyone?”

He also explained that all this is part of the process of getting students ready for the world that we live in and the kind of jobs that they would be involved in.

“There are very few jobs that are isolated from each other and now there are [also] few disciplines that are isolated from each other,” he said.

Similar opinions are shared by one of the most influential people in envisioning the space. Technology Department Head and Teacher, Todd Voykin, thinks the new lab creates a wide range of opportunities and that it is difficult to predict the outcome .

He said, “With the newly renovated space and enrichment of resources, there is no telling where it will take our students.”

“My vision for this space is for it to represent a haven where students can explore and create beyond their imagination. We have done amazing work in the past, even inspiring a student to create prosthetic arms and donate them to people in need. That student is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University,” he explained.