Annie Wright Schools Sponsor Free Screening of If You Build It at The Grand

Tacoma, Wash.—Annie Wrights Schools are sponsoring a free screening of the documentary If You Build It as a part of the schools’ “Night Out @ The Grand” series on Wednesday, April 9, 7:00 pm at The Grand Cinema.

Directed by Patrick Creadon, If You Build It follows designer-activists Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller to rural Bertie County, the poorest in North Carolina, where they work with local high school students to help transform both their community and their lives. Living on credit and grant money and fighting a change-resistant school board, Pilloton and Miller
lead their students through a year-long, full-scale design and build project that does much more than just teach basic construction skills: it shows ten teenagers the power of design-thinking to re-invent not just their town but their own sense of what's possible.

The premise of Miller’s and Pilloton’s innovative teaching method is tackling authentic problems. “This is a transformative moment in education. If You Build It questions the traditional mode of educating,” Susan Bauska, Assistant Head of Annie Wright Schools, said. “Kids learn best when they have authentic problems to solve. Increasingly, these problems need to involve our hands as well as our minds.”

Annie Wright Schools partner with The Grand Cinema to sponsor films relevant to the community. This is the fifth “Night out @ The Grand” film. The schools’ Library Media Specialist Joseph Romano proposed this documentary with the idea of continually integrating design-thinking education into the curriculum at Annie Wright. “The film shows the dramatic extent to how problem finding and problem solving occur in schools,” Romano said. “Design-thinking doesn’t necessarily mean going out and building a farmer’s market, it can mean developing a morning routine before school.”

Tickets are free and available on a first-come, first-served basis at The Grand Cinema an hour before the screening. To see a trailer and learn more about the documentary, visit ifyoubuilditmovie.com.