City as School

My journey through the BAM Fellowship Program will center on designing a primary and secondary education system that doubles as social framework. Through the process of gamification, a role-playing game inspired system will guide students through a completely decentralized curriculum, utilizing emergent educational spaces by engaging in partnerships with community non-profits, businesses, municipalities, and the activation of under utilized private and public space. This educational model is directly inspired by the BAM Institute of Civic Biodesign's model, which is a multi-layered, student-centered approach centered on projects, competencies, networks, and the emerging field of Civic Biodesign.

All projects will be embedded in the communities where the students reside. Through the process of Human Center Design, these projects will be co-designed by the students and community with the aid of BAM Fellows and Subject Matter Experts. Competencies will be tied to projects, with the future intention of mapping Common Core Standards in the creation of projects. Established networks within the community will be utilized and invested in to create space for a dynamic educational ecosystem. Civic Biodesign, a term coined and in the process of being defined by the BAM Institute, will compose the foundation of a STEAM-like curriculum, where students will tread into areas like placemaking, sensemaking, systems thinking, whole systems thinking, applied ecology, permaculture, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), urban geographies, rapid prototyping, open source technologies, effective altruism, biomimicry, and biodesign. These areas will be grounded in hands-on, trades-based skills, like carpentry and gardening.