Ms. Laura Cole Director of SPARQ Innovation Program Good Shepherd Episcopal School https://www.gsesdallas.org

        Laura Cole is currently the Director of the SPARQ Innovation Program at the Good Shepherd Episcopal School with students PK-8th grade. She designs curriculum, teaches lessons, and collaborates with teachers using high tech and low tech tools to help students think more deeply about what they are learning. Laura has presented at the Lausanne Institute, TCEA, SAES conferences on “the Making of a Makerspace,” through the ATLIS Webinar “Inside Makerspaces,” and hosted a MeetUp at SXSWEdu on Maker Education. Her students have presented their own work at the Dallas Startup Week and the Dallas Aurora Festival of Light. Laura aims to build community partnerships through SPARQ to deepen student engagement and thinking. Laura’s dream is to see Dallas become the Epicenter for Innovation in Education. Recent collaborations with Stanford d. school K12 Lab, SMU Maker Education Project, and Design for Change US, have attracted innovative educators to attend workshops and share ideas in an effort to strengthen the Dallas Educational community. Partnerships with other schools benefit teachers and students as they discover the power of diversity in collaborations. Design Thinking Challenges and Maker Challenges are dynamic ways to engage these students and teachers to partner and solve mutual problems. Laura’s expertise centers in K-8 Maker Ed, Human Centered Design, Engineering Successful Educollaborations.