Learning & Growing

Innovation Lab

    • In addition to hard skills, students working in the Innovation Lab develop critical life skills such as planning, time management and organization.

With a mix of high- and low-tech equipment, our Innovation Lab encourages students to explore big ideas and develop skills used in the real world.
Teachers work with students to guide their ideas and help them to translate their plans into reality, whether they’re producing a solar-powered seed spreader or a miniature golf hole. Through their work in the lab, students learn how to:
  • Safely use tools including 3D printers, virtual reality equipment, woodworking tools and steel
  • Create 3D digital designs using Tinkercad
  • Produce detailed technical drawings
Students can access the Innovation Lab through courses and clubs or for personal design projects. Three project-based courses are currently running in the lab:
  • Grade 8 Art and Design Technology (ADT8) introduces students to technical design. Students develop an understanding of design principles and the design cycle, various types of machinery, and how to work with 3D design software and printers.
  • Grade 10 Technological Design (TDJ2O) guides students through applying the design process to meet a variety of technological challenges. Students build models and prototypes and develop awareness of environmental and societal issues related to technological design.
  • Grade 11 Technological Design (TDJ3M) encourages students to examine how design is influenced by human, environmental, financial and material factors. Students work through the design cycle and master a variety of equipment; for many students, this sparks an interest in exploring related fields for their future careers.

    • Our Grade 8 French students used our 3D printers to create representations of francophone legends.

Several other classes also leverage the Innovation Lab’s technology to augment projects in science, art, history and languages. For example, our Grade 8 French students used our 3D printers to create representations of francophone legends.
In addition to hard skills, students working in the Innovation Lab develop critical life skills such as planning, time management and organization. Another key takeaway is the idea of successful failure. “When something doesn’t go to plan, we want students to say ‘Oh, that didn’t work -- what did I learn from this experience so that I won’t run into this problem again?'” says Bill Farbstein, Coordinator, Innovation Lab.

Greenwood College School

443 Mount Pleasant Road
Toronto, ON M4S 2L8
Tel: 416 482 9811
We acknowledge with gratitude the Ancestral lands upon which our main campus is situated. These lands are the Ancestral territories of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, Anishinabek and the Wendake. The shared responsibility of this land is honoured in the Dish with One Spoon Treaty and as settlers, we strive to care for the land, the waters, and all creatures in the spirit of peace. We are responsible for respecting and supporting the enduring presence of all First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. When away from this campus we vow to be respectful to the land by protecting and honouring it. We will create relationships with the people and the land we may visit by understanding the territories we enter and the nations who inhabit them.
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