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Applied Innovation Lab

Discover. Build. Deepen. Scale.

A four-year project pathway for Grade 9-12 students who want to solve a real problem and produce evidence that can be defended to an external panel. Starting with a faculty-defended problem thesis in Grade 9, through a deployed MVP with real users in Grade 10 (aligned to IB MYP Personal Project), to academic subject integration in Grade 11, finishing with a community deployment reaching 50+ real users and an oral examination defence of the full project and Extended Essay in Grade 12. Every milestone requires real evidence — not essays about what you learned, but artefacts that exist in the world and can be independently verified. All four outcomes connect via genuine prerequisite dependency: each phase builds directly on the previous year's proof artefacts.

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4 required outcomes80 weeksCredential on completionSequential — complete in order

Phases — complete in order

Each phase must be completed before you can enroll in the next. Enrollment is blocked server-side until prior phases are verified.

Skills

Discover a Problem and Defend Your Thesis

Grade 9 — Discovery. Conduct primary research, scope the problem, evaluate solution approaches with ethical analysis, and defend your thesis before a faculty panel. The thesis defence record from this phase is required for the Launch MVP phase.

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3 milestones

  1. 1Conduct primary research and scope the problem
  2. 2Propose solution approaches with ethical analysis
  3. 3Defend solution thesis before a faculty panel
Skills

Launch a Working MVP with Real Users

Grade 10 — Launch. Run user research, write an evidence-based MVP specification, build and deploy V1.0, and document real usage. Aligned with IB MYP Personal Project assessment. The deployed product and change log from this phase are required for the Deepen phase.

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3 milestones

  1. 1Run user research and write MVP specification
  2. 2Build V1.0 and user-test with real people
  3. 3Document launch with real-user evidence and faculty attestation
Skills

Deepen with Subject Methods and Build V2.0

Grade 11 — Deepen. Apply academic methods from two school subjects to analyse V1.0 and drive V2.0 improvements. The subject integration report and deployed V2.0 from this phase provide the primary evidence base for the Scale phase Extended Essay.

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3 milestones

  1. 1Write subject integration plan with baseline data
  2. 2Apply subject methods and build V2.0
  3. 3Produce integration report and demonstrate V2.0 impact
Skills

Scale to 50+ Users and Defend at Oral Examination

Grade 12 — Scale. Deploy through a community partnership to 50+ users, measure real-world outcomes, write a 4000-word Extended Essay, and defend the full four-year project in an oral examination with an independent external examiner. This phase is only meaningful after completing Discovery, Launch, and Deepen.

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3 milestones

  1. 1Establish community partnership and deploy to 50+ users
  2. 2Measure community impact and draft Extended Essay
  3. 3Defend full project in oral examination with external examiner

Free resources for this path

Every resource listed here is free. No affiliate links. No sponsored placements.

Free IBO page covering the MYP Personal Project requirements and assessment criteria — the Launch phase of this path maps directly to the MYP Personal Project. Read this to understand what a fully assessed Launch milestone looks like in an IB context.

Free IBO page covering Extended Essay requirements, assessment criteria, and structure — the Scale phase's 4000-word essay and oral examination defence map to the Extended Essay format. Use this to understand what 'a disciplinary research question grounded in primary evidence' means at IB level.

Free full design research and innovation method library from IDEO; covers problem research, ideation, prototyping, and impact measurement. Used across all four phases of this path — the primary methodological reference for the Discovery and Launch phases.

Free toolkit for identifying ethical risks in technology and innovation projects. Required for the Discovery phase ethical analysis milestone — use the Risk Zone checklists to analyse each proposed solution approach.

Free journal covering real-world social innovation research. Use across all phases for calibration: how do rigorous researchers scope problems (Discovery), measure impact (Deepen), and scale community partnerships (Scale)?

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