Redefining and Redesigning.
Change what learning looks like.
The TOPO Lab is not a laboratory inside a building but our continual process of innovating and implementing.
Why we create:
We are a dynamic think-n-do tank. And we are always striving to do learning better. Our TOPO tools are developed to support the growth of all people wherever they are, which makes communities better everywhere.
The TOPO way of innovating:
Every tool we innovate and implement must be usable. By usable we mean universal, localizable and scalable.
We innovate and implement in three phases:
Create
Pilot
Assess and Refine
We assess each iteration with our Green-Yellow-Red tool. We make multiple iterations so it works with people of all ages.
We innovate and implement all over town–in schoolyards, on city sidewalks, at public green spaces, on college campuses, in town halls and beyond.
We engage in dynamic collaborations by co-laboring with individuals and organizations everywhere in the community.
Lab Credo
Together we adopt a sytems-thinking mindset that supports doing community better:
Focus on circles instead of straight lines
Connect the dots instead of checking the box
Create connections instead of staying in silos
See community as a web of people, pathways, and possibilities
Flip the script
Create synergy
Current Projects in the Lab
Career Ready!
Community Ready!
We are creating a tool – an experiential “Community Ready” module – that will enhance learning in Career Technical Education programs offered in public high schools.
“I want to hire citizens, not employees.” –Tom Moran, Moran Ironworks
Learn More ↓
Project Overview
We are creating a tool that will enhance learning in Career Technical Education programs offered in public high schools to include a “community ready” module. The objectives are three-fold: 1) to increase students’ marketability through real-world learning, 2) to create a community-supported structure that recognizes the need for community readiness, and 3) to create an industry-supported structure that rewards community readiness alongside career readiness.
Our next steps include the following:
Convene Roundtables with students currently enrolled in CTE courses to hear their ideas and advice the benefits and what it could look like
Conduct a survey with teachers currently instructing CTE course to hear their ideas and advice on the benefits and what it could look like.
Convene Roundtables with a lead team of current CTE instructors to dive deeper into survey findings
Conduct a survey with industry partners to hear their ideas and advice on the benefits and what it could look like.
Convene Roundtables with a lead team of industry partners to dive deeper into survey findings
Create sample curriculum
Our community collaborators will include public schools, intermediate school districts, and industry partners.
TOPO Voices
We are creating an experiential process for capturing, recording, sharing and archiving people’s stories of place.
Learn More ↓
We are creating an experiential process for capturing, recording, sharing and archiving people’s stories of place. Inspired by National Public Radio’s Story Corps project, our TOPO Voices tool will narrow NPR’s broad lens on stories of humanity to focus on stories of people in a specific place over time. Our process will go beyond an interview and include TOPO Mapping where participants create a storymap on paper in effort to capture their connection to place before sharing it verbally.
We will first target families with multiple generations living in the same place. This tool will be scaled to non-family groups with people of all ages living in the same place.
Our community collaborators will include WCMU Radio (Central Michigan University), local historical societies and national historic preservation centers.
Learn the Lingo
Usable
Easily accessed and easy to use; not a tool that sits on a shelf and looks nice but one that can be used to make something happen
Universal
Resonates and is relevant for most everybody– whoever you are
Localizable
Can be customized to your location, wherever you are
Scalable
Can be sized up or down to reach more learners or less learners
Green-Yellow-Red
Assessing iterations by identifying what is working (green), what needs consideration (yellow), and what needs to be removed (red)
