GHS Innovation Lab

group of students
Innovation Lab students learn to solve problems in real-time in the face of adversity. Despite the challenges of remote learning, they continued to demonstrate their mastery of core content and skills through dynamic and complex projects — even continuing the exhibition component of the program.

Pictured above: GHS InLab students showcase their culminating projects to the greater Greenwich community at the Bruce Museum, Arch Street, Bush Holly House, Julian Curtiss Elementary School, and other locations. InLab students also displayed their talents through and have garnered awards from numerous national/international contests,  including National History Day, the Genocide Awareness Art Contest, and the NPR Student Podcast Challenge.

Learn more on the GHS InLab website, 2020-2021 Padlet, and on Twitter@GHSInLab.

Our Largest Grant
Alliance Investment Totals $453,500

Innovation Lab is an interdisciplinary school within-in-a-school at Greenwich High School, leveraging innovative teaching methods, project-based learning and leading edge technology applications.  Innovation Lab is designed to foster creativity, curiosity and personalized learning within an academically rigorous college preparatory curriculum. The dedicated Innovation teachers blend core disciplines to create STEM (Science/ Technology/Math) and Humanities (Arts, English, Social Studies) classes plus Design Studio (teaches skills needed to execute independent projects).  With guidance, students discover their passions and impact the community at large. 

The Alliance played an instrumental role in the establishment of Innovation Lab. Utilizing funds from an initial Alliance grant awarded for the 2014-2015 school year, a group of five teachers worked together with a consulting team from Greenwich Leadership Partners to research, design and implement Innovation Lab which opened in Fall 2015 with 43 sophomores. Subsequent Alliance grants were used to expand the curriculum across all four grades of Greenwich High School and for ongoing support for materials, projects and continued professional development. 

One Student’s Experience

Reflections from a GHS 2020 graduate  – the significant influence Innovation Lab had on her high school experience, discovering her passions and preparing her for life in an ever-changing world.

WHAT INNOVATION LAB MEANS TO ME

“I was extremely fortunate to be able to find my home in Innovation Lab  …As a student, I was able to be a research scientist, an activist, a historian, a paralegal and a documentarian. My passion is environmental action. I stayed at school until 7 pm for weeks to measure plant height for research on eutrophication in STEM class, while creating a documentary about water conservation inspired by rhetorical tactics used by 1920s Muckrakers. The documentary led to a public action campaign on water usage with a local Girl Scout troop and culminated in me engineering a solution, an Arduino-based water sensor which measured water soil levels and could activate a sprinkler system I used in my backyard….

In Lab inspired me to be a leader and create change in my community, write for the local newspaper, lead a club on an issue I was passionate about, do original research, speak to the freshman class in an an assembly, work for a tech start-up and make an advertisement with 1 millions views (and counting), compete nationally in a history competition and win national writing awards…

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of being given a space to try anything and everything with your learning. It instills in you a sense of place and control in the greater world. It is one thing to understand how the world works; it is an entirely different thing to feel you have the power to shape it. I think, above all, that is what InLab did for me.”

Gracie McCooe

GHS Innovation Lab, Class of 2020; Wellesley College, Class of 2024

Innovation Lab | Humanities

Culminating Humanities Project

Humanities 10 students created original children’s books that communicate lessons from historical events such as the AIDS crisis, the L.A. Riots, international interventionism, and Watergate. Students reframed their own understandings for an audience of second grade students at Julian Curtiss School and presented their work to these stakeholders — this year via Google Meet.

A special thanks to children’s book author and GPS teacher Valerie Bolling and Julian Curtiss Media Specialist Esra Murray for their collaboration and expertise! In The Shadiest Tree, author and illustrator Nick O. uses imagery and figurative language to demonstrate the power of forgiveness, a concept inspired by his study of the policies of openness that led to the end of the Cold War.

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