Registration is now open: https://littlevillagetickets.com/events/119882663/design-dash-startup-event
Design Dash will be hosted by the Iowa EdTech Collaborative and partner, The Jacobson Institute. Huge thank you to our sponsor, TechStars!
Iowa EdTech Collaborative is excited to launch Design Dash, a startup experience aimed at high school students and teachers in Iowa. The inaugural annual event will be on April 19th from 9am-3pm at MERGE in downtown Iowa City.
Participating high schools will bring 3 to 4 students and 1 or 2 teachers for a one-day, fast paced entrepreneurial excursion. Participants will work in teams to solve problems they face using entrepreneurial solutions that drive innovation forward.
The first Design Dash will bring in facilitators from six STEM regions across the state to build the curriculum and share the facilitation role during the event. Jay Cooper has many years of experience facilitating startup weekend events and will serve as the lead facilitator. In future years, participating co-facilitators will gain the knowledge to lead this startup event in their region. The plan is to have future Design Dash events scaled state-wide by running 6 concurrent sessions across the state, making it accessible for all interested Iowa students.
Teachers attending will be offered a companion curriculum for professional development units provided by the University of Iowa’s Jacobson Institute. Dawn Bowlus, Director of the Jacobson Institute, noted, “Teachers will have a great time, participate alongside student teams, and learn by doing, and best of all, they will have the option of earning credit too."