TSET Is All Set!
Keystone Academy’s “dream factory” is a cutting-edge, university-level laboratory
The scenery slipped away as the canoe pushed forward. Students from Punahou School in Hawaii sat on the
The scenery slipped away as the canoe pushed forward. Students from Punahou School in Hawaii sat on the Kamaola, the Hawaiian canoe they had helped build, and tested it in a safe lagoon.
Taryn Loveman, one of the project’s three leaders, had imagined students celebrating the construction of the Kamaola, which had taken more than two years. But instead, they sat in complete silence—a pattern that would repeat with many groups of students in their first hour on the canoe in the future
“At first we thought something was wrong,” Mr. Loveman recalled. “Then we realized they’re in such a new environment and seeing the world in such a different way.”
He called it “canoe shock”, a moment when students’ senses and emotions are absorbed by something more profound. They have no words, no thoughts—only feelings.
Today, sitting in his office as Keystone Academy’s Assistant Head of School for Teaching and Learning, Mr. Loveman looks at a photo on his wall: him and his students sailing that canoe four years ago. The memory still feels close. He believes that moment became a turning point in many students’ lives.
“You can’t really just read books and read about other people’s adventures. You need to experience the world, try something, make something come to life for real.
“That’s the most beautiful thing, when you’re having formative experiences that cannot be ranked and packaged. They can’t be sent in a computer somewhere. No AI can do it. And that’s the educational moment.”
Mr. Loveman helped lead a team weave this type of experience into an engineering program at Punahou. The program was created by faculty and supported by consultants from Stanford University and the Institute for Social-Emotional Learning (IFSEL). Building on learning from this highly successful program in Hawaii, Keystone is now focused on building a more systematic, forward-looking transdisciplinary curriculum called Transdisciplinary Studies in Engineering Technology (TSET).
Keystone is launching TSET as a core innovation grounded in engineering and emerging technologies, and tightly connected to the humanities and arts, leading students into a new way of learning: starting with real problems and guided by creativity.
One day, Keystone students will build their own “canoes” too.
Starting with Problems, Finding Answers Through Action
In September 2025, Keystone formally launched the TSET program. It marks a bold shift in which learning is not about acquiring knowledge but using it to create and shape the future.
What is TSET?
The project-based Transdisciplinary Studies in Engineering Technology (TSET) program is where students work across engineering, design, art, and the humanities to design and build a practical solution from the ground up.
More than 40 students in Grades 6 and 9 have already begun this journey “from imagination to reality.”
TSET gives each student the confidence to believe, “I can change the world”.
Assessment in TSET doesn’t rely on grades. Instead, students tackle real issues, serve their communities, and learn how their actions can improve people’s lives. Along the way, they gain more than skills but develop an action-driven mindset: how to create, how to use technology for good, and how to turn their own ideas into real impact.
“Courses like TSET are important in today’s world is because they focus on service, empathy, and teamwork. And it’s wrapped in a chance do incredible engineering things—incredible coding, incredible technological things with AI and virtual reality. The heart of it is being able to serve the world by understanding and working with complexity, and across cultures and problems.”
— Taryn Loveman, Assistant Head of School for Teaching and Learning
When Four Courses Become One
TSET dissolves boundaries between Engineering, visual arts, China and the World, and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). Instead of four separate subjects offered at Keystone, students experience a unified curriculum shaped by real-world problems and whole-person development.
Allowing imagination to take shape through Engineering
The Design Technology course acts as TSET’s “engineering hand”, guiding students to turn ideas into tangible objects, for example, moving from 3D modeling to printing to physical construction. Through hands-on work, they learn that technology is not just a tool but a way to improve the world.
Understanding why we create through China and the World
The China and the World course infuses TSET with historical context and humanistic depth. Students go beyond the classroom to conduct environmental, cultural, and social research. They consider sustainability, ethics, and community impact, ensuring that every technological creation carries thoughtful cultural and social meaning.
Giving form to ideas through the Visual Arts
The Visual Arts course helps students translate rational thinking into objects that also resonate emotionally. They consider form, color, materials, and composition so their creations are functional and expressive, bringing together technological precision and artistic sensibility.
Growing into collaborators of an innovative future through Social-Emotional Learning
Running through the entire TSET program, Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) is the cornerstone of the “soft skills” for project success. SEL allows students to learn and understand their own emotions, support others, communicate effectively, and work through conflict. These are the foundations of teamwork, leadership, and long-term creative work.
We are often constrained by concepts such as “professionalism”, “university”, and “career”, overlooking the importance that growth and learning bring to us. TSET tests students’ skills in applying knowledge, communication, and leadership from multiple perspectives, thereby empowering us with the ability to learn. I believe that mastering specific professional knowledge is often less important than possessing learning and problem-solving abilities. TSET provides us with countless ways to approach problem-solving, enabling us to become providers of practical solutions. Changing the world begins with solving problems.
— Kate Yang, Keystone Grade 9 student
Rebuilding the Teacher–Student Relationship
TSET transforms the roles of teachers and students, turning classrooms into places of joint exploration.
Teachers as guides and collaborators
Teachers spark students’ curiosity, offer research pathways, provide resources, and help them overcome challenges. They are not just instructors but creative partners.
Students as leaders and co-builders
Students move from passive recipients to active designers of the classroom and implementers of projects. They identify problems, design solutions, and take full responsibility for outcomes.
For me, TSET is a course designed to cultivate students’ resilience and problem-solving skills. No matter what stage of the course we are in, we frequently encounter setbacks and failures, such as designing something for a long time only to find it unfeasible in real life, disagreements arising from poor communication during teamwork, or failing to build a satisfactory model despite our efforts. In such moments, we must persist, brainstorm solutions, invest more time exploring, and repeatedly try, error, and seek advice from teachers. These challenges continuously motivate us to overcome difficulties, strengthening our problem-solving abilities and resilience in the face of setbacks.
— Sophia Wu, Keystone Grade 9 student
Mistakes as milestones
In TSET, mistakes are not failures but are essential steps toward innovation. It encourages students to be bold and to discover and invent through exploration.
“If you are doing something new and innovative, it’s very essential to make mistakes. But right now, you are trying something new—if someone has never been that way before—it has to be mistaken, right? You have to find out your way.”
— Christopher Hansen,
Dean of Teaching and Learning Center – Emergent Technology and Engineering
KEyTEC: A “University-Level” Lab on a High School Campus
TSET is explored at KEyTEC, Keystone’s newly built advanced experimental center where engineering and emerging technologies meet science and imagination. KEyTEC houses Cobot arms (robotic arms), digital knife cutter, 5-axis waterjet, 4-axis CNC machine, laser cutters, 5-axis milling machine, 3D printers, and other equipment rarely found in high schools. In essence, KEyTEC connects creativity with reality and serves as students’ “dream factory” for building their future.
A platform aligned with university labs
Around the world, top universities are expanding interdisciplinary centers. Admissions officers increasingly value undergraduate applicants who demonstrate hands-on experience solving real problems during high school.
TSET nurtures intrinsic motivation, helping students transform knowledge into real products through learning by doing. It prepares them for university, but more importantly, it helps them understand how their own thinking and actions can serve communities and influence the world. This shift from “learner” to “builder” is the core competency TSET aims to develop in Keystone students before they enter university.
A brick wall that holds an educational philosophy
At the entrance to the high-tech KEyTEC stands a wall made of brick. These are Ming and Qing dynasty blue bricks collected by artist Huang Rui from demolished houses in Beijing’s old hutongs. Huang donated 5,000 bricks to Keystone; some were used for the school’s Hutong Theater, and others now stand in KEyTEC.
They serve as a reminder: technological innovation sits on profound cultural foundations. This reminds Keystone students entering KEyTEC that even in the era of artificial intelligence, history and the humanities remain indispensable. We connect with the past not out of nostalgia, but to build a clearer and more responsible future.
A cross-disciplinary creative hub for the Keystone community
KEyTEC is open to the Keystone community. In addition to the TSET program, Keystone teachers and students are welcome to turn their imagination into reality at KEyTEC.
A Keystone junior spends an afternoon crafting a precise pendulum apparatus.
The FRC robotics team constructs components for their next competition robot.
Theater Technical Specialist John Wanda prints a large incense burner prop for The Lotus Lantern.
Innovation Technician Peter Chen builds a go-kart model and plans to guide more students in hands-on projects.
Individuals and Societies teacher Michael Wang helps students carve oracle bone script into wood, linking ancient culture with modern tools.
Design Technology teacher Jacob Kouassy is developing a life-size robot.
Creation at KEyTEC knows no boundaries. Ideas become real objects that serve the community and respond to real needs.
Why Interdisciplinary Creators Matter in the AI Era
In the era of artificial intelligence (AI), the core values of education remain unchanged, yet its methods are being redefined by development. AI technologies can quickly search, draft, and design. What remains rare is the ability to define real problems, think across disciplines, and turn abstract concepts into working solutions. TSET answers this challenge by cultivating thinkers and builders who can use technology to address human needs.
Inspiring creators, not just adaptors
TSET is not designed to produce specialists in Secondary School. It encourages students to explore boldly and create freely, not just adapt to the future, but shape it.
Students interested in engineering or the sciences gain full-cycle project experience through TSET, from idea to product. Through real-world creative processes, students learn to balance technological feasibility, innovation, and social value, gaining experience and tangible outcomes necessary for university studies and professional development.
Students aspiring for careers in other fields gain design thinking, systems thinking, and the ability to evaluate the social and ethical impact of their decisions. These are key competencies for success in business, policymaking, the arts, or any industry.
Building irreplaceable core competencies
TSET develops abilities that matter in every field. These skills prepare students for a world where the ability to think and create remains uniquely human.
Critical thinking and complex problem-solving
Interdisciplinary integration and hands-on practice
Ethical judgment and value-based decision-making
TSET and KEyTEC offer far more than knowledge. Students gain a way of thinking across disciplines, the courage to act on their ideas, and the confidence to “become the future”.
As Mr. Loveman puts it, “When students think, ‘If I can make this, then I can make anything,’ and they start to look around the world and say, ‘Everything in this room was built by somebody. Everything decision about this table—its size, color, shape—it was somebody's decision. Nothing in this room is random. I can make those decisions. I can shape the world. I don’t have to wait for others to shape the world.’ So, it’s something small that turns into something big. It’s a very empowering process, thinking that people make the difference. So, that’s what we hope for our students to be able to control their future and not wait for our future, but be the future.”
