Addictlab Academy

Research on redesigning & innovating education

Curriculum Academy year 2024 – 2025

Age group: 7 – 14

A. Art  & Narrative

  • drawing (perspective, figure,..)
  • drawing in 21st century (VR stations, 3D pens)
  • colour research (Pantonize)
  • Stop motion movie & the importance of telling stories
  • printing techniques: linocut, lego printing, sand art, cyanotype

B. Design & Imagineering

  • creating documentation skills
  • ideation (LEGO spike, little bits, ..)
  • Project based learning
  • measuring, creation of a plan

C. Serious Play

Use of gamification and development of play to add fun & strategical thinking

  • chess
  • retro gaming
  • Da Vinci bridge challenges
  • robotics and collaborative scenarios linked to the SDGs

D. Fab Lab & Machine Learning

  • introduction and first use of the following machines
  • Snapmaker 2.0 CNC/ Trotec Laser cutter / Vinyl cutter / 3D Printer / 3D food printer/etc

E. Software & coding

  • Use of intuitive tools for design, programmation 
  • coding 
  • introduction to Adobe Illustrator
  • introduction to Cura for 3D printing
  • introduction to Tinkercad for 3D modelling
  • Scratch
  • Microbit  & other programming

F. Maker space & Engineering

  • Organisation and lab maintenance
  • Safety awareness and instructions
  • Reverse Engineering
  • DIY: Electric circuits
  • Electric table saw / drill /saw
  • dismantling & opening up machines, computers,..

G. Responsibilities & Sustainable Development Goals

  • Awareness projects on the Sustainable Development Goals & the SDG Solution Space
  • Coding for good  / SDG game design
  • use of recycled plastic, wood, fabric, cardboard, as resources for all projects
  • Stop motion movie on SDGs

H. Documentation 

  • Importance and emphasis on the need for documentation and inventory of projects.
  • Use of photography tools / lightbox
  • creation of content for SDGzine

I. Tradition / History 

  • Respect for and discovering of old creative techniques, 
  • Kintsugi
  • cyanotype photography

J. Empowerment, soft skills and communication

  • collaboration  
  • sharing of knowledge
  • presentation of projects

K. Profiling 

  • Use of Creative Chemistry Cards for profiling: interest, skills, strenghts, weaknesses
  • IB profile & SDG Impact kits

L. ADDICTLAB OUTDOOR PROGRAM* 

  • (Bringing the lab outdoor and the outdoor in the lab – *some activities only when location permits)
  • biodiversity & coding 
  • bird cage/feeding
  • plant documentation, herbarium
  • chocolate fossil moulding 
  • animals / night camera
  • google earth & climate change

M. Challenges and Badges

End of year challenges to obtain selected badges

The Addictlab Academy is a third part of the Ad!dict Creative Lab concept I started in 1997. The first part is Addictlab.com, and is all about research and finding new ideas, documenting, publishing, prototyping, exhibiting and creating an out of the box thinking ecosystem.  We pioneered in collective intelligence models.

The second part is  ‘Yourownlab‘,  a consultancy unit on how to become your own creative lab. It’s where we apply and sell ideas and offer consultancy to third parties to help innovating through the use of the tools we developed.

The Addictlab Academy, the third pillar,  is the way to share these ideas and the knowledge we gained through the years.

What if we rethink education? Add a more holistic view? Apply cross disciplinary thinking and a clear program to act as a talent accelerator for all participants?   The Addictlab Academy, active since 2016,  is now growing through commissions from schools, organisations, official bodies, parents and kids coming to our lab on a regular basis. When the UN started with the Sustainable Development Goals, the 17 SDGs, I added these to the navigation system of our activities and projects and at the core of our project based learning.

At this stage, Addictlab Academy is not funded or subsidised but a personal project. We have currently activities in France and in Switzerland, with weeks of more than 100 kids passing in our lab spaces or experiencing Addictlab Academy in their class rooms.

The recently added fourth entity is the SDGzine,  a collaborative publication on the Sustainable Development Goals, with a dedicated section on Education, to publish best practices, students creations and tools being developed.

Should you be interested in more information, press or lesson plans, as an organisation, a school, a parent, or a student,  do not hesitate to get in contact or browse the SDGzine online. 

Jan Van Mol