Fueling Creativity and Independence: Inside ISB’s Gerritz Invention Center

The Grade 7 Social Media Takeover is the result of a collaborative partnership between Middle School English teachers and the ISB Marketing team. The project is an enhanced unit in which students have learned about the important structures and writing for authentic audiences - resulting in the chance to be published live on the school’s website and through social media channels.

Fueling Creativity and Independence: Inside ISB’s Gerritz Invention Center

Written by Sameer in collaboration with ISB Marketing & Communications

At International School Bangkok (ISB), we believe students should be creative and self-managing learners in many ways. There is no better place for students to learn about these values than the Gerritz Invention Center, which opened in 2014. Imagine a place where you can craft, build, weld, laser cut, 3D print, and more. Where there are top-quality materials and technology and you can build anything for free and also take classes from professionals on the weekend. The Invention Center is open to students of all ages, including Middle School and High School students. It is also open for teachers, faculty, lastly, and all families who go to ISB, including parents, grandparents, and more.        

World Class Machinery 

Furthermore, students love to use all the different machinery, but they mostly enjoy using laser printers. When students take these unique workshops, they have access to many materials and will become more creative when they grow up. Mr. Bycraft, a Design, Technology and Robotics teacher, says, “From these different opportunities they have in the Invention Center, it helps them gain knowledge which can be useful when they get older because they know how different machines and different types of technology work.” An example would be that many students who graduate from ISB go into the path of design and technology and a reason for that is because of the Invention Center and how that helped them pick their career.

Student Freedom

Students love the Invention Center because they have a lot of freedom to create their own pieces. The Invention Center is designed for students to create instead of having step-by-step procedures for what to make and how to build it. When students create, they may come across more problems, and that leads them to be great problem solvers. Students say that they love this freedom because they choose what they get to make. One of the main things ISB focuses on is encouraging student agency by giving students choice and freedom.

ISB Design Cycle

Lastly, one of the most important things students learn in the Invention Center is the ISB Design Cycle. This is a cycle that ISB has created to help students in their building process, which has four sections to help students at any step of their building process. Students love the ISB Design Cycle because it helps them solve problems. For example, if something in their build wasn’t looking right, then they can look to the Design Cycle for guidance and see if they forgot to plan this out or forgot a model. This helps students because it is an excellent way to fix their problems by themselves, and if they can’t, they always have teachers around the invention center to help them in any way.

Creativity and Self-Reliance: The Impact of the Invention Center

In conclusion, the Invention Center is a place where students, families, and teachers can craft, weld, print, design, carve, and more. Everyone loves it because they can use it for almost anything, like adding a piece of furniture to their house or creating a pen holder for themselves. The Invention Center helps students a lot to be more self-managing and responsible by solving problems by themselves and being creative learners by having access to numerous resources.

Visit our website www.isb.ac.th to learn more about our school and what it has to offer.