Innovation

With an ethos of "Always Curious, Always Innovating," Flint Hill offers a dynamic and robust JK-12 Innovation curriculum that taps into our students' natural curiosity and inspires them to ask, "What if?"

Lower School students build a foundation of innovative learning through design thinking challenges and collaborative projects in their computer science classes and in the Innovation Lab. By Middle and Upper School, students tackle robotics, media production, engineering, cybersecurity, and more. Along the way, they amass the tools and strategies they'll need to become the next generation of innovating changemakers.

CRACKING THE CODE EARLY

Huskies are introduced to Computer Science in Junior Kindergarten. They learn essential computational thinking skills including pattern-recognition, algorithms, decomposition, and abstraction through lessons and activities like this one involving some friendly robot mice.

INCUBATING IMAGINATION

As they progress with the Innovation curriculum, Flint Hill students exercise the core value of "imagining what's possible," navigating interdisciplinary problem-solving and completing short- and long-term projects of increasing complexity and depth. 

RESILIENT EXPERIMENTATION

Creativity is at the center of the Lower School Innovation curriculum. Something that our students do all the time is reprocess what they've done: Can I make it better? How might I improve this? What can I do differently on this or the next project?

MINI GOLF, MAX FUN

6th graders used cardboard, hot glue, felt, and other craft supplies to create their own miniature golf hole. They coded servo motors to make the windmills, trap doors, bridges, and tunnels move so the holes would be more challenging and have a higher par.

MAKing MAGIC!

Middle School Makers students teamed up with Magic Wheelchair to make a local 9-year-old’s Halloween wish a reality. The students logged over 200 hours building a royal costume in their Makers class that she could wear with her wheelchair.

SPARKING SOLUTIONS

In the Makers classroom, Middle School students use design thinking, prototyping, collaboration, and problem-solving skills to complete increasingly difficult challenges that are presented in a rich storytelling environment. Middle School students also have the option of taking Robotics and Audio/Visual Production.

ENGAGING A CHANGING WORLD

At Flint Hill, students take Innovation classes to satisfy their own natural curiosity. Answering questions like, “How does this work?” helps them better understand the world around them and be effective problem-solvers. Upper School Innovation courses are designed to take students deeper into the subject matter and move them toward college preparation and professional skill sets.

DISCOVERING ENGINEERING

The Newspaper Bridge Challenge in the Upper School's Discovery of Engineering course emphasizes collaboration, imagination, engineering principles, testing, and the lessons learned from working within seemingly impossible limits.