What If 101
In-school class
What If 101 (WI101) is a school-based program that connects middle school students to their community by walking them through the Liberatory Design Thinking process to challenge them to see themselves as community leaders. What If 101 leverages the best of project-based, problem-based, and place-based learning in ways that unlock middle schoolers’ innate altruism.
Using real-world topics as its landscape, What If 101 explores the needs of students’ local community, instructs them in real-world research and project management skills, and allows students to practice social-emotional competencies and 21st-century skills through developing, pitching, and enacting their own ideas.
What If 101 aligns with the Ohio Department of Education’s Social Emotional Learning (SEL) standards and can be incorporated one day a week in an existing classroom.
Get to know the Adventure Curators who lead What If 101 projects!
The goal of What If 101 is to empower middle schoolers to use
their empathy, imagination, and skills to create
the next big idea for our community.
It’s not just a school project.
What If 101 is a real youth-led idea creation journey for our communities!
In What If 101, middle schoolers grow real-world skills alongside real community leaders and professionals to make real ideas that your community really needs.
Since 2012, thousands of middle schoolers have created hundreds of ideas for their community, and TomTod has helped dozens of teams to launch their ideas into reality.
See past What If 101 projects!
See the ideas middle schoolers have launched with TomTod!
Past and Present Partnering Schools
