Project type: Team project
Role: Curriculum design, instructional design
Timeline: School Years 2020-21
I worked with my team to teach design thinking methodologies and lead students through the process to solve a problem that was relevant to them.
From this process, students gained skills like collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and resiliency, which are all essential to life outside of the classroom.
Early in my teaching career, I discovered design thinking and realized it provides a valuable problem-solving framework to engage and empower elementary students. I saw its potential to foster creativity and critical thinking skills that have practical applications beyond the classroom. So, I led students through the design thinking process during quick STEM challenges and observed their increased enthusiasm for learning.
Each year, as I became more experienced, I expanded the scope and began teaching the design thinking process explicitly, even integrating it into our social studies curriculum. So, when our school leadership tasked each grade level with incorporating design thinking into an end-of-year mastery project, I knew that I was uniquely qualified to take the lead.
Our administrative team presented each grade-level team with this challenge:
With my team, I developed a comprehensive set of lessons that taught students the design thinking process from start to finish.
When planning this project, we worked to:
By following the steps of the design thinking process, students were able to gain a deeper understanding of the problem they were trying to solve, prioritize the needs of the people they were designing for, generate creative and innovative solutions, and iterate on those solutions based on feedback. This approach helped to develop students' critical thinking and problem-solving skills, as well as their ability to work collaboratively with others.
We discussed the importance of developing empathy for the people who would be affected by this project, different research methodologies, and ways we could connect with and understand users.
Students created surveys and distributed them to teachers and students in grades 3-5. They also interviewed users to gain more insight into their needs and experiences. Students were encouraged to ask open-ended questions, actively listen to responses, and take note of non-verbal cues.
Research Findings: Students and teachers liked using the community workspaces, but these spaces were often too loud and distracting.
During the "define" phase of the design thinking process, students analyzed the information gathered during the empathize step to identify the problem they would be addressing in their project. They grouped and sorted their findings using affinity mapping, and used this information to create a specific problem statement. To validate their findings, they used decibel meters to measure the noise level at different community workspace.
Problem: The Collaboration Commons, which was the most popular shared workspace in the school, was also the loudest and most distracting.
We prompted students to study nature to inspire creative thinking and sustainable solutions. Using brainstorming, mind mapping, and the Crazy 8's ideation process, students generated many ideas and were encouraged to think innovatively, even if the ideas seemed impractical.
Next, they evaluated each idea based on feasibility, desirability, viability, and alignment with the problem and user needs.
Lastly, students narrowed down their ideas to the most promising solutions and developed prototypes to test and iterate upon.
Students worked collaboratively to transform their ideas into tangible prototypes. They built functional models using a range of repurposed materials and tools.
Students tested and iterated their solutions based on feedback from their peers and instructors. This feedback allowed them to identify potential flaws or limitations in their designs, and to refine their prototypes accordingly. This iterative process helped to ensure that the final solutions were well-designed, functional, and sustainable.
Students honed their communication skills as they presented their ideas to their classmates and principal. Then, as a fourth-grade team, we decided on one solution that would be the most feasible for us to build.
While they were not able to build their winning design due to the pandemic, the students learned invaluable skills from the design thinking process. They developed a deeper understanding of how to empathize with others, defined a challenge, researched solutions, and built prototypes. They also learned that failure is an opportunity for growth, as they iterated on and refined their ideas.
This project demonstrated the benefits of teaching design thinking to elementary students. Through hands-on learning, the students developed a growth mindset, persistence, and resilience, all important skills for success in school and beyond. Students left the project feeling empowered, knowing that they could identify problems and come up with solutions that would make a difference in their community.
