Professional Development

Professional Development

Cooper Hewitt offers professional development workshops that introduce K-12 educators to design literacy as a vehicle for learning across all disciplines. Workshops align with various state and national standards and approaches, including Common Core, STEAM instruction, 21st Century Skills, National Arts Standards, and New York State Next Generation Learning Standards.

Workshops explore design literacy through the museum’s exhibitions and collection, showcasing strategies that foster collaboration, critical thinking, and creative problem solving that educators can immediately implement in the K-12 classroom. Educators who have used design in the classroom state that their students become more engaged and active learners with improved writing, presentation, collaboration, and problem-solving skills.

Professional Development workshops are currently offered through the New York City Department of Education and various organizations around the country.

A photograph of two light skinned adults sitting at a table and smiling and drawing a portrait each other.

A photograph of a group of adults seated at a long table, taking notes while a person stands at the front of the room, gesturing at a presentation projected on a large screen. The presentation shows two colorful geometric designs.

A photograph of two light-skinned adults with long straight hair are placing blue, purple, and yellow sticky notes with text onto a glass window. The text consists of short key words, for example “artist spaces” or “paint cross walks.”

A photograph of a medium-dark skinned adult with long braids, glasses, and wearing a navy polka dot dress holds a note book in one hand and touches a cup sitting on top of a long table. The table is filled with other cups, plates, and a tray.

A photograph of a light skinned adult with long brown hair tied into a ponytail, speaks to two adults and is pointing at an object that sits on a small presentation stand. On the table in front of them are vases, and flat colourful patterned artwork. The two adults listening both have their hands on their hips and look deeply concentrated on what the adult is pointing at.

A photograph of three adults sitting around a table scattered with various craft materials such as paper, cardboard, post-it notes, and pencils. The dark skinned adult with long braids is drawing on a constructed model that looks like a garden or outdoor amphitheatre. The dark skinned adult sitting across the table is smiling and looking at what the adult is drawing.

A photograph of four adults sitting around a table brainstorming on a massive sheet of white paper. The white paper is filled with various words, arrows, and post-it notes.

Two adults face each other, spread out across a room each holding a blue handle of an object that looks like a jumprope. A dark skinned adult stands in between them. All the adults are smiling and are having a fun time. In the background there is a whiteboard with a poster that says, testing + evaluating. Beside the poster are brainstorm maps and stick notes.

Check out our online resources

Explore design activities you can use in the classroom, the Designing for Change Toolkits to help engage youth to be innovators in their communities, and more.

Smithsonian Learning Lab →
Designing for Change Toolkit →
An Atlas of Es Devlin: A Creative Curriculum →