Iowa EdTech Collaborative is launching a startup experience aimed at high school students and teachers in Iowa.
The inaugural annual event, called Design Dash, will take place on April 19th from 9 am – 3 pm at MERGE in downtown Iowa City. Participating high schools will bring 3 to 4 students and 1 or 2 teachers for a day-long startup event.
The first Design Dash will bring in facilitators from 6 STEM regions across the state to build the curriculum and share the facilitation role during the event. Jay Cooper will serve as the lead facilitator. In future years, participating co-facilitators will gain the knowledge to lead this startup event in their region. The plan is to have future Design Dash events scaled state-wide by running 6 concurrent sessions across the state, making it accessible for all interested Iowa students.
Teachers attending will be offered a companion curriculum for professional development units provided by the University of Iowa’s Jacobson Institute.
“Teachers will have a great time, participate alongside student teams, and learn by doing, and best of all, they will have the option of earning credit too,” said Dawn Bowlus, Director of the Jacobson Institute in an announcement.
Registration for the event will open in mid-February.