““...Breaker teaches students and educators how to design and implement solutions to real-world problems. We build local, national, and global challenges to introduce participants to a design process that lends immediacy and relevancy to learning. Participants exit Breaker with new skills and abilities; products and services result from Breaker ready for impact.””
our 2018 summer Challenge, The Future of Stuff, will run June 18-28 at the Pacific Northwest college of Art.
Why use the Breaker method in your classroom?
Online Coaching Services are being developed to…
offer easy access to design challenge curriculum building strategies
allow collaboration among peers
support selection of the best design challenge for your subject matter
provide “mini” trainings on steps in design thinking
Breaker design challenges...
are student-centered, elevating student voice and promoting deeper learning
begin with a real-world, system-level problem-solving for students (purpose based learning)
allow non-traditional and traditional learners to succeed collaboratively
teach high-level employable skills — collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creative confidence
link educators with employers, creating a connection between educational and professional goals and outcomes
enhance current curriculums and work with most content areas
Breaker Teacher Professional Development and coaching services
offer opportunities to practice creative collaborative problem solving in a low stakes environment
teach the steps of “design thinking” as developed by IDEO and promoted by Stanford’s d.school K12 Lab
support you as you experience and practice new mindsets and behaviors that will expand the culture of innovation in your classroom and across your campus
give you the techniques and how-to instructions needed to build a design challenge as part of your curriculum — quickly putting students at the center of the learning experience
let you learn and practice important mindsets (bias toward action, culture of prototype, starting small, being mindful of process, staying human centered, and radical collaboration)
create space to build and iterate on design challenge curriculum for students
teach how to link design challenges with local industry partners and resources
Register for a workshop, bring Breaker to your school, or learn about becoming a Breaker Facilitator
+click here to SEE OUR FULL LIST OF SERVICES
+click here for videos of previous design challenges!
A Brief History of Breaker - Our Anchor Program
2011
Breaker begins testing an innovative new education model in New York City, subsequently partnering with Stanford University’s d.school. In addition to building student design challenges, Breaker offers teacher training workshops.
2014
Dr. Tony Wagner, author and professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, refers Breaker and its founder, Juliette LaMontagne, Ed.D, to Construct. The program becomes our first incubator partner.
2014-Present
Construct, with our College Possible partners, offers a customized Breaker summer design challenge that pushes students to generate triple-bottom-line solutions—good for the planet, good for the people, and good for the bottom-line—to real-world, system-level problems. The focus of work is on process and teaching high-level employable skills: collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creative confidence. See a design challenge in action.
2016
Our first local Lead Breaker Facilitator is trained, providing coaching services to teachers and schools. Breaker teacher professional development and coaching services are activated in Portland Public School District’s Franklin High School. In addition, Construct expands and deepens these services for the Dayton School District.
2017
Construct uses the Summer Challenge to train new facilitators, helping to bring the Breaker method to school communities across Oregon. We will continue to develop additional coaching and curriculum services for educators to use in their classrooms and collaboratively, across subject domains.
We are also developing a data collection method around learning outcomes for students and mindset shifts in teachers. We will glean insight from our partners at the Stanford d.school K12 Lab and their work with Hewlett Foundation's Deeper Learning initiative.