City Idea Lab

City Idea Lab is a project within TeachingCity Oshawa.

The City Idea Lab is a collaborative, course-based project between the City and its academic partners that will offer experiential learning opportunities to post-secondary students via a credit course at the TeachingCity Hub. Students will work in a lab environment where they will learn about identified urban issues in Oshawa and collaborate with City staff to co-design possible solutions. Students from Durham College, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Trent Durham GTA are participating in City Idea Lab throughout the 2018/2019 school year. Each course focuses on a particular City-identified challenge statement that is then embedded into both teaching practices and academic curriculum.

City Idea Lab resides within the TeachingCity Hub located at 1 Mary Street North in downtown Oshawa. The hub is an open-concept space designed to facilitate TeachingCity projects with the city’s education and research partners, including students, faculty and staff. The hub provides opportunities for TeachingCity partners to share access to facilities, resources and equipment, and offers office, classroom and open lab space; it is currently used for TeachingCity partnership meetings, collaborative learning opportunities and co-design. The TeachingCity Hub officially opened on May 14, 2018.

The first City Idea Lab Showcase took place in December at the TeachingCity Hub. Graduate and undergraduate level students displayed their project posters that illustrated their active research on their City-identified challenge statement “How might the City better engage Youth in priority neighbourhoods?” during the fall semester.