Our NuVuX schools have had an exciting start to the 2018-19 school year! From Woodstock Union High School and Middle School in Woodstock, Vermont to Episcopal School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to All Saints Academy in Lakeland, Florida, students are designing and building solutions to diverse challenges in their communities and abroad. 

We launched NuVuX three years ago to bring innovation and creative learning to schools and work with teachers and students on site at the schools. Three years later, we have 10 schools in the NuVuX Network - 8 schools based in the U.S. and 2 schools based internationally with 11 NuVu Fellows based on site at each partner school.

This Fall, we have around 50 studios in progress across the network. Studios include Morphing Playgrounds, Activist Installations, Hacking Public Spaces, Musical Objects and Upcycled Animals. Students range in age from 9 to 18 and are working on over 250 projects.

We're excited to be working with so many teachers and students across the different geographies. Here are a few soundbites from a couple of schools:

Woodstock Union High School and Middle School (Woodstock, Vermont)

"The studio, Rooted Installations, went to Kellyway Gardens which is an organic farm which provides produce, herbs, and decorations to the Woodstock Inn.  They work directly with the chefs of the Inn every year when planning what food to produce making cooking a more ecological pursuit.  The master gardener, Ben Pauly, gave us a tour showing how the growing process works from the useful mycelium in the soils to how they plan the large scale crop organization from year to year.  The students have begun to translate this type of localized food cycle into their installations, focusing on the ecological processes which are integral to it."

- Max Vanatta, NuVu Fellow @ Woodstock

Episcopal School (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)

"Our entrepreneurship studio Creature Comforts is designing animal-related products for a local humane shelter and thinking about ways in which these devices can be adapted for the broader pet market. Creatures and caretakers from the Walker Animal Shelter will serve as clients for the students, wherein product ideas stem from the specific needs of animals in transitory and high-stress environments.

The Neuroplasticity and Design studio met with the Beck Visual Cognition Lab at LSU to learn about ways in which our bodies and minds are linked. This studio is looking at ways in which neuroplasticity can be harnessed to affect behavior and promote mental health on the school's campus. On Monday they'll be discussing neuroplasticity with Dr. Lara Boyd, a lead researcher in this field from Univ. of British Columbia's Centre for Brain Health."

- Dyani Robarge, NuVu Fellow @ Episcopal