STEM Study Night at Fab Cafe Shibuya

Takehiro Hagiwara (MESH), Aki Kawana (Loftwork), Youka Watanabe (FabLab Kamakura), me!, Matt Krebs (anthropologist), Clint Hamada (Yokohama International School)

I was excited to be asked to participate in the presentations and panel discussion for the STEM Study Night at the Fab Cafe in Shibuya in December.  I shared an overview of our K-12 design program and its use of Design Thinking, and participated in the panel discussion Q&A at the end of the session.  

The evening was well attended, with presentations and the following format: 

Moderator: Youka Watanabe 19: 00 - 7:05 p.m. Youka Watanabe Introduction 19:00 - 19:10 Daisuke Okabe: The Idea of STEM 19:15 - 19:30 

Matt Krebs: FabLabs x Cultural Anthropology in Japan 19:30 - 19:45 

Sarah Sutter: Case Study - The American School in Japan 19:45 - 20:00 

Clint Hamada: Case Study - Yokohama International School 20:15 - 20:30

Bradley Hayes: Case Study - The British School in Tokyo 20: 30 - 8:45 p.m. 

Takehiro Hagiwara: MESH 20:45 - 21:00

Aki Kawana:? What's Creativity 21:00 - 21:30 

Panel Session

 Check out the link to the program with bios of all the presenters. This was one of several preliminary events leading up to the Fab Learn Asia conference later in December, held in Yokohama. More on that to follow!

Our new space

So, our building is up enough to take a tour! I had a walk through and got the lay of the land and took a few photos. Such a cool space! I can't wait to be teaching courses here next year.

Also, our new director, Mark Schreiber, visited for a week in March and we had some great team discussions around layout, furniture, materials, storage, machines, etc. The support of the school is amazing, and I feel really lucky to be working here, and with the amazing team we have of faculty working together.

Here are the docs we marked up as a result of our conversations.
HS / MS classroom spaces: 

The rooms below are the robotics room (left) and the more flexible, appropriately sized furniture, etc. space for K-5 elementary (right).