Gallery: Lean Lab fellows set to disrupt KC education

Already improving education for about 2,400 area students, the Lean Lab recently set loose another group of innovators hoping to transform Kansas City education.

The Kansas City-based education innovation incubator on Friday held its Launch Day, the culminating event of its incubator fellowship. The incubator conducted a five-week ideation program that assisted 10 fellows building prototypes of projects to improve Kansas City education and student outcomes, which is then tested within area schools.

Lean Lab co-founder Carrie Markel said there’s a common theme that’s emerged in Kansas City education in recent years, and it’s one that is hurting students’ performance and future. She anticipates through the Lean Lab’s second cohort that students and education will quickly improve.

“All those who work within the (education) system have expressed a lack of time, resources, and ability to connect with others in this work,” Markel said. “We believe that the solutions from Cohort 2 will have a profound impact on our city’s schools, the effects of which will not only be immediately apparent, but will compound over time to help build a world-class city renowned for education and innovation.”

Hosted at the Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator, the Launch Day event drew more than 100 people interested in witnessing the latest in education innovation.

Below are some photos of the event, and details on the projects now being tested in area schools. Enjoy!

: More than 100 supporters of the Lean Lab attended the organization’s Launch Day.

: Lean Lab co-founder Katie Boody

: Launch Day attendees listen to a presentation Friday at the Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator.

: Biology and chemistry teacher Emily Grand presents her project, Mentored KC. The project is a mentoring program for 1st and 2nd year teachers to gain critical feedback and support from an experienced teacher through online feedback, oneonone coaching and consistent support to improve retention.

: Katie Gore discusses Bring Us Science, a bus that delivers handson science lessons and laboratories for students in grades K-4.

: Katie Laird explains KCoRE, which stands for Kansas City Collaborative for Reform in Education. The project aims to bring together school leaders to collectively support one another to reform Kansas City education through monthly cohort meetings, an online platform to share resources, school visits, and peer-to-peer mentoring.

: Catina Taylor presents DreamsKC, a schooling model that seeks to break the schooltoprison pipeline in Kansas City’s urban core by providing projectbased learning, parent engagement, genderbased classrooms, culturallyrelevant curriculum and other services to minority students.

: Jeanella Clark discusses Create by Connect, which allows teachers to build a professional network to make learning relevant and engaging for their students.