Chase students tackle problem-solving exercises

WATERBURY — In less than 36 hours, Chase Middle School and Upper School students brainstormed, conceptualized, built, and delivered Shark Tank-style presentations of problem-solving mechanisms and fun, creative, do-it-yourself games that were appropriate for all ages. The occasion was Chase’s biannual Innovation Days, a two-day period where students are prompted to work together on a given challenge and put 21st century skills into practice: collaboration, creativity, communication, and critical thinking. Chase students incorporate these skills on a daily basis, which helps prepare them for an everchanging world that values right-brain thinkers and creative problem-solving.

Innovation Days answer the question: “What is innovation at Chase?” They grew out of the desire to apply 21st Century Skills into a classroom setting. The Days’ overall process is Wonder, Explore, Create, Persist, and Deliver. While these tenets are practiced every day in more subtle ways, Innovation Days are devoted to the process — days without classes, giving students the chance to fully focus on the assigned projects.

“[Innovation Days] give kids a chance to be wrong,” said Associate Head of School Jason Lewis. “Students are no longer recipients of information” as they might be in a typical classroom environment outside of Chase. The innovation process is more empowering, because it helps build persistence both in and out of the classroom.

Torrington senior Michael Nejaime’s favorite part of this year’s Innovation Days was the conceptualization of his group’s game, involving a simple throwand-catch method that they expanded on in their final presentation. “The most important part of innovation days was learning how to think in a different way than we’re used to … in a holistic way, in an encompassing way which is really important, for what we do in the classroom and what we’re going to do in society.”

“Everyone in the entire school gets to use their creativity to solve a problem or invent something in a completely original way,” said Maura Kahuda of Watertown. “This is preparing us for the real world; it teaches us that it’s OK to fail and it’s okay to make mistakes.”