Workshops 07-24

NEXT.cc Student Workshops 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
NEXT.cc Teacher Professional Development Workshops
NEXT.cc Family Workshops

Workshops meet appropriate national and content and performance-based standards
Workshops develop skills, open connections, introduce design as response, and link to creative career connections
Workshops establish rigorous standards of excellence (for schools, museums, libraries)
Workshops are developed with content and pedagogy experts (consulting practitioners, administrators, and educators)

2024
Milwaukee Green School Symposium, MKE, WI, UWM, Exhibitor, CO Presenter with August 21 (100s) ABQ NEXT.cc and SZI Teacher Professional Development, Albuquerque, NM, April 27(35 TEACHERS)
NAEA Best Sustainable and Environmental Practices in Art Education, Minneapolis, MN
WFB Middle School, Green Architecture, March 4(38)
Menasha High School, Green Homes, Green Schools, Green Communities, February 23(30)
El Puente High School, January(10)
Muncie Public Schools CREATE: Civic Renewal through Education, Agency, Tolerance, and Engagement, WATER/FOOD/ENERGY NEXUS, Jan 17
(Open for all MUNCIE SCHOOLS) ongoing on Youtube & VIMEO

2023 1725 total reached in person; over 50,000 virtually
Green Architecture, Whitefish Bay Middle School, UWM Commons Dec 15(50)
Creativity in Learning Environments, Golda Meier Middle School, Dec 4 (45)
UWM, AIAs NOMAS WID DESTINY DAY, St. Joan Antida Girls High School (250)
Green Architecture, Whitefish Bay Middle School, UWM COMMONS (50)
Green Cities Workshop with UWM AIAs and Golda Meier Middle School (50)
Green Cities Workshop with UWM AIAs WID NOMAS Glen Ellen Middle School(50)
SAIC TEACHER TOOLKIT SAIC Chicago (150)
) Green Cities Workshop with UWM AIAs and Golda Meier Middle School(50)
Indian Independence Day Sound & Salt Walk, New York City, Aug. 2: A walk inspired by Mathma Gandhi’s Dandi/Salt March offering opportunities for Eco Sensing, Sketching, Singing, and Learning about India and New York City (30)
Milwaukee Green & Healthy Schools Symposium, Aug.2, Milwaukee Zoo, WI (500)
AIA K12 IDEA presented NEXT.cc, ACE Mentor, designExplorr, and School Zone Institute Architecture and Children, AIA National, San Francisco, CA (75)
Green Cities Golda Meier Middles School with UWM AIAs Mentors(50)
What makes a city Green? ECO DAY Whitefish Bay (250)
AIAS Regional Meeting, KEYNOTE: We LIVE in a DESIGNED WORLD, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI(100)
James Madison University, MNI WICONI Water is Life, February (25)

2022
WAEE Design Toolkit, Nov 3(50)
WAEE Nature Play Workshop, (25)Nov 4
SAIC CAPx: Creative Career Connections, Nov.2
A4LE Michigan Education Forum, DESIGN is the Toolkit for the Future(50)
Forming, Folding, Fanning, Flying FUN! w/ AIA Chicago and SAIC Mentors, Oct.19(50)
AIA Illinois Education Panel, Oct 6, 11:00 am -12:30pm(50)
Muncie Community Schools, STEAM by DESIGN, Sept.25(100)
NEXT.cc LEARNING EVERYWHERE EVERYTIME Exhibit Opening at SAIC Gallery, Chicago, IL, Sept. 9-December 8
PLACE BASED LITERACY, Design Literacy International, Sept.
Milwaukee Green & Healthy Schools Symposium, Milwaukee, WI
Designing Better Futures, JMC Academy, July 20, Sydney, AU
Eco DAY, Whitefish Bay,WI May 7
Lubar Entrepreneurial Center, UWM, NEXT.cc Playbook, May
AIA K12 IDEA, American Institute of Architects K12 Advisory Board, May
UWM Foundation, Milwaukee, WI, April
NAEA NYC Forming Folding Fanning Flying Fun Workshop, March
Geographies of Listening, Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology MSAE & Great Lakes Association for Sound Studies GLASS

2021
NEXT.cc STEAM by DESIGN, SAIC Virtual Career Fair
Chicago Architecture Biennial Workshop, MNI WICONI Water is Life Eco Park
CAB MNI WICONI Water is LIFE ECO PARK Workshops.PDF
CoHost 6th International LEARNxDesign, Design of Learning and Learning Environments, Jinan China (9/21)
We live in a Designed World…NAture’s and Our Own SAIC Ponic Projects
MKE GREEN SCHOOL CONSORTIUM, Milwaukee, WI
STEAM by DESIGN21st Century Community Learning Centers Summer Symposium: Exploring New Horizons
SOUNDWALKING Milwaukee’s Lakeshore State Park, The UnQuiet Earth, with BlackBOX, July 18
ASA Acoustic Society of America, Soundscape Projects: Networking, Participation, and New Technology Panel with EU Sound Consultant Dr. Antonella Radicchi and Dr. Brigitte Schulte-Fortkamp June 8-10
Architecture & Design Careers, Gulliver Prep 9th grade
ISN Virtual Conference on Educational Innovation, Sustainable Cities Equitable Cities, Virtual, April 19
NAEA DESIGN THINKING STUDIO CHAT PDF, April 6
HAINES Elementary Career Day, Chicago, IL, March 26
Empower High School, Escuela Verde Charters, Introduction to NEXT.cc

2020
AAO DESIGN MATTERS, Taking the Waters: TEENS H2O 12/03
Escuela Verde, MKE, WI, Teacher Inservice, 11/20
EHLS Emergency Home Learning Summit, (virtual) 11/13
AL4 Learning Landscapes Super Session, San Antonio, NM(virtual) 11/06
AAUWGirls & Engineering Careers 10/3
Design As Nature, WI Green & Healthy Schools 9/15
DESIGN is OUR NATURE
Folding Fanning Flying Fun w/ Chicago Mobile Makers, Oak Park IL, 9/12
CREATIVITY CONNECTIONS
Art Education Teachers TPD with ARCHITECTURE and CHILDREN, Albuquerque, NM(postponed)
Territory Empowering Teens to Design Places to Play
Youth Summer Programming Opportunities, MKE, WI
BSU Environmental Council, Muncie, IN
WI Education Administration Green Schools Exhibition, MKE, WI

2019
Clean Rivers, Clean Lake Conference, Sweetwater Foundation, Alverno College, MKE, WI
Chicago Architecture Biennial A City Runs Through It, SAIC, McLean Ballroom, Chicago, IL
Chicago’s Future in Balance Think Tank in the Great Lakes Region Sponsored by Legat Architects
Japanese Bento, Importance of Working with Children for Diversity & Inclusion, Chicago, IL
Eco Cruise Chicago: Water Stories on Water, Chicago, IL
Milwaukee Green School Conference Exhibitor
Chicago Park District eLearning Support for Summer Programming
CHICAGO AIA Architects in Schools Support
UWM Illinois & WI Technology Educators
Lincoln Park School, Chicago, IL e-Learning Support for Math PBL
Creativity in Careers, WID, Milwaukee,WI
Milwaukee Water Partners, NEXT.cc contributes to Water 101, Milwaukee, WI
Wild Things PDF, Rosemont IL, Eco Sensing the Environment w/Eric Leonardson

2018

CCAIA Flying, Folding, Fanning FUN, SAIC
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Water & ME Workshop
Chicago Line ECO Cruises, Freshwater and The Great Lakes Workshop September
McCormick Bridge Museum
CHICAGO IDEAS WEEK AIA YOUTH LAB: Safe School Design By Students
Chicago Line ECO Cruises
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, June
Milwaukee Green School Symposium, Milwaukee, WI
Taliesin East, Spring Green, WI
SAIC CCAIA & Chicago Public School Folding, Fanning & Flying Workshop
STEAM by Design, American Association of University Women State Conference, Milwaukee, WI
ACSA National, Creative Achievement in Education Award, Denver, CO
Chicago River Congress, Taft High School, Microorganisms, Invasive Species and Sound Workshops, Chicago, IL February
Advances in ECO SENSING the ENVIRONMENT BALANCE/UNBALANCE, Critical Practice in an Age of Complexity, Phoenix, AZ
WI Green & Healthy Schools, Milwaukee, WI

2017

STEAM by Design, UWM Science Educators, MKE, WI
STEAM by Design, Bayview High School, Bayview, WI
Folding, Fanning, Forming & Flying, FUN! Chicago, IL
FermiLAB at 50! Consilience of Scales
Chicago Bridge Museum
Eco Design Riverworks: Water is Essential For Life
Balance/Unbalance Sense of Space Symposium Virtual Panel w/Scientists & Artists, Plymouth, UK
Milwaukee Green School Symposium, Milwaukee, WI
Folding, Fanning, Forming & Flying, FUN! Chicago, IL
Assessing Makerspaces, Collab Lab 9 Ward 4, Milwaukee, WI
K-12 Expert Panel, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Detroit, MI
Biomimicry Workshop Esceula Verde, Milwaukee, WI
WTEC Wisconsin Technology Education Conference, March, Wisconsin Dells, WI
Wisconsin Education Conference,WI Green & Healthy Schools, Milwaukee, WI
Digital Learning Day, Houston, TX

2016

Illinois Technology Education Conference, October 27-29, Normal, IL
North American Association of Environmental Education National, October 21, Madison, WI
Scientists for Tomorrow STEAM Workshop: Paper Folding, Fanning and Flying!, 14 May, Northern Illinois University
Innovative School Network, April 29, Draw to Build
Innovative School Network, April 29, Design This Place
Illinois Green School Symposium, Sustainability Hack, Chicago You Media, April 8, Chicago, IL
NAEA Chicago, March 17-19 Nature Play Project Super Session
NAEA STEAM by Design SUPER SESSION Workshop
NAEA Design This Place Workshop
NAEA Creativity in the Classroom w/Marie Gyllstrom & Dr. Robin Vande Zande
OZeLive, STEAM: Math & Modeling w/Melissa Silk, Head STEM Instructor, Sydney Australia
OZeLIVE, Creativity in the Classroom, February 26, Sydney, Australia
LUMIFOLD & NEXT.cc & GLELab School, SAIC, Jan. 7,Chicago,IL

2015

HIVE Chicago Public Library Energy Hack w/ CPL YOUmedia Teens & CAF Discover Design, Fall Workshops
Chicago Artist Coalition & CCAIA & SAIC & LLB Green Schools Green Cities
A Tapistry of Sustainability Forum.PDFAlverno College, Mke, WI
UWM Science Fair, Milwaukee, WI
RoofTAP, Global Water Institute, Milwaukee, WI
SAIC & CCAIA & Chicago Public Schools Workshop Chicago, IL
LEARNxDESIGN, Creativity in the Classroom Chicago, IL
LEARNxDESIGN, Nature Play Project Chicago, IL
LEARNxDESIGN, STEAM by Design Chicago, IL
LEARNxDESIGN, Design THIS Place Built Environment Education Chicago, IL
LEARNxDESIGN, Green Schools Green Cities Chicago, IL
ISN Innovative Schools Network Wisconsin Dells, WI
Design As Nature Taliesin West TPD K12 Educators, Scottsdale, AZ
BALANCEunBALANCE: Water, Climate & Place: Reimagining Environments Arizona State, Tempe, AZ
Youth Teen Overnight Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
OzLive, Australia, Creativity in the Classroom
Scientists for Tomorrow, Chicago, IL

2014

Space Planning Workshop, Esceula Verde Charter, Milwaukee, WI
Nature Play Workshop, Notre Dame Elementary School, Milwaukee, WI
Arts@Large Meet&Greet, Milwaukee, WI
Wisconsin Environmental Education Conference 40th Anniversary, Stevens Point, WI
A+DEN Symposium, Cranbrook, MI
Chicago AIA Convention Pecha Kucha, Chicago, IL
ENERGY & Global Environment: Science, History, Politics University of Chicago Teacher Institute, Chicago, IL
ACE MENTOR Rosemont, IL
Milwaukee Water Commons Town Hall, Milwaukee, WI
National Art Education Association San Diego, CA
International Teacher Education Conference DuBai, UAE
Golden Apple: Reimagining School: Why Creativity and Innovation Matter Chicago, IL

2013

Escuela Verde Milwaukee, WI
After School Matters Digital Workshop Chicago, IL
Froebel USA, Ann Arbor, MI
[The School of the Art Institute of Chicago TEACHER TOOLKIT](, Chicago, IL
The Internet of Things London, England
GLOBAL STEMx International Conference: GREEN ImaginationVirtual
After School Matters Chicago, IL
German Bavarian Chamber of Architects, Munich, Germany
The Art of Play AIA Webinar w/Susan G. Solomon, Author of American Playgrounds: Revitalizing Community Space
TEDx MILWAUKEE
TED x STEAM by Design, Milwaukee, WI
VISIONEER DESIGN CHALLENGE Milwaukee, WI, Peck School of the Arts, UWM
Designing Design Education India, Designing Design Education Virtual, Pune, India
ACSA National Conference San Francisco, CA
Wisconsin Innovative Schools Network Appleton, WI
AIA Transforming Outdoor Learning Environments Webinar w/Sharon Gamson Danks & Roy Diblik, Garden Designer/Educator

2012

ARTS@Large Meet & Greet, Milwaukee, WI
IDSA K12 Design Education Symposium Cultivating Creative Learners
Video from Henry Ford Academy Dearborn, MI
SCALE: Read/Write/Act Virtual
Wisconsin Art Education Association Common Ground: Challenges of the 21st Century Sheboygan, WI
AIA Committee on Architecture Education Informal Learning Outdoor Classrooms Webinar
Art and Design Hand in Hand: Chicago After School Matters, Chicago, IL
Arts Alive: An Elegant Fit: Columbia College, Chicago, IL
Green Cities, Green Schools: MRAE ENERGY FAIR, Custer, WI
Design As Nature Teacher Workshop, Monona Terrace, Madison, WI, partnered with National Environmental Education Foundation, Earth Day Network and supported in part by the Wisconsin Arts Board
VISIONEER Design Challenge, Peck School of the Arts, UWM, Milwaukee, WI
NAEA National Art Education Association Wyland & Friends Support the Arts Linda Keane, AIADO, joined Wyland & Friends Harvey Seifter, Art of Science Learning, Paul L. King, Ex. Director of the Arts & Special Projects (OASP), and cartoonist Jim Toomey to discuss innovative ways educators can stimulate public interest in the arts. New York City,NY
Design Overflow, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Story of NEXT.cc, The Chicago Designers Accord Town Hall Meeting with James Goggin (MCA Chicago), George Aye (Greater Good Studio), Jerry O'Leary (IDEO), Michael Renaud and Zach Dodson (Show ‘N Tell)
Arts@Large, Milwaukee, WI
Arts Educators Exchange, Chicago, IL
LaCrosse Design Institute, LaCrosse, WI
Nelson Institute Earth Day Celebration, Madison WI
Wisconsin Arts Educator Exchange, Milwaukee, WI
Wisconsin Charter Schools, Grand Geneva, WI

2011

AAO A+DEN Association of Community Designers, Philadelphia, PA
AIM Elegant FIT, Columbia College, Chicago, IL
Art Institute of Chicago Art Curriculum Fair
AIGA Moving Design, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Creativity Education Alliance, Milwaukee, WI
Illinois Art Education Association, Normal, IL
Jane Goodall Institute Chicago IL Roots + Shoots High School Program
Glazer Children’s Museum, Hillsborough School District, Tampa, FL
LaCrosse Design Institute, LaCrosse, WI
Milwaukee Public Schools, Milwaukee, WI
Nelson Institute Earth Day Celebration, Madison, WI
UIA Design 2050 World Congress, Tokyo, Japan
Visioneer Art and Design Day as part of National Environmental Education Week
Woodson Art Museum, GOOD Design Stories From Herman Miller Traveling Exhibit,Wausau, WI

2010

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Arts@Large, Milwaukee, WI
Chicago Architecture and Design Career Day, IIT, Chicago, IL
International Design Principles and Practices Conference, Chicago, IL
Jane Goodall Institute Chicago IL Roots + Shoots High School Program, Chicago, IL
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
National Environmental Education Foundation, Washington, DC
Niles North Township Schools, Niles, IL
Design As Nature, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Visioneer Art /Design Challenge, UWM Peck School of the Arts, Milwaukee, WI
United States Green School National Conference, Minneapolis, MN
UWM Peck School of the Arts, Milwaukee, WI
Wisconsin Association of Environmental Educators, Milwaukee, WI
Wisconsin Charter Schools, Madison, WI

2009

Muskegon Art Museum, Good Design Workshop w/ Herman Miller Good Design Show, Muskegon, MI
Art Institute of Chicago Museum Education Workshop on Green Roofs + Green Building
Great Lakes Constructivist Consortium, MKE, WI
Urban Ecology Center, Milwaukee, WI
Jane Goodall Institute Chicago IL Roots + Shoots High School Program, Chicago, IL
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
WI Charter Schools, Madison, WI

2007-2008

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
US Green Charter Schools, Madison, WI
North American Association for Environmental Education w/ Earth Day, Kansas City, KS
A+DEN 2, Chicago, IL
INTUIT Gallery, Chicago, IL
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
The Catholic University of America, Gaithersburg, Maryland
New Charter School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Milwaukee, WI

2006 A+DEN Architecture and Design Education Network Conference, Innovation in Design Education Panel with National Building Museum, Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, and San Francisco Build

2003- 2005 Pilot study with Milwaukee and Racine County middle schools
Career Days Shorewood Schools: Architecture, Interior Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning
Creation of NEXT.cc pilot website
Career Days Shorewood Schools: Architecture, Interior Architecture, Landscape Architecture,Urban Planning

Pilot study with Milwaukee and Racine County Middle Schools
Career Days Shorewood Schools: Architecture, Interior Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning

2002 Publication of original 16 journeys

We collaborate individually with each new community to tune green initiatives with their specific needs and desires that will motivate and move individuals and organizations to a higher habit of mind. NEXT.cc posts a calendar of scheduled workshops, photos, and short videos below.

green imagination workshops

Greening imagination is a systemic process that needs nurturing in classes and communities. The best hope for learning to live in more sustainable ways lies in new ways of learning about human ecology and the environment across the curriculum. The experience of the natural world; learning how nature sustains life; nurturing healthy communities; recognizing implications of the ways we feed and provide for ourselves; and knowing well the places where we live, work, learn, and play are essential to becoming eco-literate. Teachers are in a prime position to connect the culture of place with a sense of purpose in the work of their students. NEXT.cc introduces journeys, transdisciplinary activities, and measures to green existing school curriculum, campuses, and communities. NEXT.cc supports teachers and students with age-appropriate learning opportunities based on State and Federal Learning Standards including the National Research Council National Science Education Standards, North American Association for Environmental Education Guidelines for Excellence, Common Core State Standards, and Federal programs such as No Child Left Behind and No Child Left Inside.

Green Imagination Workshops embed systems thinking in scales of investigation. Participants learn directed, supportive and collaborative inquiry-based design strategies for working with diverse audiences. All ages mix physical and digital exploration of the wonder and workings of the built and natural worlds while creating place-based projects.Green Imagination Workshops* are held at diverse institutions of learning- schools, museums, libraries, museums and centers introducing 21st Century Classroom Design, Green School strategies, Outdoor Nature Classrooms, and design of Makerspaces across the campus.

green cities green schools

NEXT.cc’s Green Cities Green Schools Workshops for Science, Art, and Math teachers offer an introduction to smart growth guidelines and sustainable development practices that can support their teaching and school and community project-based learning opportunities. Study of systems connections of material processes and energy exchanges create an atmosphere of purposeful conversation and reflection about complex environmental issues facing society. Participants leave equipped with resources for a ten-step assessment (water, energy, food, air quality, paper, cleaning, lighting) of their schools, campuses, and communities.

Green Your School Two Hour Workshop

NEXT.cc offers a 21st Century Urban Primer for Greening Homes, Schools, and Cities. 6th Grade Chicago Public School girls place sustainable farmhouses, develop self-sufficient Main Streets, and densify their cities taking the roles of Mayors, Health and Well-being Directors, School Superintendents, Parks and Recreation Planners, Transportation Engineers, Housing Directors, Business and Commercial developers. Build a brighter future!

Green Cities Workshop '15

Green Cities '16

In 2016 Chicago Public 6th Grade girls are given access to NEXT.cc’s Designopedia to imagine cities of the future. As a 21st Century urban primer, NEXT.cc introduces sustainable systems as ways to connect the ecology of place with people. Girls are charged with thinking about providing clean water, local food and renewable energy in the creation of walkable mixed-use, mixed income neighborhoods. Girls create cities of the future and envision their role as urban stewards.

Green Cities Two '16

green school yard project
Are you interested in bringing sustainable practices to your school? Look at our Green Schools journey and Outdoor Classrooms journey. Our relationship with nature and the big outdoors has changed radically in the last one hundred years. Even more pertinent to the change from the walk to school is busing. Almost 50% of the K12 population is bussed to school. Imagine going from the interior of a home to the interior of a bus to the interior of a school with only thirty minutes to eat lunch, socialize and run on an asphalt play yard before returning to school, bus and home. Recess is now a place to ‘let off steam’ before returning to learning in a desk in a classroom. Also, a recent NPR program stated that middle school children spend an average of only 15 minutes a week in unstructured outdoor activity.
Schools in the United States, for the most part, provide nature deprived school campuses and curriculum. Most school campuses consist of buildings placed on grass lawns stripped of any native vegetation. Asphalt parking lots and playgrounds with recreational sports fields complete most campuses. Gone are any signs of the prairies or wetlands or forests that existed before the school. This campus layout is typical across the United States. Richard Louv, author of the Last Child Left in the Woods: Nature Deficit Disorder and The Nature Principle starts his books with the quote from a 4-year-old, “ Mommy I’d rather play inside where there are more electrical outlets.”

Outdoor environments provide a critical opportunity to address contemporary challenges.
childhood obesity
preoccupation with electronic media
restriction from open-ended outdoor “free” play time
disconnection from nature

The Green School Yard Project is a collaboration between garden educators and architects to raise awareness, understanding and application of learning opportunities outside. Outdoor environments provide a critical opportunity to connect with National Environmental Education Standards and ‘leave no child inside’.
experience of living systems
exploration of interdependency
full sensory learning
fresh air
movement
engagement with place
wonder

The Green School Yard Project shares research and best practices from environmentally and place-based project learning schools that connect young imaginations on a daily basis with the big outdoors. The Green School Yard Project offers professional development for school boards and teachers in connecting curriculum to outdoor activities. Research has shown that teachers that are actively engaged in choosing curriculum to take place outside or more likely to continue to teach outside on a regular basis. The Green School Yard Project shares research from Sharon Danks, author of Asphalt to Eco Systems; Eric Nelson, Cultivating Outdoor Classrooms, The Outdoor Classroom Project; Sharon G. Solomon, American Playgrounds, Cultivating Community Space; and Roy Diblik, Small Perennial Gardens, Know Maintenance Approach; Richard Louv, The Nature Principle; and Linda Keane, co-founder, and director of NEXT.cc, an environmental stewardship place-based project curriculum. It offers collaboration between K12 educators, garden educators, environmental designers, landscape architects, and architects to raise awareness, understanding, and application of learning opportunities outside. The Green School Yard Project initiated a series of national webinars to transform school design with outdoor learning in outdoor places on school grounds.

The Green School Yard Project offers design of + outdoor learning environments + teacher education and activities + children education and activities + free access to place-based project learning.
Professional development for teachers introduces changes in 21st-century teaching, opportunities for engaging diverse learner types, and place-based project learning that moves teacher-directed teaching to teacher-facilitated and student-led inquiry.

The Green School Yard Project empowers schools to create outdoor classrooms with multiple activity areas and assists teachers in delivering curriculum outdoors.

Super Session: Nature Play Project, NAEA National Convention

design as our nature & nature play project

We are all designers. Understanding that our earth is finite, the call for human imagination to develop new ways of learning, living, and designing is infinite.

Based on research on restoring outdoor classrooms and nature play areas on school campuses, NEXT.cc staff work with school districts to return asphalt playgrounds into site specific playscapes. National Webinars including Learning Landscapes Part I, with Eric Nelson, Learning Landscapes Part II, with Sharon Gamson Danks, and The Art of Play with Susan G. Soloman( introduce design strategies for reimagining asphalt playgrounds into active community playspaces.

NEXT.cc Nature Play Workshop from Linda Keane on Vimeo.

biomimicry workshops

Digging deeper into nature’s way, students explore patterns and performance of plants, insects, and animals in learning about biomimicry and its application to innovative designs. From objects, spaces, and even architecture, biomimicry informs today’s forms and material performances. Watch NEXT.cc’s Biomimicry Workshop with 7-12 graders who use the principles of biomimicry to design their advisement spaces, green roofs, and collaboration spaces in their new building.

sustainability design hacks

Do spaces in your school need refreshing? NEXT.cc’s Sustainability Design Hack series of workshops teams students with architects and engineers to study, analyze and conceptualize options of lighting, sound, and color in your spaces while learning about waves, light, sound, and energy. Choose a single or a series of workshop meetings to learn about conserving energy with passive and active systems. Watch Sustainability Design Hack with Chicago Public School Teens at the YOUmedia in the Public Library.

You Media Youth working with Discover Design and NEXT.cc, explored light as a mediator of improving public space. Eight high school teens formed the Student Design Team and experimented with energy reducing strategies to improve spatial conditions and sustainability. Students used physical and digital modeling to study iterative ideas and presented their ideas to the Chicago Building Commissioner.

Water Workshops

NEXT.cc offers a series of water workshops which explore where in the world is water? Students build the water cycle by discovering water facts. They locate water around the world and determine which freshwater is drinkable matching gallons of daily water usage and water equivalencies of everyday items. Students build watershed models and read rivers and watershed maps exploring water filtration strategies of low, medium, and high-density areas. In Sum of the Parts, students learn about different users and the pollutants they contribute to water onsite. Designing riverside developments they pass their garbage down the river and watch in horror as it accumulates! Stormwater retention is shared as they create green roofs on buildings downtown.

Water Workshop FLKR Albums

architecture and design workshops

In spring of 2013, the Keanes re-initiated the K12 Architecture and Design Committee of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. The ACSA, with its academic mission to raise awareness, develop understanding and provide application opportunities for college students in the design fields of architecture, interior architecture and design, landscape architecture and urban planning, needs to reconnect architecture students with the very public that the field(s) deem to serve. The Keanes brought together a panel of architecture schools and architecture programs to re- introduce the subject of place-based design project learning. Linda Keane, AIA, moderated the session.In 2018, NEXT.cc STEAM by Design received a National Creative Achievement Award in Education from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.

design education

NEXT.cc’s TIDES Teacher Institute in Design Education facilitates hands-on STEAM by design (math, science, art, engineering) workshops through an environmental design lens. Using place-based design projects, NEXT.cc enhances learning opportunities in school communities. Design Institutes offer a series of scheduled workshops over an agreed upon period to interested constituents that seek a greater grounding in design thinking, design making, and design practice. NEXT.cc offers contemporary methodologies and hands on experience of design activities that teachers can deliver in the classroom. Developed from weekly lectures of SAIC’s Eco Design Class in the Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects, Design Institutes are available to administrators, teachers, non-formal educators and community mentors. Participants leave introduced to directed, supported and independent inquiry processes equipped with online access to design curriculum for use across the traditional curriculum in project-based, place-based activities. We desire not to just describe the world of design but to encourage the design of the world conditions to create change.

STEAM by Design

STEM Teaching (Science + Technology + Engineering + Math) supports students with the necessary skills to prepare them for technological career challenges of the 21st century. Teaching design as an active practice, learning from the world, engaging the world and improving the world, transforms STEM objectives into STEAM objectives (Science + Technology + Engineering + Environment + Art + Math).







TEDx STEAM by DESIGN
STEAM by Design The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Teacher Toolkit Keynote 2013
STEM + Our Planet Poster National Environmental Education Foundation
STEM Education Data and Trends

place based curriculum

Design education is a socially constructed landscape that connects teachers and students with their immediate communities. Because everything is designed in the classroom, around the school campus, and in the school’s community, students need encouragement to experience the wonder of their immediate natural and built world. This is an important first step in engaging with a place and creating place-based learning experiences. Placemaking is a design tool that creates a sense of ownership in a public place by attracting and connecting people to a specific location. While space is defined as an area, a place is an attraction and a destination. Without public space, there is no public life. Most cities are defined by their public spaces. Public spaces often symbolize a school, community, a city, or an entire society’s identity. Integration of place-making design projects allows students to learn from their immediate surroundings and connects them to a specific location at a specific time. Placemaking offers an array of investigative tools - activity and behavior mapping, interviewing, counting, and tracking of use as well as environmental mapping.

NEXT.cc creates transdisciplinary projects to connect learning standards across traditional subjects with school communities.

We deliver hands-on, interactive understanding of project-based design methodologies
experience design teaching and learning with design educators (including strategies and assessments)
assist schools and school staff in the planning of place-specific design curriculum to assist students in connecting themselves and their friends with the world of design and design of the world.

Keynotes & Videos

With increased interest in creativity education and the STEM to STEAM movement, NEXT.cc delivers high-energy keynote addresses to set the stage for hands-on conferences. Dynamic examples of project-based learning integrate best practices, neurological research, and transdisciplinary systems thinking, learning and making.

Design is Our Nature, WI Green & Healthy Schools Virtual Classroom

Super Session: Nature Play Project, NAEA National Convention

Networking Sustainable Practices: Greening Pubic Imagination, Alverno Community Forum: Tapestry of Sustainability, Milwaukee, WI

University of Chicago Teacher Institute: Steam by Design as Creative Capital

TEDx STEAM by Design

Froebel USA Ann Arbor, Michigan

The Mind of the Architect: Chicago AIA PechaKucha

Reimagining School: Why Creativity and Innovation Matter with Alison Cuddy, WBEZ and Dr. Zhao Yong, Golden Apple Foundation, Chicago, IL

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Teacher Toolkit
Making the Case to Save the Arts: Wyland and Friends, NAEA NAtional, New York,

Wisconsin Art Education Association

For more information about Keynotes, Curriculum Consultations, Teacher Professional Development, and Workshops, contact Linda Keane, AIA, NEXT.cc Director; 414-332-4381 lkeane@NEXT.cc

FFF&F FUN 17!!!!
Folding, Fanning, Forming & Flying FUN!
Green Cities Workshop 16
Green Cities Workshop 15
Design eLearning OZeLIVE 2015
Biomimicry Workshop
Nature Play Project
Reimagining School: Why Creativity and Innovation Matter with Alison Cuddy, WBEZ and Dr. Zhao Yong, Golden Apple Foundation, Chicago, IL
TEDx STEAM by DESIGN
Design As Nature, Froebel USA International
Green Your School, Wedgewood International
Design As Nature Workshop, Esceula Verde
The Mind of the Architect
STI 2014 STEAM by Design: University of Chicago Teacher Institute

Mark Keane, and Linda Keane, FAIA, NCARB, and NEXT.cc staff lead NEXT.cc Workshops for K16 students, Teacher Professional Development, and Curriculum Consulting. The Keanes are artists, architects, and co-creators of NEXT.cc. Their firm, STUDIO 1032, combines environmental design with architecture in green initiatives along Chicago- Milwaukee corridor. Bringing design to the public through films, CD ROMS, and publications, their award-winning animations have been shown on PBS Chicago, nationally, and internationally at conferences, museums, and film festivals. Mark is a Professor of Architecture at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and Linda is Professor of Architecture and Environmental Design at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Together they have over fifty combined years of teaching, curriculum development, and sustainable design practice. The American Institute of Architects, AIA Chicago, the Architects and Design Educators Network, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Association of Architecture Organizations, The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, the Graham Foundation for Advancement of Architecture and the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Environmental Education Foundation, the Public Broadcasting System, the Union of International Architects, the United States Green Building Council, recognize their contributions to dissemination architecture and design publications and workshops. In 2009, Mark received the American Institute of Architects Students Teacher of the Year Award. In 2019 Linda received the AIA Illinois Nathan Clifford Ricker Award in Education and in 2021 was admitted as a Fellow into the American Institute of Architects.

NEXT.cc staff is made up of college art, engineering, design, and education students studying design and education fields.