Seven Hills Middle School seeks an inspiring, high-energy, and passionate teacher to serve as Director for our signature Innovation Lab.  Housed in a specially designed makerspace in our recently built, state-of-the-art Middle School building, the Innovation Lab program engages students in a series of sequenced projects designed to foster design thinking skills. In an empathy-based approach, students consider the needs or challenges faced by others as they work in project teams to conceptualize, design, prototype, test, fail, iterate, and, in many cases, present their fabrications to authentic audiences.

In preparation for these projects, students learn a series of fabrication and design skills. Sixth-grade students develop basic skills as they work with hand, power, and digital tools on projects that include designing for others. Seventh-grade students dive more deeply into the engineering design process. They explore and develop spatial reasoning, empathy, and creative thinking skills as they take on a series of challenges. An eighth-grade Computer Science elective course teaches students to use loops, variables, functions and conditionals to build efficient and adaptable computer programs. Students also design, build, and program robotic devices. In addition to teaching courses, the Innovation Lab Director supports student-driven projects each day during lunch. All student projects increase in scope, complexity, and sophistication as they acquire new skills, but the basic formula is to help students learn to understand and empathize with challenges faced by others and to use their creativity and imagination to design effective solutions.

The position involves delivering an engaging design-thinking curriculum to students in grades 6-8, including:

• Implementing the current suite of projects and, eventually, adapting or refining them as needed,
• Differentiating instruction for a range of abilities and interest levels in order to provide a student-centered, hands-on approach to learning,
• Inventorying and ordering equipment and materials required for successful projects,
• Ensuring a safe, orderly environment, with all the necessary protocols to protect students, equipment, materials, and facilities,
• Assessing and documenting the accomplishments of students on a regular basis and providing progress reports as required,
• Collaborating with the Upper School Computer Design and Engineering teachers to teach the skills necessary for future design or computer programming courses.

Skills Sought

• Experience working with Middle School students, preferably in a makerspace environment.
• Bachelor’s degree.
• Comfort with (or aptitude for) design, working with power tools, basic circuitry, and rudimentary computer programming.
• Ability to inspire and nurture students’ imagination and creativity.

About The Seven Hills School

The Seven Hills School is a nonsectarian, co-educational day school in Cincinnati, Ohio. The largest non-church-affiliated independent school in Ohio, Seven Hills enrolls 1,016 students throughout the system, with 437 in our elementary division, 239 in middle and 340 in upper. Traditionally, 100% of our graduating class attends four-year colleges; the mid-range of SAT scores for graduating seniors is 1810 - 2120, and traditionally 75% of the class are recognized as AP Scholars. The school’s economic and geographic base is broad, and we are proud to serve a range of students.

Connections working at The Seven Hills School