Field Guide: Leslie McBeth

I am an educator on a mission to answer the question, "How might we empower students to to solve the world's big problems?" In a rapidly changing and increasingly uncertain world, we need to prepare our students to be innovative, creative, entrepreneurial, and fearless in the face of failure. At Future Design School, I use my experience in design thinking and project-based learning to develop teacher training programs that allow students to tackle big, messy real-world problems. For six years as a teacher of Green Industries at Greenwood College School, I used my passion for all things urban to engage students in design thinking and project-based learning activities that used the city as a teaching tool. I believe that  students learn best in real-world experiences that require lateral thinking, adaptability, collaboration, and an understanding of what it means to be an active citizen in their community. In my former life in New York City, I built the foundation of a design based teaching philosophy at the Center for Urban Pedagogy and as part of the team at the Design Trust for Public Space.