The Chattanooga Design Studio (CDS) has partnered with Nashville’s Civic Design Center to pilot the Design Your Neighborhood curriculum for middle school students. The curriculum facilitates the design thinking process as a way for students to problem-solve issues in their neighborhoods and develop civic engagement strategies for change. The Chattanooga Design Studio hired Little Things Lab to manage the launch of the pilot project focused on transportation.

Teal Thibaud previously worked with Hamilton County Schools on a project-based learning program which has now been adopted by their Innovation Department. She is able to combine this experience with her understanding of community-informed planning and the school system in this unique project. The curriculum, which has been updated for Chattanooga, includes 140 hours of hands-on lessons taught in traditional classroom settings, allowing for neighborhood tours, mapping exercises, games, and collaborative group projects. The program also supports teachers by providing training, project materials, and access to a network of design professionals as classroom volunteers.

Design Your Neighborhood is intended to provide baseline knowledge about neighborhood design and civic action to all students and expose students to architecture as a profession that has a powerful impact on communities. The initial population served in this pilot phase will be approximately 100 7th and 8th-grade students enrolled in 2 Hamilton County middle schools. A research team at Vanderbilt University is planning to implement a longitudinal study on the effects of the curriculum. The research team will use surveys and focus groups to assess student knowledge about the built environment, civic engagement, collective efficacy, and place attachment. The projects and curriculum will be reevaluated based on assessment and evaluations, scaled across all the middle schools county-wide as further resources and teachers become available.