Cultivating Curiosity. Doreen Gehry Nelson

teachers. It has changed my view about the role of education for all who participate. And, it has opened my eyes to how fun, serious, and exciting education will find those that ask ‘why.’

       —Dave Cameron, science teacher, Gabrielino High School, San Gabriel, California

      The work of Doreen Gehry Nelson will bring innovation to classrooms for years to come. Thank you to being so devoted to raising our profession to the next level.

      —Daphne Chase, 2^nd grade teacher, Wilson Elementary School, San Gabriel, California

Expanding on the work of John Dewey, Doreen Nelson has made the nuances of constructivist pedagogy concrete, relatable, and engaging. She provides a comprehensive guide that works as a catalyst for creativity, collective consciousness, and civics in any classroom. It is an antidote to prescriptive programs that unwittingly restrain and disengage students and teachers from higher-order thinking. Cultivating Curiosity: Teaching and Learning Reimagined offers hope to anyone interested in the connections between our fragile democracy and schooling. Educators at any grade level, parents and policy-makers alike, will find this design-based learning methodology a tool to integrate disciplines and reflect on governance structures in thoughtful and fun-filled ways.

       —Georgia Ann Lazo, Ed.D, Principal, UCLA Lab School, Los Angeles

      cultivating curiosity

      teaching and learning reimagined

       DOREEN GEHRY NELSON

       The Doreen Nelson Method of Design-Based Learning

      Copyright © 2022 Doreen Gehry Nelson. All rights reserved.

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       Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is Available:

      ISBN 9781119824169 (hardback)

      ISBN 9781119824183 (ePDF)

      ISBN 9781119824176 (epub)

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      Author Photo: Carl Bower | www.carlbower.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      Photo: Carl Bower.

      DOREEN GEHRY NELSON is Professor Emerita of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, School of Education and Integrative Studies; Adjunct Professor in the Cal Poly College of Environmental Design; was a Professor at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, from 2002 to 2019; and in 2019, was named Founding Director of Design-Based Learning by the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies–Center X for the UCLA Design-Based Learning Project.

      An award-winning, 50-year veteran educator and published author in the field of education, Nelson began developing her Design-Based Learning methodology (formerly called City Building Education) in the late 1960s to ignite creativity, promote high-level transfer of learning, and foster cross-curricular critical thinking skills among K–12 students using the spatial domain. She was named one of 30 top American innovators in education by the New York Times in 1991, and is the recipient of both the American Institute of Architecture's prestigious Lifetime Honorary Membership (the highest honor for a nonarchitect) and the California State University's statewide, 2006 Wang Award for Excellence in Education.

Nelson has served as lecturer, teacher, consultant, and scholar-in-residence for institutions as diverse as MIT, Harvard, Apple Inc., Stanford University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, London's Royal College of Art, Japan's Sendai Science Museum, the American Bar Association, Walt Disney Imagineering, and the Smithsonian Institution. Nelson contributed to the original Maxis SimCity simulation and wrote teacher guides for the product. From 1994 through 2004, she led a Japan–USA Cultural and Educational Exchange program to develop Design-Based Learning as part of the Japanese national curriculum. The program included international video conferences and a satellite school in Finland.

      Nelson has taught her methodology to thousands of educators worldwide—and to architects and lawyers, researchers, computer scientists, marine biologists, medical doctors, theater artists, musicians, and dancers.

      Encompassing four decades of evaluative data, Nelson's research confirms that students experiencing her Design-Based Learning methodology develop creative and critical thinking skills, and score higher than average on standardized tests in language, reading, math, and other subjects. English Language Learners and students with learning disabilities, too, show measurable improvement. Students in these classrooms graduate and enter college in significant numbers.

      Nelson established a two-year master's degree program for K–12 teachers at Cal Poly in 1995, with an emphasis in Design-Based Learning; and a one-year certificate program in 2010. Three graduates of the MA program received a Doreen Gehry Nelson Design-Based Learning Scholarship in Cal Poly's doctorate program in Educational Leadership.