This space is more than another great asset to the Brook Hill educational experience, this new space, and the resources available to students are a marker of forward progress and an exciting future!

This past week we cut the ribbon and announced the official open of the Graves Family Center for Innovation and Graves Media Center. In addition to these spaces opening, we were able to re-open the Bell Library and Sharawi Student Center as a part of the new collaborative learning environment. The Innovation Center houses a robotics and fabrication lab along with a host of interactive stations and resources for students to explore.

Director of Educational Technology and Innovation, Ashley Swinney showcased the new technologies that are available in the lab and demonstrated various ways that students will be able to explore, experiment, and create in a very hands-on learning environment. From Legos to robots to 3-D printers, the new labs are designed to stimulate creativity and exploration in a way that leads students to be curious and critical thinkers; to grow comfortable with exploration, trying new things (and possibly failing), and then taking that experience to innovate and create something new.

In all areas of study, we strive to provide tangible experiences that allow students to put their knowledge to the test, and this Center for Innovation provides that on a much larger scale for subjects like coding, math, engineering, digital media, design, and science. Regardless of our students’ passion and area of interest, our hope is that this space fosters a sense of wonder and creativity for all of our students!

Travis Bunger, our Science Department Chair and Upper School Science teacher introduced us to the fabrications and robotics equipment and shared that students will have the opportunity to be a part of teams building robots to enter into competition with other schools and clubs.

In addition to tangible skill development and innovation, these spaces are designed to encourage collaboration, testing, and project development with others. As a college preparatory school we’re looking at the whole individual and want our students to be confident, collaborative, and able to critically think about complex problems so this space feels like such an important addition to our campus.

The Graves Media Center is located inside the Bell Library and provides a green screen and digital media space that we’re excited to see our students put to use as well! At the grand opening, we had the opportunity to take pictures in front of the green screen and are already dreaming of fun ways to teach and explore in this space.

We also introduced an Idea Lab and interactive screen TVs that students will have access to for group projects and presentations. We look forward to sharing more photos, videos, and posts about the ways we’re using this space over the coming weeks and hope that you’ll join us in thanking those who have worked so hard to make this center a reality for our students!

To get a quick feel for the excitement of the day you can watch this great news clip from KLTV news.