Experience Design in Action
Experience Design Leadership and the ELVIS Framework are rooted in the psychology of learning. These projects show them at work with universities, K–12 schools, and foundations, and through Brad’s XSci lab (Experiential Science Education Research Collaborative). Each was designed to create transformative experiences for students and educators, and the same design principles power his work with leaders and organizations today.
Designing for Young People
Programs that help students see themselves as scientists, leaders, and changemakers.
Remembering Jane
Partner: Jane Goodall Institute
Who it served: Hundreds of middle school students from dozens of Colorado Roots & Shoots clubs
Video: 12 minutes
While serving on the board of the Jane Goodall Institute and chairing its U.S. Roots & Shoots Leadership Committee, Brad helped bring Jane to Boulder, Colorado, on October 1, 2015, exactly ten years before her passing. Students researched her life and work, experienced her story in person, and planted trees with her for the Gombe Grove project, designed with the ELVIS Framework and dedicated to the chimpanzees she studied in Africa. This tribute also includes the Just Jane trailer. Goodbye, Jane. We love you.
Roots & Shoots Colorado
Partners: Jane Goodall Institute and regional sponsors
Who it served: Roots & Shoots groups at every K–20 grade level across Colorado
Video: 5 minutes
Brad led the development of Roots & Shoots Colorado, a statewide initiative to coordinate Colorado’s many Roots & Shoots groups and spark new ones. Its design rubric for Compassionate Leadership drew on the ELVIS Framework for identity development. This video served as the program’s marketing piece for more than three years.
Bayer International Teen
Science Camp
Partner: Bayer Corporate Foundation
Who it served: More than 100 teens, ages 14–16, from several countries over six years
Video: 9 minutes
Brad and his team designed and led this camp using Experience Design Leadership and the ELVIS Framework. It was the Bayer Corporate Foundation’s flagship program for six years before COVID, combining medical and environmental science, cultural exchange, and student identity development.
Designing for Educators
Experiences that renew teachers’ passion and professional identity, so they carry transformation back to their classrooms.
Africa
Science-Learning Journeys
Partner: Merck Company Foundation
Who it served: Practicing teachers and education graduate students, over more than five years
Video: 5 minutes
Brad and his colleagues designed and led multiple expeditions to Tanzania and Kenya using the ELVIS Framework. Participants collaborated with African schools and AIDS orphanages, worked with the Jane Goodall Institute, explored the Serengeti, and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. This video summarizes one expedition.
Hawaii:
Science-Learning Journeys
Partner: University of Colorado Denver
Who it served: Practicing teachers and education graduate students
Video: 1 minute
A research case study for Experience Design Leadership and the ELVIS Framework, featuring volcanic geology, ecology and speciation above and below the water, and educators’ professional identity development through extraordinary experiences.
Inspire Me:
Weightless Flights of Discovery
Partners: Northrop Grumman Foundation and Zero-G
Who it served: Hundreds of educators nationwide, over more than three years
Video: 6 minutes
These teachers experienced weightlessness just like astronauts, then took it back to their classrooms using the elements of Experience Design Leadership. The goals: reignite teacher passion, spark student inspiration, and deepen educator identity. This clip is from the documentary Brad directed.
Story and Identity
Documentary work exploring two stages of the ELVIS Framework: narrative translation and identity impact.
Just Jane:
The Identity Interview
Collaborator: Dr. Jane Goodall
Format: Unfinished documentary
Video: 2 minutes
Drawn from Brad’s interviews with Jane over the years of their friendship, this documentary explores transformative experiences and identity transformation as a learning journey across her long and remarkable life.
Inspire Me Africa
(Power of Story)
Source: Brad’s documentary Inspire Me Africa
ELVIS stage: Narrative translation
Video: 9 minutes
These clips focus on narrative meaning-making in experiential learning. They feature two of Brad’s mentors, Dr. Mike Marlow and Dr. Jane Goodall, along with educators on transformative journeys through Tanzania with Brad.
Inspire Me Africa
(Identity Impacts)
Source: Brad’s documentary Inspire Me Africa
ELVIS stage: Identity impact
Video: 7 minutes
These clips follow music educator John Balcer, who brought his Africa experience back to his students through an original, experiential musical production blending culture, science, and personal relevance. Twelve years later, two of those students contacted him from the slopes of Kilimanjaro.