The Foundation for a Meaningful Life
Kindergarten - Grade 9 in Southborough, MA
About

Professional Development at Fay

Hands-On Professional Development at Fay School: Transform Your Teaching with Maker’s Red Box

Your Blueprint for Hands-On Design Thinking, STEAM, and 21st-Century Skills
Transform your classroom into a dynamic hub of future-focused STEAM education and design thinking. Join us for an intensive, weeklong professional development workshop centered on the innovative Maker’s Red Box: City of the Future curriculum. This hands-on experience will immerse you as a learner in exciting challenges and guided inquiry while equipping you with essential pedagogical and technical skills to guide your students. You’ll leave with a concrete prototype and implementation plan, prepared to foster problem-solving, critical thinking, empathy, and creative confidence in your students.

2026 Session

DATES & RATES
Sunday, June 21—Friday, June 26, 2026
Sunday, August 9 - Friday, August 14, 2026
$2000 per person program fee
 
LOCATION
Fay School, Southborough, MA

Deep Dive: Workshop Details

Participating educators will:
  • Understand the principles of design thinking and future-focused STEAM education embedded in Maker’s Red Box: City of the Future.
  • Learn how to facilitate student-centered inquiry using MRB’s structure (missions, journals, challenges, and reflection).
  • Experience the City of the Future curriculum first-hand as learners, then deconstruct it as facilitators.
  • Apply strategies for assessment, differentiation, and cross-curricular integration using MRB modules.
  • Build a prototype model or presentation that reflects their learning and how they plan to implement MRB in their own classroom.

Pedagogical Skills

  • Design thinking facilitation
  • Inquiry-based and project-based learning techniques
  • Classroom management for open-ended builds
  • Reflection and assessment through dialogue, journals, and peer feedback
  • Integrating STEAM and humanities content through design challenges

Technical/Creative Skills

  • Model-building and prototyping
  • Using MRB educator guides and student kits
  • Storytelling for design context
  • Visual communication and presentation design
  • Collaboration and co-creation with limited materials

About Fay School

Located just 25 miles east of Boston in Southborough, Massachusetts, Fay serves students in Kindergarten through grade 9, with an optional boarding program for grades 7-9. Our 150 boarding students come from across the U.S. and 20+ countries. Fay is recognized internationally for its strong programs in academics, athletics and the arts. Fay’s signature Creativity and Design Program is a K-9 curriculum focused on the design thinking process and fostering creativity and critical thinking. Participants will work directly in Fay’s signature 7,000-square-foot Gustavson Center for Creativity & Design—the ideal environment for this hands-on workshop.

About Maker's Red Box

Maker’s Red Box is a curriculum development company that creates hands-on STEAM kits for students ages 11-16. Their hands-on STEAM kits emphasize design thinking skills while also fostering technical skills such as laser-cutting, coding, and robotics.
Housing: To inquire about on-campus housing, please contact Paul Abeln (pabeln@fayschool.org) or Mark Evans (mevans@fayschool.org).
48 MAIN STREET
SOUTHBOROUGH, MA 01772
main number 508-490-8250
admission 508-490-8201