An April edition of the Financial Times Weekend Magazine included a story about Nueva's recent Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Fair (STEM Fair) and the school community's entrepreneurial spirit. 

FT described the STEM extravaganza as "a science fair on steroids," and highlighted the giant sandwich-making machine, which used sunbutter not peanut butter in keeping with our nut-free campus. The profile also highlighted the I-Lab, robotics, and the extensive dedication and professional contributions of our school's parent volunteers. Here is an excerpt from the end of the story regarding the entrepreneurship elective:

The school even started its own entrepreneurship class, with the help of one of the dads, Steve Vassallo, a partner at Foundation Capital. Nine-, 10- and 11-year-olds work in groups to write a business plan, then present it to a panel of bona fide venture capitalists in seven-minute pitches, PowerPoints included.

"Some of the best presentations were as good as the best I've seen at business schools," Vassallo said, remembering one social venture for a remote appendectomy kit for the developing world, and a business idea for a three-in-one premium shower head. "I have this conviction that we're naturally entrepreneurial and kids who start early are not afraid of the things that are required to start a business, he added.

-- Financial Times, April 5

To read the full story, click here and scroll down until you see the paper airplane.

A significant part of why Kim Saxe -- Nueva's K-12 Innovation Lab Director –- loves her job is the perpetual opportunity to foster students' creativity while helping them think critically about how and where they get their best ideas. Kim revealed these and other details about her teaching and Nueva's integrated design thinking program during a recent interview with KQED, which tapped her expertise to illustrate how schools implement design thinking.

"It's really a way to make people more effective and to supercharge their innate capabilities," Kim said in the interview.

After setting out the basics of design thinking and providing specific examples of projects at Nueva, the KQED education blog relayed how the tenets benefit students intellectually.

"The projects teach students how to make a stable product, use tools, think about the needs of another, solve challenges, overcome setbacks and stay motivated on a long-term problem," the blog states. "The projects also teach students to build on the ideas of others, vet sources, generate questions, deeply analyze topics, and think creatively and analytically. Many of those same qualities are goals of the Common Core State Standards, Saxe said. 'Design thinking weaves together a lot of the standards that need to be taught in ways that people will really need to use them,' Saxe said."

The blog also highlighted Kim's customized brainstorming technique that she uses in her classes.

"Saxe has developed a strategy for pulling lots of great ideas from her students, but it runs contrary to the group brainstorming method that many entrepreneurs embrace," the blog states. "Instead, students spread out to a quiet, comfortable space for solo-brainstorming. When they come back into groups each student shares her favorite idea and the group builds on that idea. Then each student shares her wildest idea. 'Innovation often comes from some seed of an idea that's tucked into a wild idea,' Saxe said. The group can help tease out what works and what doesn't."

You can read Kim's entire interview here.

Nueva Middle School students in grade 8 Spanish and the Jazz and Blues Elective were treated to a special visit from Cuban musician Ernesto Oviedo in March. Thanks to a collaboration between Spanish teacher Bibi Millet and Music teacher Jim Munzenrider -- who met Ernesto in Cuba last summer -- the Havana native spoke about the history of jazz and his life in Cuba (before and after the Revolution). Ernesto and the students also sang and played music together.

Ernesto's visit to Nueva was part of his first trip to the United States! He spoke to the classes in Spanish, and Jim's longtime friend and Cuba-travel companion Eddie Fernandez translated for the students in the Jazz and Blues elective. The Spanish-class students used their language skills to understand Ernesto and asked questions in Spanish, including:

• Did the Cuban Revolution affect the Santeria religion?
• How many Cubans follow the Santeria religion?
• How does Cuba differ from the United States?

The special class culminated in song and music. Ernesto sung a song with roots in the Santeria religion, a chant to the deity Ochún. Students also played drums and spontaneously sang Guantanamera while Ernesto played the maracas. The morning was capped with a student sharing a bit of the American culture by singing Respect. You can see a video of Ernesto performing here.

SAN MATEO, Calif.–January 31, 2013–The Nueva School announced today that it formally has acquired land and will begin construction this spring for its new high school at Bay Meadows in San Mateo.

The Nueva School, a nationally recognized independent school, recently closed escrow on 2.76 acres at Bay Meadows, California's largest Transit Oriented Development (TOD). The Nueva School is launching a new high school to complement its existing preK-8th grade campus in Hillsborough.

The school received Site Plan and Architectural Review (SPAR) approval from the City of San Mateo Planning Commission on December 11, 2012. Designed by architectural firm Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, the high school will be adjacent to the new 12-acre public park on the northern side of the Bay Meadows development. The Nueva School expects to open the Bay Meadows campus in fall 2014. The high school will commence operations this fall in temporary facilities at the College of San Mateo.