Experience Educational Design and Inquiry

In this course, design thinking comes to life—literally. Students open their at-home kits and dive into hands-on experiments alongside their cohort, turning everyday materials into tools for innovation. This course is a playground for thinking big, taking risks, and learning to solve problems that matter in classrooms and beyond. Each project challenges participants to iterate, reflect, and adapt, building the flexible problem-solving mindset that supports creativity in teaching. By experimenting with everything from electronics to mousetraps to glitter glue, educators gain the confidence to innovate and lead change in their own classrooms from day one.

In MEDU 620, teachers take an analytical look at the hidden factors shaping their students’ experiences. The course focuses on the learners who may seem unreachable or face the greatest challenges, encouraging educators to reimagine classroom climate through innovative and student-centered approaches. Participants gather meaningful data directly from their students and use it to purposefully redesign routines, interactions, and learning spaces—building environments where every student can thrive.

This course examines the science of learning, exploring how memory, attention, and cognitive processes shape what students understand and retain. Teachers examine the concepts in their own content that challenge learners the most, and apply insights about working memory, cognitive load, and concept formation to redesign assignments, routines, and assessments. The course emphasizes skillfully simple changes that make learning more relevant, engaging, and lasting—helping educators turn complex cognitive science into practical, high-impact strategies in their classrooms.