New facility to expand educational innovation for girls in STEAM disciplines

Rooms in which students can explore design, engineering and robotics are among the leading-edge spaces in the iCAST building to be opened at Branksome Hall next year. (Artist’s depiction). supplied

Branksome Hall is a leader in science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) education, with programs, curriculum and partnerships that foster creativity, problem-solving and critical thinking in its students.

Now the independent International Baccalaureate World School for girls in Toronto will have a striking new centrepiece for its advanced learning methods and technology. The Karen L. Jurjevich Innovation Centre and Studio Theatre (iCAST), scheduled to open next spring, will include leading-edge spaces to expand STEAM opportunities for its students, helping to close the gender gap by giving them the tools to thrive in a dynamic, tech-driven world.

“This building will provide a beacon to allow us to amplify our programs to serve our students,” says Megan McKellar, Director of Curriculum Innovation at Branksome Hall and Instructional Leader, Design in the senior and middle schools. “We’re already doing some incredible things, and this will allow us to move to the next level.”

Branksome Hall, which was founded more than 100 years ago and today has 900 students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12, has been introducing cutting-edge, interdisciplinary and cross-age programming so it can hit the ground running when it opens the 34,458-square-foot facility, says Angela David, Instructional Leader, Arts, at the school. “I’m very excited to see this come into place.”

She says Branksome Hall students “are going to be able to now be truly leaders in exploration and development of their craft,” whether they’re looking at entrepreneurship or considering a career in arts. “They can begin to see themselves in these spaces, which are areas where women are traditionally under-represented.”

The one-of-a-kind building connects the school’s Athletics & Wellness Centre to the rest of campus, uniting the Branksome Hall community both symbolically and architecturally. With a focus on digital skill-building, design and fabrication through its reconfigurable spaces and tools, it will prepare girls for success in a digital, entrepreneurial economy.

The facility features a multimedia “black-box” theatre, a metal and wood shop, a versatile pitch space, a recording studio as well as artificial intelligence and augmented reality design labs. It will also house the school’s Noodle business-accelerator program and will be the home to the Slingshot Innovation Academy for evening, weekend and summer programs.

Ms. McKellar and Ms. David came back to Canada from jobs teaching in schools overseas drawn by Branksome Hall’s leadership in STEAM, and they’ve been excited to implement programming that further sets the school apart and will find an even greater focus when iCAST opens.

Ms. McKeller notes that one of the three main elements of iCAST is interdisciplinary learning, “the idea that subjects don’t live in silos.” Another is students collaborating together and with the wider community, while the third is the idea of bringing the outside world in “to give our students a competitive advantage while they’re still in K to 12.”

In the signature Expert in Residence program, she says, an engineer or someone who works in media production, for example, will “bring problems from outside industry for the girls to grapple with and explore at different ages and stages.”

Ms. David says an example of how such programming encourages innovation and creativity is having students build Foley floors, which are used to make and record sound effects for film and theatre. “They investigate what kinds of materials they might use to make different sounds.”

Students look at the science and engineering that go into making theatre sets, Ms. McKellar says, and then implement them. She notes iCAST spaces can be interconnected as well as separate. “You could, for example, start a project in the metal and wood shop, move through to the design space and then move through to the pitch space to share your final idea.”

There are also many cross-age opportunities. Ms. McKellar says that in a unit on accessibility, students in grade 2 and grade 9 are collaborating on developing products that are accessible, while in a unit on play, grade 10 students are creating toys alongside junior kindergarteners.

In terms of partnerships, she notes that Branksome Hall recently developed ties with Rotman School of Business through its Slingshot Innovation Academy to offer a business fundamentals program taught by Rotman professors, which takes place both at Rotman and in the school.

Ms. David says Branksome Hall has a key partnership with Red Sky Performance, an Indigenous theatre company, to help create an interdisciplinary theatre piece to open iCAST. The collaboration includes a composer, choreographer and director working with the students and will expand to artists helping with set and costume design as well as digital media and production experts to “celebrate the impact that Branksome Hall has had on education in the city and in the world.”

Ms. David notes that students will learn hands-on in iCAST spaces. For instance, the studio theatre will feature a “tension grid” that allows them to go above the ceiling and safely change and adjust the lighting they’ve designed, “rather than giving it to an adult to go up on a ladder and do,” she explains. “The girls can make their own dreams come to life and make their own ideas reality.”

Ms. McKellar is especially excited that iCAST “is a building for everyone, K through 12. I can only imagine what the possibilities will be.”

Ms. McKellar says it’s designed to ignite the innovation mindset, a creative, solutions-focused way of thinking that’s prized by universities, employers and the world beyond. “Students have a lot of opportunity to try different courses, passions and pursuits that allow them to really experience their education and make informed choices about their future.”

To view this report on The Globe's website, visit globeandmail.com

To view the full report as it appeared in The Globe's print edition STEM TO STEAM EDUCATION