Designs for life inspire teacher's US trip
08 September 2009
By design ... Kelvin Grove State College's Leslie Hooper outside the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City, part of his Smithsonian fellowship trip.
From rebuilding communities after Hurricane Katrina to sparking new ways of schooling, a Queensland teacher has been using design to tackle real-world challenges in the US.
Leslie Hooper, head of visual arts at Brisbane's Kelvin Grove State College, recently travelled to the US on a Smithsonian fellowship co-sponsored by the Queensland Government.
The fellowship allowed him to spend several months at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City working on a range of programs with the museum's education team.
Mr Hooper said one of the aims of the fellowship was to encourage the use of design thinking in a range of subject and content areas.
'I had the privilege of working with classroom teachers across the United States who were developing design-based lessons in maths, science, English and many other subject areas for publication as an online teaching resource,' he said.
'I was also a part of a team delivering professional development programs in design education and posting ideas and teaching suggestions on the museum's education blog.'
Mr Hooper said a highlight of the trip was his involvement in the City of Neighbourhoods project in New Orleans, which involved teachers tackling challenges in urban design.
'I worked with a team of teachers investigating attempts to revive the Ninth Ward, a poor black area devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005,' he said.
'This complex real-world problem was an ideal catalyst for some deep thinking about the relevance of design in the real world.'
Another feature was visiting schools and learning about their innovative programs in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx.
Mr Hooper said the fellowship trip had confirmed his belief in the power of creative thinking in education.
'It also suggested how design education can provide the spark to ignite new ways of thinking about schooling and encourage more creative responses to some of our more complex future challenges,' he said.
'I will be bringing these messages to my own classroom, to my school which already provides a really supportive environment for learning in the arts and design, and to a wider audience of teachers through professional networks and other forums.'
Mr Hooper's other achievements include his current role as president of the Queensland Art Teachers Association.
He has also worked, with the support of artists and designers and the Brisbane City Council, to establish the Living City 
project for Year 11 urban design students.
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