Middle School Innovation Academy

Seventh grade students from across St. Clair County have the opportunity to participate in a unique opportunity hosted by St. Clair County RESA.

Each school year semester, RESA invites a group of 7th-grade students that have had the honor of being nominated by their home school to attend each Friday for half a day. MSIA students ride their local high school TEC bus to the RESA campus in Marysville. Students tackle local, national, and global challenges during varying design sprints utilizing a design thinking process that activates empathy while maintaining an innovative mindset as they rapidly create and test prototypes. Students participating in MSIA:

• Develop and apply Skills4theFuture: Critical Thinking, Collaboration and Leadership, Agility and Adaptability, Initiative and Entrepreneurship, Curiosity and Imagination, Accessing and Analyzing Information, and Effective Oral and Written Communication;
• Work and communicate collaboratively in diverse teams;
• Formulate strong questions;
• Approach people and problems with empathy;
• Investigate, analyze, synthesize and evaluate data;
• Explore diverse careers within the workplace;
• Go wild with ideas before testing feasibility;
• Apply content area knowledge and skills when solving authentic problems;
• Effectively communicate and present ideas to a public audience;
• Utilize technology to enhance communication and investigation;
• Reflect through a rigorous process​.

The Middle School Innovation Academy is part of RESA’s Design4theFuture initiative. Design4theFuture represents RESA’s commitment that every student will graduate PREPARED, PASSIONATE, and with a PLAN.