The Shape of Things to Come

The South Dakota Innovation Lab (SDIL) works with students, teachers, schools, and districts to bring STEM-focused Transdisciplinary Problem-Based Learning to South Dakota's rural classrooms. They emphasize the importance of science, technology, engineering, and math along with critical thinking skills. South Dakota's education challenges are like many other rural regions, which include the scarcity of resources combined with challenging geography. The SDIL works to overcome these challenges by implementing its hybrid teaching model.

The SDIL, in partnership with Columbus, Ohio's PAST Foundation, is working to redefine rural education to educators in South Dakota. The partner organizations have trained 450 teachers in rural and Native American communities to implement an innovative and culturally relevant approach to teaching STEM subjects. This work was recognized by the Clinton Foundation's Clinton Global Initiative(CGI) at the 2014 and 2015 CGI America conferences. This recognition included remarks by President Bill Clinton on the success of the program, and a short video produced by the CGI. Please watch the video below, and click over to the SDIL and PAST Foundation's websites to learn more about their important work.

We want to thank Dan Guericke and his South Dakota Innovation Lab colleagues for serving as an important partner in our Grants in Place program.