The Squad in Action
The doors opened and families rushed into our campus buzzing with excitement. Open house is always a special night, but this one had an added bonus. Parents would get to step into our first ever student-led STEM night. Our Innovation Squad worked as a team to design interactive STEM stations that invited families to explore and build together. The Innovation Squad members confidently led their stations and guided parents and students through the activities, giving parents a first-hand look at the future-ready skills that happen during our school day. The night was planned with intentionality and created to bring our community together with engaging learning experiences. This is the exact reason I started a student-led Innovation Squad, to empower students to connect with the community, take ownership of their learning, and showcase all the awesomeness of our campus.
What is the Innovation Squad?
The Innovation Squad is a student-led club that I created to give students a voice and ownership in the place they come to every day. It allows students to be part of the campus initiatives instead of just a bystander in their day. It brought the vision of the district Future Ready Learner Profile to life. I partnered with my principal to ensure the work our club did aligned with campus goals and allowed my role as a digital learning coach to support our vision. The Innovation Squad met weekly to brainstorm and design projects that would positively impact our school community. As we brainstormed together, I created a year-at-a-glance document to help us accomplish our goals. This structure gave us focus for the group, and allowed the work to stay in the hands of the students.
How we Built the Squad
It started with a simple conversation with my principal and quickly grew into something bigger. We saw the potential for a student-led team that could influence campus culture in meaningful ways, and I was given freedom to bring that vision to life.
The first task was to define our why. Why were we gathering students? What did we want to accomplish? I crafted a vision and purpose: to empower students as leaders in future-ready learning through innovation, collaboration, and real-world problem solving. This clear purpose then allowed me to promote our club and ensure we gathered students ready to lead.
I began recruiting by sending flyers home, talking to teachers to encourage students to apply, and sharing in our morning announcements. We were on the lookout for students who were ready to be leaders, and wanted to build excitement. Students applied through a Google form where they had to share how they demonstrated future-ready skills and showcase their ability to communicate with adults. This process helped us build a team of students prepared to lead and take ownership.
Next I wanted to ensure we focused on meaningful work. We wanted an authentic audience by creating projects that served a purpose to our school community and supported our campus goals. After brainstorming with our leadership team, we identified a student-led STEM night that partnered with Open House to be our signature project. It aligned with our vision and gave students a platform to lead.
The final piece was to provide structure. The year at a glance provided direction while keeping student ideas at the center. We met weekly during lunch with simple action-oriented agendas which maximized our time. Throughout the year, students collaborated on projects such as supporting a fifth grade 3D quilt and planning the implementation of our STEM night experience.
The Impact of the Innovation Squad
The impact of Innovation Squad was felt across our campus. The students strengthened their skills, especially in leadership. They took ownership in the creation of STEM night by collaborating to design engaging stations and confidently guiding families through the experience.
Families came to Open House and were blown away by the stations and found themselves immersed in hands-on learning alongside their students. Parents felt the difference and loved this Open House and STEM night combo. They participated in coding, STEM building tasks, and explored VR experiences. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Parents commented on how well spoken and confident the students were running their stations. They complimented how well the station activities were designed and were engaging. It was such a success that families lingered past the scheduled end time because they were so engaged.
This night highlighted the future-ready culture we are intentionally building. We want families to feel included and connected to the learning. We want students to feel empowered and know their voices matter. Innovation Squad brought that vision to life. These impacts are not small and gives something meaningful to build on in the coming years.
How to Start Your Own Innovation Squad
Start small. Whenever I have a big idea, I remind myself that we have to start slow to go fast or start small to go BIG. I launched Innovation Squad with eight fifth graders. Keeping the group small allowed us to move efficiently and build momentum without getting overwhelmed.
Consistency does matter. At our weekly meetings, students knew work would be done. I kept communication clear and simple by using Google Classroom to share agendas and updates. We relied heavily on our year at a glance to keep us on track and ensure we didn’t miss deadlines. Our agendas and year at a glance lived on one shared Google sheet so students could see clearly what we were working towards. When in doubt, keep systems simple. The structures in place to keep our focus should support creativity, not stifle it.
Celebrate publicly and often. These students are doing meaningful work that is supporting our campus and their leadership deserves recognition. Include shoutouts on morning announcements, send notes home, and provide future-ready certificates to highlight their achievements. Sharing their impact highlights their efforts and builds excitement and interest across the campus. That visibility can help sustain the club year after year.
As each year passes the program will grow with intentional nurturing. As each new group of students come in, allow them to develop their own signature projects while continuing the strong work from the previous years. Innovation Squad doesn’t have to start big, but with the right vision and purpose, it will grow into something that empowers students throughout the campus.
Innovation Squad is a student-led club that empowers students to use their voice with their school community. When we trust students and share our campus goals with them, they rise to the challenge and bring innovation to life in ways that we often don’t see ourselves. The work builds more than events; it develops leaders. When students are given ownership, they go beyond just participating; they use their voices to lead.