Tualatin High School (TuHS) has a unique program, Design Core, for freshmen students. Two years ago, teachers Andrew Bonica, Becky Beeler and Dan Rott thoughtfully created an interactive curriculum that allows first-year high school students to be creative and collaborative while still completing core requirements. 

Students have a unique schedule, with design time first period followed by a shortened rotation through their history, English and science classes. These classes are an hour instead of 90 minutes. 

Last year, Design Core students were able to visit Browns Ferry Park to help with inspiration to design a Peace Project. This began to spark ideas for outdoor classrooms, nature nooks and trellises. Unfortunately, too many public park restrictions inhibited the ideas from going forward at Browns Ferry. Instead, the project pivoted to the TuHS campus, and designers are excited that their ideas will benefit the student body more directly. 

The Peace Project park will be located near the baseball fields along the gravel trail bordering the school. In an interview with The Wolf, the three Design Core teachers revealed some logistics regarding the park project. 

“The intent is for students to design a ‘park’ or community shared space,” Bonica said. “We want class communities to be able to go up there, or members of the community as they’re going walking. We wanted a yoga area, so teams are able to go and stretch up there. We’re trying to make a usable space for people, and it’s whatever the students design. They get to come up with the ideas.” 

The space is also intended to be environmentally conscious.

“This trail will help enhance the biodiversity, other than just the running/walking trail,” Beeler said. “We have ideas for future phases such as solar, wind and water collection. Design Core is all about interdisciplinary [connections] and relevance to a real-world, authentic audience.” 

According to Rott, developing Design Core involves a unique change of learning style for students.

“We felt today’s students needed something different than what is traditionally being offered. We know, and research has shown, that being outside and having cross-curricular projects where students have choice and it’s their interest and they get to express what they’re interested in, makes learning better for everybody,” he said. “This project is a way to make our campus better and provide that creativity for the students.”

The Design Core classes will partner with businesses and learn to work with industry leaders, skills that are essential to career paths in the future. 

“Community is our main focus, leaving knowing that they did something that’s planted at our school,” Beeler said.

In the design of the park, students are gearing their ideas toward other students, but their target patrons will be an even wider circle. They are garnering feedback from stakeholders, teachers, neighbors and a wide variety of community members they hope will also enjoy this creative park.

“The students are going to come up with a lot of ideas that we probably wouldn’t have thought of, which is cool,” Rott said.

Several ‘OG’ Design Core students from last year’s class – Summer Buckley, Logan Nebling, Omelio Campo Verde and Celine Gutierez – took time out of their Friday afternoon to promote the program and spoke on behalf of the Design Core students at a school board meeting, working to secure a grant for their park project. Their eloquence and passion for the project were effective, and the grant they received from the Tualatin STEAM Foundation will help start this process, establishing important funding necessary to support the significant costs involved. The team hopes to secure continued future funding to keep this promising program going.

There is a bright future for TuHS with the Design Core model and the development of this new park project. As students and community members, we can look forward to an amazing outdoor park on campus, designed by our very own Design Core freshmen.