Cushing Innovation Lab

Today’s secondary students are approaching adulthood at an unparalleled moment in human history. Rapid and powerful changes are occurring simultaneously across multiple technologies, and the rate of change will only increase. To prepare our students to meet the opportunities and challenges of this century, Cushing Academy founded the Cushing Institute for 21st Century Leadership in 2007, which evolved into the Cushing Innovation Lab in 2012.

The Cushing Innovation Lab facilitates teachers and students working with one another outside the boundaries of traditional academic disciplines to envision and develop student-centered approaches to teaching and learning aimed at addressing the emerging needs, interests, and aspirations of Cushing’s diverse community of learners as we explore together the possibilities and challenges of living in a rapidly changing 21st Century world.

Projects for the 2012-2013 academic year include: infusion of this year’s 21C theme into the school’s core curriculum; implementation of iClass tables in four additional classrooms; creation and implementation of iPad pilot program; additional opportunities for cross-cultural student learning; creation of Innovation Lab for student exploration and creation beyond the classroom; program support and professional development for faculty.

The CIL encourages highly relevant exploration and innovation in every aspect of classroom instruction and campus life, and instills in our students the perspectives, understanding and skills they will need to become effective leaders in the decades ahead.

The Virtue Project

Cushing's proctors have embarked on a new endeavor, The Virtue Project, whose motto is Student Leaders Modeling Virtue and Character.

Working in groups, the proctors explore a virtue with the community every two weeks. To explore Courage, proctors arranged for Carl Wilkens to speak to the entire school about his experiences as the last American relief worker remaining in Rwanda at the time of the genocide. You can follow their twitter feed "@VirtueProject".

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2013 Critical Issues Forum

For the fifth year, Cushing participated in the Critical issues Forum at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Schools from the United States, Russia, Japan and China convened at this student forum on nuclear non-proliferation, held in Monterey in April 2013 and sponsored by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

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iClass Table Expansion

Twenty-four iClass tables are now in place on campus, thanks to generous funding by both the E.E. Ford Foundation and a Cushing family that contributed the funds to match the foundation's challenge grant.

Three new classrooms in the Curry Academic Center -- Math, Biology, and Ecology -- are now equipped with the innovative and interactive iClass tables, joining the original Chemistry classroom set-up designed by Dr. Grant Geske. A fourth new interactive learning center has been introduced as part of the Innovation Lab in the Fisher-Watkins Library. This classroom is easily accessible to the humanities classes based in the Main and English Buildings and the Visual Arts Center and may be reserved by any class. Students may also reserve the tables for project collaboration or individual inquiry. Plans are in the works to add an iClass table to the Admissions Office for prospective families to explore, as well as for the design of several portable versions.